For the past six months, Hidenao Fujitake has been leading a double life. A fund manager by day, 35-year-old Fujitake is a student by night, at Hitotsubashi University's Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy.

Holding down a job at a Tokyo asset-management firm and attending classes from 6 every evening -- not to mention the heavy burden of homework -- means that Fujitake has little free time on weekdays, or even on weekends.

But he has no regrets: "It's inspiring," he said of his business school studies that are fulfilling his long-held desire to improve his efficiency at work through further study.