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I'm not really a money-oriented person. The press always write that I am. They don't seem to want to understand that I love the comfort of Japan and love the fact it's more peaceful, less frenzied than Hong Kong.

Money is kind of a base subject. Like water, food, air and housing, it affects everything yet for some reason the world of academics thinks it's a subject below their social standing.

It's mostly the financial chicanery that's going on. People are saying 'What kind of trust can we put in this market?'

Most people are under exposed to global assets, including foreign stocks, bonds and currencies.

When a population saves a lot, the funds are invested outside the country as well as inside. If the Japanese invest in the United States, it pushes their exchange rate down and makes their manufacturing more competitive.

Because of my own experience with market fluctuation, I recognize the great risks one takes on investments. This converts the Social Security safety net into a risky proposition many cannot afford to take.

If these assets were set up as a revolving fund with which Japan could import raw materials for its industries, Japanese exports could again enter the channels of world trade-and Japanese workers would have employment and something to eat.

There are still people in Japan who think money is something evil.

More and more investors may be coming into markets everywhere but that doesn't mean that the markets are really getting more and more efficient, even in the United States. It does mean that there is more access for savvy investors who watch the money flows.

Another dynamic of this last year was our increased penetration into the Japanese market.