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.
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.
