The Japan Microfinance Symposium took place on May 10th in Tokyo at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). This symposium which was the first international conference of microfinance in Japan was facilitated by Planet Finance Japan and was jointly organized by JICA, JBIC, ADBI the World Bank Group, KRI International and Shinsei Bank. The theme was “Poverty alleviation and the role of private and public sectors in microfinance” The turnout was larger than expected with more than 220 people attending the full-day symposium. There was a good dialogue between the audience and the speakers as many questions were asked (which I was told is not so common in Japan). My presentation for this conference titled “Microfranchising-The Next Step” is available here.Download file