Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
The pandemic doesn’t always bring disaster, at least for Taichiro Motoe. The man who also served as Deputy Minister of Finance of Japan became conglomerate thanks to the e-signature business.
Born in Illinois, United States, in 1975, