SoftBank's Masayoshi Son says Japan lacks investment opportunities, is AI 'developing country'

TOKYO: SoftBank Group Corp founder and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Thursday that there is a dearth of investment opportunities in Japan, which he said is lagging in the race to develop artificial intelligence .

"Unfortunately there are virtually no companies that can be called global No. 1 unicorns," Son said of Japan, referring to startups reaching US$1 billion valuations. With a limited pool of IT engineers in Japan, particularly when English language skills are required, tech firms investing in AI like SoftBank rival Rakuten Inc and flea market app operator Mercari Inc have been looking overseas with India a recruitment focus.Rakuten, which will begin mobile services in October - putting it in direct competition with SoftBank's domestic telco, SoftBank Corp - plans to double the number of IT engineers in Bengaluru over the next year from 550 currently.

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