Issei Morita is a Senior Vice President at The Asia Group, based in Tokyo. Issei brings over two decades of high-level experience spanning geopolitical risk advisory, asset management, and financial journalism.
Prior to joining The Asia Group, Issei was a Director at Eurasia Group, a leading geopolitical risk advisory firm. As the highest-ranking professional on the ground in Tokyo, he led strategic engagement for the Japanese market with corporate senior executives, government officials, and external stakeholders. In addition, he managed business development and client service activities primarily directed at financial institutions, delivering insights on economic security, trade policy, and the market impact of global political risks.
Before working in geopolitical risk consulting, Issei spent over 15 years in the asset management industry at Schroders. During his tenure, he served as an institutional relationship manager, fixed income product specialist, and head of the Japan desk in London and New York. He pioneered and directed multiple new initiatives, including a bespoke, in-person training program for a major insurance client, as well as engagement and sales campaigns targeted toward Japan’s broader insurance industry and regional banks. The total assets under management (AUM) for which he was responsible exceeded USD 10 billion, making it the largest in the Asia-Pacific region at that time.
Issei began his career as a financial journalist, reporting on Japan’s fixed income market and corporate affairs for Bloomberg News, and interning with the Financial Times and the New Haven Register. In addition to publishing numerous byline stories at Bloomberg, he frequently appeared on Bloomberg TV, providing live commentary on bond market developments for the Japanese audience.
As a Sloan Fellow, Issei earned a master’s degree from London Business School. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, where he studied economics, government, history, and social theory. His undergraduate studies at Wesleyan were fully funded by the Freeman Asian Scholarship and the International House of Japan’s Grew Bancroft Scholarship. He is fluent in Japanese and English, and possesses basic proficiency in Chinese, having completed an intensive Chinese language program at Duke University – an opportunity also fully funded by the Freeman Foundation.