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This. BOJ is propping up Japanese companies, with negative interest at times, in the hopes they can finally get out of their 20 year deflationary economy and the coming demographics issues. Not to say Japan is suffering horribly, but the odds of Japan growing organically through innovation and execution as an economy are practically nil, so a strategy like Softbank's is essential to their economy long-term, and they have the strategic foresight and positioning (they are one of the largest telcos remember) to do this.

Softbank also has the balls to make investments like this. The ARM investment was basically a bet on everything hardware-based for the next 20 or 30 years, so clearly they're good at picking the strategic foundations.

Traditionally, Japanese companies and culture is extremely conservative and consensus driven, and one of Softbank's advantages is that they make these calls.




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