Businesspeople from Japan

"Many people dream of success. To me success can only be achieved through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents the 1% of your work which results only from the 99% that is called failure."

"We must tighten the nut! We are selling motorcycles not clothes!"

"PlayStation 3 will be capable running games at 120 fps."

"You can communicate to a new cybercity. This will be the ideal home server. Did you see the movie The Matrix? Same interface. Same concept. Starting from next year, you can jack into The Matrix!"

"I believe we made the most beautiful thing in the world. Nobody would criticize a renowned architect's blueprint that the position of a gate is wrong. It's the same as that."

"I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories. Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies."

"[People who play RPGs are] "depressed gamers who like to sit alone in their dark rooms and play slow games.""

"If we can increase the scope of the industry, we can re-energise the global market and lift Japan out of depression - that is Nintendo's mission.". Regarding lukewarm GameCube sales which had yielded the company's first reported operating loss in over 100 years, Yamauchi continued: "The DS represents a critical moment for Nintendo's success over the next two years. If it succeeds, we rise to the heavens, if it fails, we sink into hell."

"There are many people in the industry that know nothing about games. In particular, a large American company is trying to do engulf software houses with money, but I don't believe that will go well. It looks like they'll sell their game system next year, but we'll see the answer to that the following year."

"Hey Ballmer, suck my yellow balls"

"So what does all this mean?......Riiiiiiiiiiidge Raaaaaaaaceeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr!"

"It's Ridge Racer!... Riiiiiiiiiiidge Raaaaaaaaceeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr!"

"The PLAYSTATION3 will retail for Five-Hundred-Ninety-Nine US Dollars."

"Some have said that the PSP is our answer to the (Nintendo) Game Boy. Well, here’s how we view the world: PSP will elevate portable entertainment out of the handheld gaming ghetto and Sony is the only company that can do it. We happily accept this challenge and, dare I say it, the baton has been passed."

"We're not interested in gimmicks, clever rhetoric or conventional thinking."

"The next generation doesn't start until we say it does."

"It is necessary that I am viewed as a product. I am a product."

"I don't have dreams. How can I say it? I myself am a dream."

"I don't set goals. Like, that's what I want to be doing however many years from now. I do what I love to do at the moment."

"I thought Mommy's life was strange, not mine."

"My job is simply to be myself, to be Ayumi Hamasaki."

"[...]Everyone has a secret. Right? Of course I have a secret. I think maybe you too?"

"I don't want to become adult!"

"If people will listen, I will go anywhere in the world!"

"Music is my life, if I am without music or if I can't sing any more, I die, I'm nothing...because music is everything."

"[...] I don't know my future. I don't know about tomorrow. I can just control for today or present, right now. [...] I don't want to think about future too much, because present is most important for me."

"…I guess the very first thing is to own your true self, and that includes achieving the point of not lying to others; the first step should be not lying to yourself."

"By your faith in people, you will someday be betrayed. I thought it was the same as being rejected. At the time I didn't have that kind of strength. Certainly, I knew too much. It was said that I was a strong child. I was praised, saying "you must have strength not to cry" The more things like that were said, the more even laughing was painful."

"The lovers, appearing happy, walk, holding hands. Though it appears everything is perfect, only they know the truth."

"Who taught me true strength? Who taught me kindness? Whom do I walk for? Who did I want to stroke my hair? Who didn't give up for me? I'll never forget."

"When I lost my way, and When the road was too long, I was muttering to myself. Life is just that way..."

"Today's happy face, today's sad face. Yesterday, a weak self, tomorrow, a strong self. If it's you, who are you showing it to? If it's I, whom should I show it to?"

"Everyone, including I, is certain that "that thing" they're searching for is in the future. But how many people have realized that "that" is actually in the past? I can't even guess."

"I saw the end of an age with these, my eyes. But I didn't want to know that it's my turn next."

"Choosing only the things you like isn't irresponsible. If you can't find anything you like then why take the responsibility? I take only the possibilities that I'm ready to accept."

