I was intrigued by this curious headline in The Japan Times “Bus group Ryobi sets up forex fund to survive population fall”.
It turns out this 114-year-old bus operator in rural Japan, is setting up an AI-powered forex hedge fund to diversify from its traditional business, which is being impacted by the consistent decline in the country’s population.
Japan is on the front line of a demographic crisis that could unfold across the developed world.
Its companies are already grappling with ageing customers and shrinking communities. How these companies respond to the challenges could be a harbinger for the rest of the world.
For a bus company to set up a forex hedge fund may seem extreme now, but could this be the type of strategic tilts businesses will be forced to take in the future?
And how will investors react when a company they thought operated in one sector, veers to a completely different industry?