Astro Boy [Kori Mori]

Mr./Ms. Moriaki Profile

Economist. Affiliated with a think tank (United States). Specialties include exchange rate policy, monetary policy, macroeconomic policy, and financial regulation. Interacts with market participants, financial authorities, and policy makers to analyze currency trends from multiple perspectives.

*This article is a reprint and edited version of an article from FX Strategy.com, June 2019 issue. Please note that the market information written here may differ from current market conditions.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso is well known for his favorite reading as manga. Even now, if I have time, I read manga as well, and I believe it is a powerful tool for disseminating Japanese culture. In fact, when I asked a acquaintance’s daughter who had studied in Japan for a year from the United States last Christmas party why she studied in Japan, she said, “I wanted to experience the world of manga,” which left a strong impression.

When it comes to manga, I love Osamu Tezuka’s works. I remember visiting a professor’s laboratory during my student days. I recall finding a ‘Astro Boy’ book mixed among difficult political and economic books.

Readers may not need an explanation of Astro Boy, but I would like to write about the concept of the work. In the story, Dr. Tenma, the Chief of Science, loses his son, and the robot made to resemble his son is Astro Boy. It is a work that ponders questions such as the differences between Astro Boy and humans, whether Astro Boy has human rights, and whether Astro Boy and humans can coexist.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Trading

In the early 2010s, trading that sought profits from millisecond-level rapid trading called High Frequency Trading (HFT) became a topic of discussion. I recall debating with stakeholders about the financial regulation of such high-speed, high-frequency trading. Since then, in addition to HFT trading, AI trading has also become a topic of discussion.

According to research by Boston Consulting Group, the amount of funds managed by machines rather than by dealers reached about 1,800 trillion yen in 2017. Its share of the world total assets under management is about 21%.