"If you don't need it, then it is useless to be compassionate. If it's important then it will probably be followed with pain. Loneliness that you feel with someone is worse than one you feel alone."

"This year, once again, the seasons have passed. Memories have faded. The border between my blurry dream and reality has become blurred. Even so, the dream I once told you of did not have a single lie."

"Today was very sad, and even if tomorrow, I cry, someday I will be able to laugh and remember our time together. How many seasons must pass, in this, our finite existence? If we live in the "now", what will we find?"

"You once said long ago while stroking my hair, "When you wake up, there'll be a nice present by your pillow.""

"Your back always looked small and weak but we could laugh together at funny stories. But if people keep making the same mistakes over and over can they really regret them?"

"When I woke up, I found by my pillow a teddy bear instead of you."

"Isn't it? It's as if we have just entered a new age It's a miracle; we will never experience it again Let's remember it once more"

"No matter how far apart we are, don't forget that we're still under the same sky, both traveling to the place we once dreamed of."

"Today, in this city two people will meet and lock eyes; the curtains are then turbulently thrown open. [...] Today, in this city two people will separate their paths; the curtains are then silently lowered."

"But, for everything, there is an end, someday, inevitably."

""Maria" There is someone I should love. At times I sustain deep, deep wounds. But, by the person I should love, they are all healed. "Maria" Everyone is crying. "Maria" But I want to believe. "Maria" So I'm praying now that this is my final love. Beginnings come at random, but endings always have a reason."

"But in such a place as this, I can only tell you by singing this song."

"If you'd listen, even for a little while I'd be pleased Remember, once more we were born into this world crying. Your dreams and hopes for tomorrow are all in this world."

"Remember, once more how our world should be. And please, don't forget, please, please don't forget."

"Surely, no one hoped for so many things. Hold the flowers close to your heart; they may someday bloom."

"If you were alone and suddenly became blind, and even so you keep walking forward."

"A woman could be having fun A woman could be like a nun In order to survive We cannot be kind Until we are hurt"

"In a city [world] as dirty as this, You gather up, save, and show me Purely beautiful things."

"I don't want a weak heart that can't cry or the strength not to cry. I'll search for a shooting Star to cast my wishes on, but Daybreak will come too soon And I won't be able to find one."

"In times when I encounter sad things I have a habit of saying "I'm all right". On that day, something had stopped for me And no matter how much I pray, I can't find a single star."

"How many times have I lost my way? Every time, the one who gave me a hand Was you."

"We go on this voyage to find happiness. You see? A smile really suits you."

"If time is a fading dream Then it would be like a flower Even if destined to fall It would be all the more valuable in its transience."

"Really, we are Not only dots But are the whole"

"If one day They are connected And form lines"

"Certainly everyone, in order to protect love, Certainly wishes to believe in something"

"Even in my age now, I'm the same as before and just as fearful I only learn how to pretend to be strong"

"Though my heart is filled with feelings I want to convey You see, I can't express them in words If I had not met you I wouldn't even have such an embarrassing pain"

"Slowly, I've come to realize That I cannot heal my past And that fearing the unavoidable future Is pointless"

"Goodbye. You have gone to the place where we can never meet again I can't accept the coldness of an eternal parting I wish I could have heard you say That surely, you had loved me Only once, even if it were a lie"

"You see? The times have changed But why do I still hear people say "Tears are woman's weapons"? We don't cry easily We are not always flirty We are not dolls Who are only dressed to the nines."

"An interested stranger asked me How do I see the scenery from here? I reply It's how you think it would be. It's useless to explain Everybody GO! Everybody JUMP!"

"My lips told a lie For a trivial reason It wasn't for anyone else But only to protect myself And I didn't think about anyone else"

"But I escaped from reality Escaped from the pain I said to myself "Some day, I'll be as I should be Though I'm far from there now" After such excuses, my eyes were opened All I could do was to live in the present time."

