The aesthetics of economy — picturing a good economy

What was discussed

The session discussed how feeling beauty connects to good actions and to the mechanisms of the economy. It introduced brain responses shared between experiences of visual beauty and moral beauty, and an experiment in which a photograph conveying sadness beautifully influenced donation behavior. A view was also presented that regards a system in which honestly declaring one's hopes is advantageous as a mechanism of a beautiful economy. From the case of Nagatoyumoto, where the product of occupancy rate and unit price was shared as an indicator for the whole town, management that goes beyond the profit of individual businesses and value that grows over time were discussed.

About this session

Does the economy really pursue efficiency alone? Economics and aesthetics were one field in Adam Smith's day; can they meet again? Taking the actual sites where aesthetics itself and the economy itself are developing as our key, we envisage this vast field — a field that exists so that industry and daily life are not held apart.

Speakers

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  Yosuke Yasuda

  National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)　Professor

  An economist specialising in microeconomics, game theory and market design. After graduating from the University of Tokyo he earned his doctorate in economics at Princeton University. He served as associate professor at GRIPS, then as associate professor and professor at Osaka University, and returned to GRIPS as professor in October 2025. He has published in journals including the American Economic Review, and in 2020 co-founded Economics Design Inc. to put economics to work in practice.

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  Emi Onozuka

  Initiative for Future Creation through Science and Finance　Representative Director

  She has about twenty-five years in global financial institutions and more than twenty as an institutional investor, specialising in sustainable finance, ESG and impact investing. After J.P. Morgan she was at Goldman Sachs Asset Management from 2000 to 2020, serving as COO of its Asia-Pacific investment division and as head of stewardship. She is now Representative Director of the Initiative for Future Creation through Science and Finance, where she works on developing people who can bridge science and finance and on building flows of capital, and is President and CEO of Eminent Group.

• 

  Tomohiro Ishizu

  Kansai University, Faculty of Letters　Professor

  A professor in the Faculty of Letters at Kansai University, he researches neuroaesthetics, experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Combining the methods of psychology and brain science, he examines what the brain and cognition are doing when we experience beauty, ugliness, art, creation and being moved. He also works on applying the science of sensibility in society, teaching and researching explanations of the mind grounded in evidence, drawn from art and from everyday sensation.

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  Yohei Azakami

  Zebras and Company, Inc.　Co-founder and Representative Director

  Working under the banner of building businesses that connect to a future worth keeping, he invests in and supports zebra companies that hold social and economic value together. After graduating from Waseda University's School of Commerce he worked at Infobahn and then led several divisions at BAKE Inc., before co-founding Zebras and Company in 2021. He specialises in business strategy design and in building ecosystems where practitioners gather.

• Mami Yoda

  ModeratorSagami Women's University Graduate School of Social Entrepreneurship / esse-sense Inc.　Specially Appointed Professor / Outside Auditor