By Kentaro Otsuka / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. $(MUFG)$ leads the world in the volume of project finance it arranges for large-scale projects, establishing a strong presence in the overseas corporate business segment dominated by major U.S. and European financial institutions. Senior Managing Corporate Executive Fumitaka Nakahama, head of the Global Corporate & Investment Banking (GCIB) Business Group responsible for non-Japanese companies, aims to further increase profits and spoke about the strategy in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The following is excerpted from the interview.
The Yomiuri Shimbun: Tell us about areas you will focus on in the future and profit targets.
Fumitaka Nakahama: The investor base has become diverse. Some investors are willing to take on higher risks, while others, like pension investors, seek safety and security. The era where we could just focus on fixed-income investments is over.
Securitization, which mixes products, is key to meet the needs of investors seeking to gradually diversify their asset classes. For instance, if we are asked to further strengthen securitization for aircraft, a key point is how we can securitize and offer products like aircraft leasing, an area where we excel.
The GCIB Business Group's operating profit accounted for 22% of our entire customer segment in the September 2025 interim financial results. We aim to raise this to around 30%, contributing to MUFG's overall growth. Combined with the Global Commercial Banking Business Group (handling overseas commercial banking), maintaining approximately 50% of revenue will make the organization more sustainable in terms of resilience.
Yomiuri: Some are sounding the alarm that AI-related investments, including data center development, may be overheating. Do you agree?
Nakahama: (Society) is currently transitioning from generative AI to physical AI, which includes robotics. I think we are at a major turning point where AI is coexisting with or replacing humans. The use of AI has become irreversible, and investment in data centers will be enormous. At that time, it will be crucial to discern which players truly understand the ecosystem.
Some AI-related stocks may see corrections in the stock market. However, as long as real demand exists, carefully assessing the overall ecosystem -- including top players' capital expenditure plans and underlying contracts -- should prevent us from taking a major gamble.
Yomiuri: Earlier this fiscal year (starting in April 2025), investment activity slowed temporarily due to the impact of U.S. tariff policies. Based on your sense of the market, is investment appetite returning?
Nakahama: The impact on the automotive sector remains significant. However, I feel that sectors like AI data centers, which rely on local production and consumption, have not been severely affected. Furthermore, compared to April (when reciprocal tariffs were announced), the sense of uncertainty has diminished, and the mergers and acquisitions market is returning to its previous levels. While some unpredictability remains, things have calmed down.
Yomiuri: Some viewpoints suggest the U.S. economy will slow down in 2026 and beyond. What are your thoughts?
Nakahama: I expect the stock market will undergo a correction at some point. While the U.S. economy is currently driven by domestic consumers, the divide between the wealthy and others is widening. Right now, the wealthy are driving the economy, and their assets have grown significantly. However, once there is a market correction, I believe this will impact the consumption of the wealthy. It's difficult to predict whether a recession will occur sometime between 2026 and 2027, but I don't think the economy will continue its upward trajectory indefinitely.
Yomiuri: How do you view the movements of major financial institutions in Europe and the United States?
Nakahama: We benchmark ourselves against three banks: the U.K.'s HSBC Holdings, France's BNP Paribas and the Royal Bank of Canada.
BNP Paribas has a business model similar to ours, but their return on equity $(ROE)$ is relatively high at around 12%. Why can they achieve that, and we can't? We're discussing this internally.
HSBC invests not only in deposits but also in transaction banking. While MUFG has some presence in transaction banking in Asia, there may be lessons to learn from HSBC, which has historically invested heavily in this field.
The Royal Bank of Canada generates the bulk of its profits in the United States, not its home market, and is actively handling non-investment grade companies and bonds (that are below investment grade).
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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.
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January 07, 2026 21:42 ET (02:42 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 The Yomiuri Shimbun
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