"Yayayaya Gagagaga Dadadada Wowowowo Yayayaya Gagagaga Dadadada Wowowowo Even if you think you are too bold It's all fine In all honesty, I'm hesitant To be prudent and reserved OK, together now, "Bold & Delicious!" Don't watch me quietly, stand up please, "Bold & Delicious!""

"I feel most miserable When I can't step "step up to the plate" You know? People often say Regret from doing it is better than regret for not doing it"

"This is a common case, seriously, It looks like a fight with him But she's really fighting with herself."

"If you are afraid of changes Watch from a distance Whether or not I might do something If you're going to talk about me behind my back It is what it is."

"It is sad To lose sight of myself for the sake of myself I believe in scenery no one has ever seen, And next to you, I wish to stay in that place that doesn't exist"

"Daybreak comes quickly nowadays The scent of wind has changed It seems familiar yet unfamiliar It makes my heartbeat quicker It's sweet and sad We ran along the road to the sea Screaming with laughter innocently In the far-away summer days"

"It was not coincidental that we chose what's left If the universe has a will I think we are part of it Tender and precious How many times have I searched for something Found and lost it Since then?"

"Why are you ashamed of yourself? What happens after that? But I really like your way of walking In which you head straight and always hit a wall."

"I feel that these glass shoes are too fragile for running through this era."

"Just because this age is full of information and temptations We should decide on our own You know That creation comes after destruction"

"Reality will always deceive us But in that, you see, only your answer is hidden If you feel you have not seen it It is something you brought about with your own hands."

"This summer, our new journey begins I sense a slight discomfort in the distance We saw that place in our dreams Today, let's find the road there again."

"Where does this road lead? And where does it go from there? Even if I imagine [the possibilities] Of course, I have no clue. I feel the more I wish to be strong The weaker my heart becomes In inverse proportion"

"We notice it the moment our eyes meet someone else's We feel it when coming into contact with him [or her] But then once We feel weak in the knees The wind strokes my cheeks and makes it feel real And whispering quietly That this is not an illusion at all"

"On that day, you decided That you would walk by yourself On the endless road that crosses the clouds [and leads] to the sky Leaving so much here I want to tell you and talk about."

"What if everyone goes on the endless road Sooner or later Over the clouds to the sky Be sure to wait for me. And then, we will talk away About our countless memories."

"I was forgiven by forgiving many things Including my long-ago childhood I was healed, but I intended [to] heal I've just noticed, the way I was saved by love Though I tried to keep love away."

"Because we want the same happiness We keep carving the same wounds onto our hearts. Forever, forever So I won't forget you I call you over and over again Please don't cry any more I won't leave you alone."

"We tell our young managers: 'Don't be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don't make the same mistake twice'."

"More people are interested in trying to shuffle paper assets around than building lasting assets by producing real goods."

"Executives of the company must have the necessary qualities to direct the personnel by showing them the way to do things."

"A company will get nowhere if all of the thinking is left to management."

"There is no secret ingredient or hidden formula responsible for the success of the best Japanese companies."

"The most important mission for a Japanese manager is to develop a healthy relationship with his employees, to create a familylike feeling within the corporation, a feeling that employees and managers share the same fate."

"The effect of three things - the new laws, the revision of the tax system, and the elimination of the zaibatsu conglomerates - was to make Japan an egalitarian society for the first time."

"'There is a major difference between you and me,' I told him. 'Yes, I am rich. But you are wealthy. And that is why you can buy such (expensive jewelry (for your wife and why I cannot.'"

"The concept of lifetime employment arose when Japanese managers and employees both realized that they had much in common and that they had to make some long-range plans."

"What we in industry learned in dealing with people is that people do not work just for money and that if you are trying to motivate, money is not the most effective tool."

"The investor and the employee are in the same position, but sometimes the employee is more important, because he will be there a long time whereas an investor will often get in and out on a whim in order to make a profit."

"We want to keep the company healthy and its employees happy, and we want to keep them on the job and productive."

"...I established the rule that once we hire an employee, his school records are a matter of the past and are no longer used to evaluate his work or decide on his promotion."

