Ex-Merrill Lynch Banker Sets Sights on a Broadway for Tokyo

  • Cartoon characters trump kabuki at Tokyo’s oldest theater
  • Ex-Merrill cost-cutter targets tourist-spending windfall

Actresses perform on stage in the nighttime performance 'Sakura - Japan in the Box' at the Meijiza theater in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday, Oct. 21, 2016.

Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
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To fuel Tokyo’s flagging tourist boom, Japan is tackling visitors’ long-held complaints. Better English signage. Broader credit card use. Wi-fi.

Now a former veteran of Merrill Lynch & Co. wants to keep the 20 million annual visitors to Japan amused. His vision: Tokyo’s own pop-infused, multi-color, anime-eyed Broadway.