This morning I read an interesting news report on The Star Online. Japan has a rather big entrepreneur company similar to Richard Branson's Virgin. Softbank is a big Japanese company owned by Masayoshi Son. He is born to Korean parents in south-western Japan. His company has acquired small companies and owns a majority share on big companies. His business focus is on mobile Internet. It is currently the second-largest telecom company in Japan.
Taizo Son, Son's younger brother says that his brother "won't enter other sectors such as a coke or airlines" as Branson would do. The similarity between Son and Branson was claimed by Masashi Oda, equity chief investment officer at Sumitomo Mitsui Investment Trust, where he founds out that "they fight government regulation and expand businesses by lowering business prices". The proof - Softbank offers Internet services by lowering telecom charges in 2000 and sells smartphones by selling the iPhone in 2008. Softbank is the first telecom company in Japan to offer iPhone until KDDI added iPhone in 2011.
Masayoshi Son doesn't like nuclear energy since earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster hit Japan in 2011. He also owns Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, a baseball team also an avid Twitter user. He is also speedy in decision making, making him very different than a traditional Japanese executive, as claimed by a Japanese banker who has met with Son several times.
Besides mobile internet business, Softbank is also doing energy business. SB Energy Corp is currently building Japan's biggest solar power plant.
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