"I believe one of the reasons we went through such a remarkable growth period was that we had this atmosphere of free discussion."

"I have always made it a point to know our employees, to visit every facility of our company, and to try to meet and know every single employee."

"The important thing in my view is not to pin the blame for a mistake on somebody, but rather to find out what caused the mistake."

"In all my years in business I can recall very few people I have wanted to fire for making mistakes."

"...the remarkable thing about management is that a manager can go on for years making mistakes that nobody is aware of, which means that management can be a kind of a con job."

"Of course we have to make a profit, but we have to make a profit over the long haul, not just the short term, and that means we must keep investing in research and development - it has run consistently about 6 percent of sales at Sony - and in service."

"To gain profit is important, but you must invest to build up assets that you can cash in in the future."

"...if you are nothing but profit-conscious, you cannot see the opportunities ahead."

"Advertising and promotion alone will not sustain a bad product or a product that is not right for the times."

"Once you have a staff of prepared, intelligent, and energetic people, the next step is to motivate them to be creative."

"We all learn by imitating, as children, as students, as novices in the world of business. And then we grow up and learn to blend our innate abilities with the rules or principles we have learned."

"We made a completely new kind of transistor (the NPN BJT, and in our development work, our researcher, Leo Esaki, demonstrated the electron tunneling effect, which led to the development of the tunnel diode for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize seventeen years later, after he had joined IBM."

"...the key factor in industry is creativity. I said there are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product planning, and in marketing. To have any one of these without the others is self defeating in business."

"From a management standpoint, it is very important to know how to unleash people's inborn creativity. My concept is that anybody has creative ability, but very few people know how to use it."

"My solution to the problem of unleashing creativity is always to set up a target. The best example of this was the Apollo project in the United States."

"The "patron saint" of Japanese quality control, ironically, is an American named W. Edwards Deming, who was virtually unknown in his own country until his ideas of quality control began to make such a big impact on Japanese companies."

"(Japanese Government believes that if you have a big laboratory with all the latest equipment and good funding it will automatically lead to creativity. It doesn't work that way."

"Management of an industrial company must be giving targets to the engineers constantly; that may be the most important job management has in dealing with its engineers."

"Only with these three kinds of creativity - technology, product planning, and marketing - can the public receive the benefit of a new technology."

"...without an organisation that can work together, sometimes over a very long period, it's difficult to see new projects to fruition."

""While the United States has been busy creating lawyers, we have been busier creating engineers." '"

"...if you have so many lawyers, they have to find business, which sometimes they have to create. Sometimes nonsensical lawsuits are generated by lawyers. In this country (the United States everybody sues everybody."

"I often say to my assistants, "Never trust anybody," but what I mean is that you should never trust someone else to do a job exactly the way you would want it done."

"In the United States businessmen often do not trust their colleagues. If you trust your colleague today, he may be your competitor tomorrow, because people frequently move from one company to another."

"I have had my difficulties with the American legal system, and so I feel qualified to talk about it."

"The American system of management, in my opinion, also relies too much on outsiders to help make business decisions., and this is because of the insecurity that American decision makers feel in their jobs, as compared with most top Japanese corporate executives."

"...the differences between U.S. and Japanese companies go beyond the cultural."

"Amenities are not of great concern to management in Japan."

"We want everybody to have the best facilities in which to work, but we do not believe in posh and impressive private offices."

"Japanese attitudes toward work seem to be critically different from American attitudes."

"..I believe it is a big mistake to think that money is the only way to compensate a person for his work. People need money, but they also want to be happy in their work and proud of it."

"I believe people work for satisfaction."

"...the company must not throw money away on huge bonuses for executives or other frivolities but must share its fate with the workers."

"You can be totally rational with a machine. But if you work with people, sometimes logic often has to take a backseat to understanding."

"Everyone of commoner."

"Everyone of plebeian."

"One culture, one civilization, one language, and one ethnic group."

"A neighbor with one billion people equipped with nuclear bombs and has expanded its military outlays by double digits for 17 years in a row, and it is unclear as to what this is being used for. It is beginning to be a considerable threat."

"Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces."

"Do I have to say something?"

"A couple of weeks after that I met Sergei Lavrov at the G8 ministerial in Potsdam, Germany. Frank-Walter Steinmeier was so proud of the beautiful restoration of Cecilienhof Palace, where the Potsdam Conference had been held in 1945 as World War II was drawing to a close. The flags of the victors were displayed in the corners of the conference room—the Stars and Stripes of the United States; the Union Jack of Great Britain; and the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union—here in the unified Germany. Amazing, I thought. What would Truman think? What would Stalin think? The sentiment of the moment was suddenly disrupted by the comment of my unpredictable friend, the Japanese foreign minister, Taro Aso. “But for a few turns in the war, it could have been the flags of Germany, Italy, and Japan,” he blurted out. Okay, I thought. Time to move on."

"Research bear a true fruit, the research must start from needs."

"We do what others don't!"

"Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience. Computers simply cannot do that."

"We will learn that computers, amazing as they are, still cannot come close to being as effective as human beings. A computer isn't creative on its own because it is programmed to behave in a predictable way. Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience. Computers simply cannot do that."

"The key to success for Sony, and to everything in Business, Science, and Technology for that matter, is never to follow the others. We bet the company on that basic technology (the Trinitron TV), and in 23 years nobody has been able to match it."

"The lesson of Apollo demonstrates that no matter how big the goal, if you apply yourself diligently to the work, even the most difficult job can be be accomplished flawlessly."

"To establish a place of work where engineers can feel the joy of technological innovation, be aware of their mission to society, and work to their heart's content."

"We worked furiously (to realise our goals). Because we didn't have fear, we could do something drastic."

"No matter how deep a study you make. What you really have to rely on is your own intuition and when it comes down to it, you really don't know what's going to happen until you do it."

"When it rains, you put up an umbrella. That is the secret of success in business and management."

"Our social mission as a manufacturer is only realized when products reach, are used by, and satisfy the customer... We need to take the customer's skin temperature daily."

"In order to do a good job a person must like what he or she is doing... If you do things just because you have to, then you will never enjoy work. Nor will you do a good job if you do it simply out of a sense of duty. Stress is often a by-product of such passive or negative attitudes toward work. Paradoxically as it may sound, love of work can be the best medicine for workaholism."

"The untrapped mind is open enough to see many possibilities, humble enough to learn from anyone and anything, forbearing enough to forgive all, perceptive enough to see things as they really are, and reasonable enough to judge their true value."

"Recognizing our responsibilities as industrialists, we will devote ourselves to the progress and development of society and the well-being of people through our business activities, thereby enhancing the quality of life throughout the world."

"It is a kind of law of nature. The goal one aims for can rarely be reached by a direct road."

"Sometimes the proposals are good; but one must be cautious of tempting offers that may not derive from the best intentions."

"In business as well, if you are to be successful you must always win. An enterprise will grow in accordance with the amount of effort you plow into it."

"If it does not grow, even though you are working hard, it is not because of unfavorable circumstances, bad timing, or bad luck. ... of the past has shown, it is during the bad times that the skilled manager lays firm foundations for future growth."

"I underlined my conviction that running a business and managing an enterprise were not merely a private concern but a public endeavor."

"Matsushita Konosuke is known in Japan as the ‘god of management’. From an impoverished background, he founded a small electronics business and built this into a global corporation, becoming Japan’s richest man. His philosophy of management, based around the concept of ‘peace through prosperity’ included such concepts as low-priced, mass-produced consumer goods to enhance the quality of everyday living, mutual support and respect between the corporation and its employees, and close relations with distributors and customers. His ideas were widely admired and imitated in Japan, and in the 1980s became popular in the USA and Europe as well."

"[The Japanese auto industry should] catch up with America in three years. Otherwise the Japanese auto industry will never stand on its own."

"My father served the State by investing a weaving machine. He told me to make automobiles. It is difficult to create an automobile industry."

