An important aspect of the FIA’s development over the years has been its efforts to establish a presence overseas. Few individuals have contributed more to those efforts than K.K. Kodama, an executive at Mitsui Trading Company who retired in 2006 after a long and distinguished career in international finance and futures trading. Kodama started his career with Mitsui Bussan in 1943. He transferred to New York in 1967 and two years later moved to Chicago, where he became deeply engaged in the business of trading futures. In 1978, he became the president of Mitsui Bussan in Tokyo, he later became chairman of Tokyo Grain Market Research Company. Kodama helped establish FIA Japan in 1988, the first organization of its kind in Asia and served as its first chairman. Right up to the end of his career, he worked tirelessly to modernize the futures industry in Japan and unite its various participants.
