Tokyo, Japan – As Warren Buffett’s bold moves in Japan reignited global Interest in the nation’s stock market recently, many APAC investors began asking the same question: how can they uncover undervalued opportunities in a market where local knowledge is everything? Korea IT Times sat down with Hiroki Kato, CEO of Arches, to discuss how the company’s partnership with Bloomberg and its Expert Transcript Library (ETL) is changing how investors access and act on Japanese market insights.
Q: What sparked Arches’ focus on Japan’s equity market?
Japan has long been seen as a market full of potential value. But the challenge for investors, especially those outside Japan, is that market shifts often happen beneath the surface, through governance changes, sector disruptions, or insider sentiment, long before they show up in reports. That’s the gap we wanted to close.
Q: How does the partnership with Bloomberg fit into that mission?
Through Bloomberg Terminal, we’re making our Expert Transcript Library (ETL) accessible to investors globally. ETL transforms private, in-depth conversations with Japanese executives, industry specialists, and market insiders into structured, searchable transcripts. These transcripts distill raw insights into clear takeaways on corporate strategy,
sector risks, and emerging opportunities, the kind of context that traditional data sources can miss.
Take Yageo’s $740 million acquisition of Shibaura Electronics in September 2025. The deal grabbed headlines, but ETL helped investors go deeper, uncovering the strategic logic and the broader implications for Japan’s high-tech ecosystem.
That level of insight allows investors to understand why moves like these happen and to Identify undervalued equities before the wider market reacts.
Q: How is Arches expanding access to Japanese insights across regions?
In 2025, we expanded our offices to Seoul, Hong Kong, and Bogotá. This strengthens our ability to deliver insights across time zones, meaning an investor in Singapore or São Paulo can access a Japanese expert transcript almost in real time. It’s about speed and context, ensuring that when the market moves, our clients can respond immediately and confidently.
Q: The Expert Network Services (ENS) market is growing fast. Where does Arches fit in?
The ENS industry, now worth around $3.77 billion, has become essential to global capital markets. With 160,000+ vetted experts and over 600 clients worldwide, Arches is part of the movement turning local expertise into investable intelligence. Our Bloomberg integration is just one step toward our broader goal: to help investors act with precision and insight in markets where information is traditionally hard to access.
Q: What’s next for Arches?
We’re continuing to scale our network and refine our data systems to make expert insights even more accessible and predictive. The next frontier isn’t just about having more information; it’s about having the right insight at the right moment.
Korean version available here.
