When the crisis unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Softbank Corp., suddenly "saw the light" and transformed into a promoter of new energy sources and the phasing out of nuclear power.
By YASUAKI OSHIKA/ Asahi Shimbun Weekly AERA
When the crisis unfolded at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Softbank Corp., suddenly "saw the light" and transformed into a promoter of new energy sources and the phasing out of nuclear power.
Observers wonder if it was simply patriotism at a time of national crisis or smart entrepreneurship sensing a timely business opportunity that threw the switch for Son.
It's clear that the Softbank CEO followed the unfolding events following the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11 and the subsequent tsunami that engulfed the Fukushima plant and knocked out its cooling system with great interest.
On March 16, just after successive explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Son said on Twitter, "Japan is facing the largest crisis in history," and he asked on March 20, "What is the evacuation shelter closest to the Fukushima plant?"
With his interest in the crisis heating up as fast as the some of the reactors at the crippled plant, Son visited Fukushima on March 22.
He met with Yuhei Sato, governor of Fukushima Prefecture, conveying a personal letter from Yasushi Furukawa, governor of Saga Prefecture, offering disaster survivors a chance to move to his native Saga and other prefectures.
Satoshi Shima, head of the president's office at Softbank and former Democratic Party of Japan Lower House member, who accompanied him on the trip, said that, before the visit, Son was more concerned with restoring telecommunications facilities and assisting disaster survivors. His priorities shifted after he met with evacuees from the nuclear plant accidents just after 2 p.m. that afternoon.
A Geiger counter, which had measured 0.08 microsievert per hour when he left the Softbank head office in Tokyo's Shiodome district, went past 5 microsieverts per hour. Shima said that Son seemed to be gripped by a fear of the invisible.
On the way back in his car, Son spoke for a long time with Yutaka Arai, a member of the Softbank president's office. Son said that in a crisis, it was a question of leadership and that there should be a leader who could make decisions, and the rank-and-file suffer under an indecisive leader.
On hearing that Son was rapidly developing an interest in phasing out from nuclear power and moving toward new sources of energy, musician Ryuichi Sakamoto referred him to an acquaintance, Tetsunari Iida, executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies. Iida is a leading advocate for the use of natural energy sources to replace nuclear power. In mid-April, Iida was led to a luxurious drawing room next door to the Softbank president's office--maintained at Son's personal expense--and was flabbergasted by the interior decorating, including a flowing indoor river. They dined together and spoke for about three hours.
"Son is very smart and quick to understand," an admiring Iida said.
On April 20, Son spoke at a meeting of the DPJ's recovery and reconstruction study committee for Lower House members. This was the first time Son spoke publicly about new energy sources, with a clearly stated preference for the phasing out of nuclear power.
"Nuclear plants are decommissioned in a global average of 22 years, but Japan is still using them after 40 years," Son said. "Let us decide to decommission plants that have completed 40 years, and to replace their power output with equal amounts from new energy sources. Let us make power companies buy up all solar power output at fixed prices.
"Germany and France are already doing this, and Japan is lagging behind. This would increase costs, but could be absorbed by adding just 500 yen ($6.10) on top of about 8,000 yen in monthly household electricity bills. It would be a good bargain if you could buy safety and assurance with that much money."
Son's speech was so fluent and eloquent that no one would have guessed his knowledge had been hastily acquired.
"I will assume the responsibility personally," said Son, declaring that he would personally dole out 1 billion yen to establish a foundation to study new energy sources, aside from a donation of 10 billion yen to disaster survivors.
Son had scored points with the ruling DPJ government last year by supporting the vision of an "optical road," a plan to build an ultra high-speed broadband network throughout Japan. However, Son had, in fact, masterminded the opening up of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.'s (NTT) monopoly of the fiber-optic network--according to observers of the controversy over the "optical road."
Prime Minister Naoto Kan, during a news conference on May 18, mentioned "unbundling," or the separation of electricity generation and transmission operations at power companies. He thereupon referred to the telecommunications industry.
"Amid similar discussions on the telecommunications industry, Japan is now seeing the birth of telecommunications businesses that are not based on a regional monopoly," the prime minister said.
Deregulation of and new entries into the power industry have been blocked by monopolistic enterprises, including Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. A parallel battle used to be in the telecommunications industry centered on NTT, but there is now a rise in new competitors that are "not based on a regional monopoly," Kan said, perhaps with Softbank Corp. in mind.
On May 14, four days earlier, Kan had met Son for dinner at Kumagawa, a provincial specialty restaurant in the Akasaka district of Tokyo.
The idea of a dinner together had been suggested by Kan, who had read Son's article in the June issue of Iwanami Shoten's "Sekai" (The world) magazine, titled "A solar belt zone for east Japan." Tetsuro Fukuyama, a deputy chief Cabinet secretary who graduated from the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, and Softbank's Shima, acted as intermediaries. Kan, a big eater and noted carnivore, has been a regular customer at Kumagawa for 30 years, which is renowned for its Higo (Kumamoto Prefecture) beef steaks and raw horse meat.
Kan sees TEPCO, which has relied on donations to retain its clout in political circles, as symbolizing politics under the Liberal Democratic Party's rule. Son, who has been hindered by the seemingly cozy relationship between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and NTT, sees similar industry-bureaucrat ties between the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and TEPCO.
Kan, with his roots in civil movements, and Son, a venture entrepreneur, seemed a suitable match. Nobuyuki Idei, former chairman of Sony Corp., once said of Kazuhiko Nishi, founder of ASCII Corp., and Son: "Nishi likes joining hands with the government and going along together. Son is a type who rebels against the establishment."
Their different origins in life have led to different management styles and have divided their fates.
Kan's request for the shutdown of the Hamaoka nuclear power plant drew a barrage of criticism from across business circles, not the least by Hiromasa Yonekura, chairman of Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation).
Son, however, expressed his full support, saying at a May 9 news conference, "The prime minister has made an appropriate decision. It is a highly appropriate decision to protect the people from a risky situation."
Many consider monopolistic enterprises such as TEPCO, with its old-style management culture, to be long outdated. Son, who once collaborated with TEPCO to set up a company called SpeedNet, is fully aware of the problems facing power companies, including their slowness in decision-making.
As Kan pointed out, their dismantlement may facilitate the birth of new businesses, including in the fields of solar power generation and smart grid design.
But Iida, who now gives weekly lectures to Son, is skeptical of such views driving Son.
"I think it's basically about righteous indignation," Iida said. "For slightly more than a month now, Son, for the first time in his life, has been absorbed in something other than information technology. Such was the scale of shocks he had."
Shima, a close aide to Son, shares the same view. With Son's daughter becoming a mother herself, the Softbank CEO may have begun to think about future generations.
He is now receiving requests to speak from various political parties. In the meantime, wary of Son being pulled into the anti-nuclear power camp, senior officials of the trade ministry are making repeated calls to caution Softbank's senior executives.
"Son is advocating an optimal mix, which both enhances the safety of nuclear plants and promotes clean energy," says a Softbank spokesperson, acknowledging the sensitivity of the issue. "He is neither opposed to nuclear power, nor is calling for phasing out from it."
Son's company on May 25 signed a deal with 19 prefectures to jointly set up alternative power generation facililties to promote the use of solar power and other sources of natural energy.
The man who drove NTT to the brink of breakup may have a new role to play, this time, in the dismantling of TEPCO.