Good morning,
I grew up in an era when Japan was cast as America’s leading economic rival, from Toyota transforming production methods to Mitsubishi buying Rockefeller Center, which they later sold at a loss. Now, it more often grabs headlines for its shrinking population, economy, and exchange rate that’s made tourism a booming industry. (One wonders if China will follow a similar trajectory.)
But Japanese companies have also been on the front lines of digital transformation, from EVs (Nissan/Toyota) and semiconductors (Toppan) to retail (Rakuten) and recruiting (Recruit). The investments of SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son have made him one of Japan’s richest men, though he did miss out on a $155 billion payday by dumping his 5% stake in Nvidia when it was worth about $4 billion.