"The thieves may be able to follow the design plans and produce a loom. But we are modifying and improving our looms every day. They do not have the expertise gained from the failures it took to produce the original. We need not be concerned. We need only continue as always, making our improvements."

"Japan has a lot of engineers who work at desks. When it comes to implementation, though, they lose confidence and haven't got the courage of their convictions when other people criticize them. Engineers like that can't build cars. Success in this industry demands engineers who have the courage and the decisiveness to implement ideas."

"Before you say you can't do something, try it."

"Forbes.com readers and editors rank Sakichi Toyoda as the 13th most influential businessman of all time... Sakichi Toyoda was a weaver who, in 1924, invented a loom that would detect an error and automatically cease production, preventing the creation of defective goods. He later sold the patent on his machine to a British firm for about $150,000. That money was used to help his son found a start-up, Toyota , which would become the world’s second-biggest carmaker."

"Toyoda Kiichiro was the founder of the in 1937. His short career with the firm was enough to lay the foundations for its successful later growth into one of the giants of the car industry worldwide. In particular, Toyoda introduced two of the most important elements in what later became known as the Toyota Production System: just-in-time production and kaizen or continuous improvement. His influence on production and supply chain management in the years since his death has been immense; probably no other manager since Henry Ford has so revolutionised the concepts and processes of manufacturing management."

"Joy-Conに関して、お客様にご迷惑をおかけしていることをお詫び申しあげます。製品の改良については継続的に取り組んでいますが、Joy-Conは米国で集団訴訟の対象となっており、係争中の案件になりますので、具体的な対応については回答を差し控えたいと存じます。"

"the reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skins is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years"; "if we eat McDonald's hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white and our hair blonde"

"I review our most important performance indicator, Net Asset Value (NAV), every day without fail. NAV represents shareholder value, calculated as the equity value of holdings minus net interest-bearing debt. Our primary objective at SBG is to maximize NAV. How do we achieve this? We focus on two key strategies: evolution and multiplication. Evolution involves continuously refining our business model to offer something unique. Multiplication refers to leveraging our sales capability to effectively market and distribute this unique value."

"While evolution and multiplication are vital for business growth, it is the concept of evolution that holds particular importance for the future of humanity. Back in the autumn of 2022, I experienced a crisis of confidence, and I was filled with self-doubt. However, today, I am more energized than ever because I realized our ultimate mission: the evolution of humanity. What greater cause could there be? This mission will be accomplished through the realization of artificial super intelligence (ASI)—AI that is ten thousand times more intelligent than human wisdom. Ever since, I have been grappling daily with the challenge of realizing ASI. It feels like solving an intricate set of simultaneous equations."

"ASI is completely different. ASI will be the culmination of a network of AGI models stimulating each other to rapidly accelerate their evolution. While expert opinions may vary, my view is that ASI will be ten thousand times more intelligent than humans and realized in about ten years. The realization of ASI, which will far surpass human wisdom, will mark a turning point in human history. All conventional wisdom will be overturned. In the 200,000-year history of our species, the next ten years will be a critical juncture."

"It has been 200,000 years since the birth of humans. Unlike other species, we invented tools and technologies that drove progress. Until now, the evolution of humanity has been driven by our own hands. Every now and then, geniuses such as Leonardo da Vinci and Albert Einstein emerged, sparking new ways of thinking and driving the evolution of humanity."

"When I first started the company, I only had two part-time workers and a small office. I got two apple boxes, and I stood up on them in the morning as if I was giving a speech. In a loud voice, I said to my two workers, “You guys have to listen to me because I am the president of this company.” I said, “In five years, I’m going to have $75 million in sales. In five years, I will be supplying 1,000 dealer outlets, and we’ll be number one in PC software distribution.” And I said it very loudly."

"People usually compare the computer to the head of the human being. I would say that hardware is the bone of the head, the skull. The semiconductor is the brain within the head. The software is the wisdom. And data is the knowledge."

