Sustainably Investing in Digital Assets Globally

Chapter 37Japan to Solarize Its Burgeoning Digital Economy

The global financial crisis of 2007–2008 wreaked havoc in the world economy and resulted in a decline in consumer wealth, widespread real estate foreclosures, evictions, business bankruptcies, prolonged unemployment, and a worldwide downturn in economic activity. But not everything related to the crisis was negative. Poor banking decisions and practices faced a rude awakening by coming to a crashing halt, allowing for new ideas to emerge, garner attention, and be put into use, especially in Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun.

As the credit crisis was in full force, Japan passed its Basic Space Law, which established Space Solar Power—the concept of collecting solar power in outer space and distributing it to Earth via satellites—as a national goal with the Japanese Space Exploration Agency. On January 9, 2009, a new triple‐entry accounting ledger system and the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, made its world debut by the programmer using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son, Japan's wealthiest citizen—who is changing startup technology investing with his large checkbook, upending Silicon Valley finance—refers to these technological developments as the “disruptive, foundational technologies that are building the infrastructure for tomorrow.” In 2017 Masayoshi Son, backed by investors who gave him on average $1 billion per minute, launched the $100 billion technology‐focused SoftBank Vision Fund ...