Success Quote by Joichi Ito

There’s a practiced modesty in Ito’s phrasing that reads like corporate diplomacy with a human face. “A great deal of interaction” is deliberately non-specific: it signals breadth without triggering the fact-check reflex. It’s the language of a global operator who understands that relationships are currency, but that naming the exact transactions can make the bond look transactional. The second clause, “feel a fairly strong bond,” shifts from résumé-speak to affect, yet even that emotion is buffered by “fairly,” a hedge that keeps the sentiment plausible and politically safe.

The intent is to establish proximity and credibility with Korea without claiming ownership of Korean identity. For a Japanese businessman with a prominent international profile, that calibration matters. Japan-Korea relations carry historical baggage, and any assertion of closeness can be read either as bridge-building or as opportunism. Ito’s line sidesteps both traps by presenting connection as the cumulative outcome of repeated contact, not a sudden conversion or a strategic pivot.

The subtext: I’m an insider-enough ally to be trusted in Korean rooms, and I’m also careful enough not to overstep. In tech and business ecosystems, especially in East Asia, belonging is often negotiated through networks, mentorship, investment, and institutional partnerships. “Bond” here works like a soft credential, a way of pre-loading goodwill before a collaboration, a conference appearance, or a policy conversation. It’s relationship-building as rhetoric: measured, relational, and aware that sincerity, in public, is always being audited.