Property scion shows what Japan lacks

Tokyo

ANYONE wondering why Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is crusading to get more women running Japan's male-dominated corporations should meet Miwako Date, daughter of Japanese billionaire property developer Akira Mori.

Four years after Ms Date became president of Mori Trust Hotels & Resorts Co, a unit of Mori Trust Co, the company is forecasting hotel revenue to grow 26 per cent in the latest fiscal year. That compares with an average 5.4 per cent gain at the five largest hotel operators in the same period, the year ended March 31, according to an estimate by Mizuho Bank Ltd.

So Mr Mori has picked Ms Date, 43, to take over his Mori Trust Co, the closely held development firm with 149.7 billion yen (S$1.67 billion) in revenue, 94 office buildings and about 30 hotels - including the Conrad Tokyo, the year-old Courtyard by Marriott Tokyo Station and the Suiran, a Ja…