Topic
15 facts from 12 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1270s
Weatherford says one reason Kublai Khan invaded Japan was to cut off the Southern Song's supply of sulfur, needed for gunpowder.
“The main one was to cut off the supply of sulfur. They needed it for gunpowder in South Song, they lost their sources in northern China when they were driven out”
1946
The hosts say Japan's GDP per capita in 1946 was $17.
“The GDP per capita in Japan in 1946 was $17, not $17,000.”
1975
IKEA entered Japan in 1975 and withdrew in 1986 after the market failed; it returned in 2006.
“In 75, they entered Japan for the first time. They try real hard for 12 years to make it work, but it fails and they withdraw in 1986.”
1996
Schultz says Starbucks' Japan launch, a joint venture, was an immediate success and grew to about 2,000 stores.
“Japan was an extraordinary success from minute one. We got 2,000 stores there.”
2024
Donald Trump said Japan is rearming because China is taking over certain islands.
“They're starting to rearm now, they're starting to rearm because China's getting, you know, taking over certain islands.”
Undated
Matthew Walker says average nightly sleep in the UK is six hours forty-nine minutes and in Japan six hours twenty-two minutes, the worst of the three countries he compared.
“In the U. K, it's not much better, six hours and forty nine minutes. Japan was the worst, six hours and twenty two minutes.”
Undated
Charlie Munger said Japanese interest rates were about half a percent a year for ten years, enabling Berkshire's Japanese trading house investment.
“The interest rates in Japan were half a percent per year for 10 years.”
Undated
Jordan Peterson says about 30% of Japanese men and women under thirty are virgins, with a similar figure in Korea.
“I think 30% now of Japanese men and women under thirty are virgins. It's about the same in Korea.”
Undated
Rick Kobayashi suggests Japanese animation featuring robots, such as Doraemon, makes people comfortable with chatbots.
“there are lots of, say, robot, or some of the say animations, which specify some of the AI or robot technologies. And, you know, Doraemon, or there are lots of animation over there.”
Undated
Rick Kobayashi says Japan takes a soft approach to AI governance, relying on guidance rather than strict regulation.
“So they say that a soft approach, so there is no strict say regulation in Japan, but there are lots of kind of guidance in Japan.”
Undated
Rick Kobayashi says banks, insurers and securities firms are among Citadel AI's largest customers in Japan and are aggressively adopting LLM applications.
“One of the largest customers in in in Japan is the financial industry, surprisingly so, like banks or insurance companies or security companies are very aggressive to introduce LLM applications into their core operations.”
Undated
Rick Kobayashi says Japan's financial firms are already bound by traditional financial regulation, which raises the stakes of AI misbehavior.
“So because those financial industry is governed by the the government itself, so in that sense, different from regulation related AI, they have already been kind of regulated by traditional, uh, say, financial regulations.”
Undated
Joelle Pineau says Cohere's research-led focus on multilingual models opened commercial markets in Korea and Japan.
“it's opened up new commercial markets because when we get to Korea and to Japan, you know, of course, there's like, oh, you have world-class models in the local language”
Undated
McDermott says that when he joined Xerox, most of the world's most valuable companies were Japanese and sold higher-quality products at lower prices.
“most of the most valuable companies in the world were from Japan”
Undated
DJ said North Korea launched missiles toward Japan on the day of recording.
“you got North Korea launching missiles towards fucking Japan, right?”
Episodes