00:00As we continue to see these exuberance around artificial intelligence, everybody seems to want
00:05to invest in AI. How do you differentiate from what the hype is and a real durable AI business?
00:16Yep, thank you so much. The AI is adapting into a lot of enterprise operation now already,
00:23including our group. And what's really different from the real one and probably the hype is really
00:30adoption. And AI itself is just, well, we can simply call it just a technology, but how you can
00:37utilize this technology into the operation and workflow is really different. So up until,
00:44if you go up until the operation and workflow into the enterprise and that is really real and which
00:51is not easy to kind of replace once they adapt it.
00:58So how is it changing the kinds of startups that you're looking at? Is it changing the
01:05innovation landscape when it comes to some of the opportunities that you're presented these days?
01:14The opportunity of, first of all, startup investment opportunity has been not drastically changed,
01:22but because of the AI, a lot of startups, even it's not necessarily AI startup, but adapting AI into the
01:30startup is creating nearly different level of value creation and which eventually transformed into a lot
01:39of different, uh, society, for instance, or industry transformation, such as in case of Japan,
01:45for instance, we have a lot of problem in the small business owner succession, and this can transform even
01:53with AI. So this kind of new, uh, interesting, unique opportunity. So the social problem, uh, is driven.
02:01I think this opportunity is, is coming up. What's been interesting about Japan is that we have a lot
02:07of great engineering talent, uh, and yet we haven't seen necessarily many of these unicorn startups that
02:15have become global leaders. Where do you think that gap is that the gap is first of all, the biggest
02:25gap is
02:25are still the capital. And that's which I believe we will still need to play a lot. But, um, the
02:32capital,
02:32the absolute number of capital in Japan is still limited compared to the places like United States
02:37naturally, but, or even like, uh, India or kind of places where let's say similar GDP is. So, uh, uh,
02:44but this capital, uh, is now the quality of this capital started changing, which is, of course,
02:50domestic capital is important, but at the same time, global investor started looking at Japanese,
02:55Japanese startup or Japanese technology as a market. And this capital could potentially bring,
03:01uh, great Japanese talent into the global leader.
03:05And we do have an administration here in Japan that seems much more focused when it comes to public
03:12private partnerships and really investing in these strategic sectors like artificial intelligence and
03:18chips. How much are you seeing that actually translate on the ground with the support that some of these
03:23businesses are getting?
03:28It's already transforming drastically and, uh, the now current, uh, uh, uh, prime minister and also its
03:36government moves really fast than I think ever before. And the startup is now adapting, uh, into those
03:43changes and we see a lot, uh, into the adoption and also like government procurement is also changed, uh,
03:51uh, by, by this, uh, regime. So I think it's very, very positive move, uh, going forward.
03:58What about the culture here in Japan? You have talked before about bringing the Silicon Valley mindset
04:03into Japan. Do you think that's starting to happen and where do you see more changes could be implemented?
04:13Yep. Um, I think the, the not definitely like a cultural changes started happening,
04:19but, uh, it's not simply just follow the Silicon Valley way. I think we started trying to find out
04:25our own way. So just Japanese way. So some, some of those Silicon Valley culture is really good,
04:30but, uh, at the same time, it's, we are totally different. We, we are a different culture,
04:35different environment. So, uh, bringing good pieces, which is more innovative, open-minded diversity,
04:42about the Silicon Valley ecosystem. But at the same time, we have precise, you know, dense, uh,
04:48community for engineering and so on. And that part is something we are kind of merging now into
04:55together, which becomes the really like a unique opportunity, even looking at globally.
05:02Yeah. Where else are you seeing those opportunities? Because MUFG, of course,
05:05invests not only in Japan, but operates also in the U S Southeast Asia, India, I understand.
05:10And where are the bright spots right now?
05:15Thank you so much. We reinvest globally. And we all, all places you mentioned is very important,
05:19but what unique about Japan is we have a lot of social problem to be solved now, now. And, uh,
05:26this problem, uh, is not new, but, uh, because of AI innovation and a lot of adoption into the, uh,
05:34social problem for this technology, then we started seeing very unique opportunity in Japan, not,
05:41uh, like Silicon Valley startup is not easily able to come up to here, uh, to play around,
05:47but Japanese startup, Japanese founder can play with this leveraging AI technologies.
05:53So we are, but we are very, very bullish about Japan, US, India, those kind of places.
05:58Right. I mean, we have seen, um, Northeast Asia be very exposed to the artificial intelligence
06:05boom and yet the likes of Southeast Asia, India, for example, lag behind. How is MUFG seeing this
06:11contrast and is there any opportunities within this dichotomy?
06:18Yeah. So, uh, I think, uh, AI innovation just started, like, uh, we, we also committed, uh,
06:23within our group to spend and invest, uh, uh, uh, nearly like 400 million US dollar, uh, for, for AI
06:30and so
06:30on. And this, I think this technology is who, who do first and then who learn fast cycle. And this
06:39is really borderless. So we are doing this in Japan, but at the same time we are trying to do
06:44in India,
06:45uh, in Southeast Asia as well as a group. So, uh, then we learn, uh, we will find new learnings,
06:52uh, from those regions. And then we call, we again concentrated into the center again, then we run
06:57and then we invest, we, you know, uh, improve the operation. So I think, uh, being at the global
07:03firm, and this is something what, uh, we are trying to do. Then also it's how, how we are acting
07:11is able
07:11to adapt, uh, many, many different places or countries.
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