I always had faith in the internet. I believed in it and thought it was obviously going to change the way the world worked. I really did not understand why others were selling their stock. As stock prices plunged, I just bought them, one after another, since I had the money. I guess I was rather lucky.

The reason I entered the election race was to promote reforms. For us who engage in business, we will be severely affected if financial and structural reforms don't proceed.

It's not that I'm deliberately trying to shock people all the time. I'm just doing things that are obvious to me. It's because the public doesn't understand my way of thinking that they get surprised.

It's not that I'm not interested in politics, but rather, I think that the people who become politicians in Japan are not very dynamic. Honestly, I find business much more interesting than politics.

Well I DO want to go up into space, but more than that, I'm dissatisfied with the fact that humans have only gone to the moon. I want to go to Mars! I want to eventually go beyond the solar system!

Because I'm thinking in a broader way, I feel like I am able to make better decisions.

I haven't changed. If it seems I'm becoming more mainstream, doesn't that mean instead that Japan is aligning itself with me? I haven't changed one bit.