“It was awfully easy money,” Charlie Munger, Buffett’s longtime lieutenant and vice chair of Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), said in an interview with the Acquired podcast released this week. The firms backed by Berkshire — Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo — are known as “sogo shosha” or general trading companies in Japan. “These trading companies were really entrenched, old companies, and they had all these cheap copper mines and rubber plantations, and so you could borrow [easily],” Munger added. Buffett’s decision to invest in Japan has buoyed optimism about prospects in the world’s third largest economy. The legendary investor has previously cheered “the future of Japan,” casting more attention to the country from other foreign backers.

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