The man who was born on August 11, 1957 is often a regular as Japan's richest person. After all, he was poor.
Masayoshi Son is considered a living legend in Japan. His not-so-lucky past, as well as his hard work to become the boss of Softbank inspired many people.
With Jack Ma, his pal. Son invested heavily in the early days of Alibaba. Often referred to as the Bill Gates of Japan, Masayoshi was the richest person in Asia. Currently his wealth according to Forbes in the range of USD 21 billion. He is also known to be a philanthropist by being a philanthropist.
He was born in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan, in a poor family of Korean immigrants. His grandfather, Son Jong-Gyeong, moved from Daegu, South Korea, to Japan. Bringing his family, including Son Sam-Heon, Masayoshi's father, his grandfather to support the family as a coal miner. Meanwhile Masayoshi's father sells fish and manages a pig farm.
His grandfather then decided to use a Japanese surname. But Masayoshi insisted on using the Korean name Son, rather than Yasumoto, his family's Japanese name. Because of this decision, since childhood Son faced discrimination. At that time, there was a crisis in the relationship between Japan and Korea. Masayoshi is not considered a Japanese citizen because of his Korean ancestry. He was only recognized after marrying a Japanese wife, Masami Ohno. Masami immediately changed his last name to Son.
Discrimination is also a stumbling block in pursuing goals. Since childhood, he wanted to be a teacher, artist, to a politician. However, because he was hampered by discrimination, he decided to change his dream to become a businessman.
At the age of 16, Masayoshi went to California, United States (US) and finished high school in a year. His perseverance led him to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics in 1980. A year after graduating, he later founded SoftBank. Who would have thought, Softbank was started from a garage with only two employees.
Today, Softbank is the leading telecommunications and internet company in Japan. The company based in Tokyo is also expanding and entering many businesses with various subsidiaries.
Its subsidiaries include broadband company SoftBank BB, data center company IDC Frontier, game publisher GungHo Online Entertainment and publishing company SoftBank Creative. Softbank is also very diligent in investing in many startups. Call it Grab, they stole big funds.
Masayoshi Son is still actively developing Softbank's business wing.