"The brain is more valuable than the skull. But everybody has a brain. Inside the brain are wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and knowledge are the most valuable things in the body. I want to be number one in the business of supplying wisdom and knowledge all over Japan. But the knowledge industry is too big, too wide."

"I came up with 40 new business ideas—everything from creating software to setting up hospital chains, since my wife’s father is a doctor and has a hospital. Then I had about 25 success measures that I used to decide which idea to pursue. One success measure was that I should fall in love with a particular business for the next 50 years at least. Very often, people get excited for the first few years, and then, after they see the reality, they get tired of the business. I wanted to choose one that I would feel more and more excited about as the years passed. Another factor was that the business should be unique. That was very important to me. I didn’t want anyone else doing exactly the same thing. A third was that within 10 years I wanted to be number one in that particular business, at least in Japan. And I wanted to pick a business where the business category itself would be growing for the next 30 to 50 years. I didn’t want to choose a sinking ship."

"I think I became an entrepreneur because I have my way of doing business. Especially for high-tech ventures, there are no footprints left by anyone else. You have to think and act as you think. To do that, you have to have your own company. But if you have your own company, you’re an outsider in the Japanese business world. It’s difficult. But that’s life."

"Here we have white collar and blue collar. I said a new collar will start: that is metal collar. That metal collar will not only replace most of the blue collar jobs, but many of the white collar jobs. So when they become so smart and the muscles to move, what is the definition of what mankind’s job should be? What should we do if they replace many of our jobs? What is the value of our lives? We have to think once more, deeply."

"I predict 30 years from now, the number of smart robots, the smart robot population on this earth will be 10 billion. By that time, human population will be around 10 billion. So here on this earth we will have 10 billion population of mankind and 10 billion population of smart robots. This is the first time on this earth that we live together with 10 billion robots."

"Every industry that mankind created will be redefined. The medical industry, automobile industry, the information industry of course. Every industry that mankind ever defined and created, even agriculture, will be redefined. Because the tools that we created were inferior to mankind’s brain in the past. Now the tools become smarter than mankind ourselves. The definition of whatever the industry, will be redefined."

"What is my belief and vision for this investment? I have only one belief — Singularity."

"It is wrong to say that AI cannot be smarter than humans as it is created by humans. AI is now self-learning, self-training, and self-inferencing, just like human beings."

"Despite people’s view that SoftBank might be struggling, we continue to grow. Don’t think about the past."

"Twenty years ago, people were saying, Amazon, why is it an internet company? It’s just a retail company, right? Today, people say, oh, it’s just transportation. It’s just real estate. It’s other obvious things, with AI used only a little bit. But you have to understand this is just the beginning."

"Look at a shadow. Even within 24 hours, the length of your shadow differs dramatically, even though your height in 24 hours is unchanged. People get scared or overconfident looking at the length of the shadow."

"Today already, computer is smarter than mankind for chess or go, or weather forecast. For some expert systems, computer is already smarter. But in 30 years, [in] most of the subjects that we are thinking, they will be smarter than us. That's my belief."

"But if you look at mankind's history, people were killing each other with many battles among different tribes, races, and so on. But today's world, we don't have that kind of thing as part of everyday life. We are more civilised. So when the robot super intelligence goes beyond mankind's intelligence and they say well, fighting is not an efficient way of living, harmony is better, it's more social, so we going to live in harmony. They will think about us, they help us and they try to amuse us and have a good love with each other."

"We go and change the world together and create a better world. Better world for human living. So that excites me. What is the future, how can we change people's lives for the better? For better humanity. So people don't need to die for unnecessary reasons like having an accident, or having a disease, or having a disaster. To protect humans from all those sadness, is a good thing. Imagining those things and investing and creating a group, having great product, great solution is exciting."

"Yeah, in my age of 19 I created a 50 year life plan. And in my age of 60s, between 60 and 69, I would decide my successor and have my successor keep on running it. So in my next ten years I have to do that. But even after I find a successor and give him a baton to run as a captain of the ship. I would probably stay working with him, coaching him and as long as I live probably. I cannot forget about this excitement."

