About Us

Eric Lucas, President & Chief Executive Officer

Eric first lived in Japan from 1985, working at the major Japanese law firm of Anderson Mori and Rabinowitz. In 1987, Eric was hired by Babcock & Brown in the U.S. and continued living in Japan on secondment representing Babcock & Brown in its Japanese joint venture, Nomura Babcock & Brown, until 1992 where he specialised in structured finance.

After several years at Babcock & Brown’s San Francisco then global head office from 1993, Eric returned to Tokyo in 1998, when he established the Japan Asset Manager as an investor in and asset manager of Japanese real estate.  In July 2006, Eric was appointed Global Head of Real Estate at Babcock & Brown.

Eric resigned as Managing Director of AJT on 16 April 2009 at which time he was appointed Senior Advisor to the Board of AJT.

Eric holds a law degree from the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Naoto Yabu, Head of Asset Management

Mr Yabu joined the Japan Asset Manager in 2006.

Mr Yabu was formerly with ORIX Corporation in the overseas real estate division, including seven years in an asset management role in the U.S. He was also an Executive Director of ORIX Asset Management Corporation, an asset management subsidiary for ORIX JRIET, at its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2002. Mr Yabu holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Kobe University and is a licensed real estate broker.

Takeo Okada, Head of Acquisition

Mr Okada joined the Japan Asset Manager in 2008.

Prior to joining the Japan Asset Manager in 2008, Mr.Okada was ex-president of Prospect Co., Ltd., a real estate asset and fund manager with its own J-REIT, and before that CFO of Goldcrest, a TSE-listed property developer. From 1992 to 1999, he worked for Goldman Sachs, most recently in the NPL groups.  Mr.Okada is a licensed real estate broker and a registered real estate consultant in Japan. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Technology degree from Keio University.

Hitoshi Kamikubo, Chief Compliance Officer

Mr. Kamikubo was formerly a Managing Director of Hypo Real Estate Capital Japan Corporation (HRECJ), overseeing compliance and company secretary issues after working 3 years in the non-recourse real estate loan division of Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG Tokyo Branch and HRECJ.  Mr Kamikubo had a 14-year career at the Export-Import Bank of Japan (now Japan Bank for International Cooperation) where he was responsible for various duties such as overseas loans for developing countries, coordination with Japanese government agencies, and corporate policy planning and management.  He holds a Bachelor of Economics degree from Hitotsubashi University and is a licensed real estate broker.