Alibaba founder Jack Ma conducts first class as visiting professor at Japan’s University of Tokyo

Ma, 58, was the featured speaker on June 12 at a special ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ seminar attended by an international group of students
The two-hour seminar was focused on management philosophy, based on Ma’s ‘rich experience’ in entrepreneurship and innovation

Jack Ma

Tracy Quin Shanghai

Published: 8:00pm, 17 Jun 2023

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Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, conducted earlier this week his first class at the University of Tokyo in his new capacity as visiting professor at the prestigious, 146-year-old Japanese academic institution.

Ma, 58, served as the featured speaker on June 12 at a special “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” seminar, which was jointly organised by Tokyo College and the University of Tokyo’s Global Leadership Programme (GLP), according to a statement from the university on Friday.

The two-hour seminar was focused on management philosophy and how the younger generation can achieve success in the future, a theme based on Ma’s “rich experience and pioneering knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation”, the statement said.

Those who attended the seminar included students from Japan, China, India and Malaysia. The students at the seminar “engaged in a meaningful discussion with Professor Ma”, the statement said.

Japan’s University of Tokyo was established on April 12, 1877. Photo: Shutterstock

The University of Tokyo’s GLP is an innovative, transdisciplinary four-year undergraduate programme launched by the school in April 2014. GLP is designed to equip the university’s students with competences and skills to act effectively as “change makers” on the global stage, according to the school.

Ma’s new stint at the University of Tokyo underscores the Chinese tech billionaire’s return to public life as an educator and researcher, as he keeps an arm’s length from Alibaba and the vast business empire he created. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Earlier this week, Alibaba president Michael Evans said Ma was “alive” and “happy” at the VivaTech conference in Paris, in response to a question from Maurice Levy, the chairman of French advertising group Publicis, according to a CNBC report.

“Well, first of all, Jack is alive. He’s well, he’s happy. He’s creative. He’s thinking,” Evans said. “He’s teaching at a university in Tokyo, [while also] spending more time in China.”

Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba Group Holding, poses (front row, third from right) with an international group of students who took part in a special “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” seminar that was jointly organised by Tokyo College and the University of Tokyo’s Global Leadership Programme on June 12, 2023. Photo: Weibo

Ma has assumed professorships in at least four schools outside mainland China. He has accepted a three-year term as honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Besides the University of Tokyo, Ma is also a visiting professor at the African Leadership University in Rwanda and Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Ma, a former English teacher, has stepped down from his corporate roles and also ceded control of Ant Group, the financial technology start-up affiliated with Alibaba. He has largely refrained from public activities since 2020 after a controversial speech in Shanghai, where he said Chinese banks had a “pawnshop” mentality – a situation that led to Ant Group’s mega-dual public listing to be called off at the last minute.

In the past few years, Ma has been spotted in Japan, China and across Europe attending to academic and agricultural events. Earlier this year, he was seen in Thailand as part of his study of farming and fishery, following a three-month stay in Japan where he looked into the operations and technology of fish farms.