"Yes, lots of challenge, but the uniqueness is actually good. If the pack of other people are this way, I am unique. I have more opportunity. The difficulty flipped becomes the advantage."

"I may but this is the life I'm enjoying so much, that I would love to do it again. I was so lucky, I was so close to falling off the cliff. So I don't know if I can do it twice. But this is definitely an exciting life, I'm having fun."

"But I still want to support entrepreneurs -- entrepreneurs with dreams and passion. Technology is moving very fast. So if I can be a good promoter or supporter, then I would be very happy to do so."

"You know, in the past 30 years, there are three things that are important in our industry. CPU computing power, memory size, and communication speed. These three things have improved by a million times, each of them has improved by a million times. So this is a huge impact - a huge impact on technology, lifestyle, and society. But I would say, what if it gets a million times better from now? A million times more computing power? A million times more memory and communication speed? So it's not slowing down at all. I think the computing power is going to make artificial intelligence really a reality, and you know, intelligent robots, analytical prediction, all these things are happening now."

"But humans have always been the best, the smartest and the most powerful, influencing everything on Earth, but the premise is that humans have the smartest intelligence. But in the end, humans themselves invented something that is probably smarter than ourselves in many ways. So, you know, humans invented tools. These tools are used for farming and so on. But the premise is that the human brain is always smarter than the tools we control. That's why we can control them. Eventually, this tool may become smarter than we are. This means that, regardless of the tools we have been using to build industrial society, a huge paradigm shift is taking place. Everything should be redefined. The way we use tools, the way we live, the way we produce, all of these will be transformed. Every industry will be redefined."

"There are many diseases, such as cancer, that affect the lives of millions of people. In the future, cancer will no longer be a disease we should be afraid of, because artificial intelligence will solve problems that we cannot solve."

"There will always be new jobs, new stimulation. You know, humans will have art, music, entertainment, all the creative jobs, and communication between people. We will help each other. We will discuss with each other."

"I am an optimist, okay. There will always be various problems in the future. But we humans are smart enough. We always try to adapt to new situations."

"Well, we can still create things. We can still enjoy. We can still try to sell something, try to design something, try to communicate with others. This may be just a job, and it may be a job you don't like very much. But we have to do it just to live, just to earn an income, to have food to eat, a roof over our heads, and clothes to wear. We must have some income, even if it is just to live. For this purpose, many people are working, but they don't necessarily like it. They have to work to make a living. And those who have to work to live, many of them will be replaced by a more efficient solution, that is, smart robots, robots with intelligence. Well, that way we can move on to more exciting things."

"Even today, we don’t need to remember so many things because you can search for relevant information on Google. It's like a part of your brain - it becomes an extension of your brain. So we don't have to do some primitive things. We can use our brains to think more. You know, think more creatively. The brain is no longer used to remember how many days there are in a year, or what happened, nor is it used to remember what the name of this plant is or what shape its rhizome is. Because we can Google it really quickly, right. However, our brains still function in many ways. Our brains are still very active and actively thinking. The extension of the brain enables a seamless connection between virtual and reality. It is also an extension of our lives."

"But the most important thing is that to have a more wonderful and richer life, we must also compete. Competition can get more stimulation, which will be the driving force for innovation and development."

"For years, Son acted as a bridge between the U.S., Asia and China. He was a prime beneficiary of “hyperglobalization,” the age of borderless finance and friction-free trade."

"Few characters are more enigmatic or misunderstood than Masayoshi Son, the billionaire founder and CEO of SoftBank, the Japanese media technology conglomerate. In Japan and in western media, he is cast as a dreamer, financial engineer, and speculator — an object of suspicion who has risked financial ruin more than once in a five-decade career."

"Throughout his decades-long career, Son has made headlines for spectacular victories as well as disastrous failures. For a time, at the beginning of 2000, he claimed to be the world’s richest man, with a fortune worth an estimated $78 billion amassed by buying up internet startups. However, the collapse of the dotcom bubble just months later wiped out more than 90% of his wealth."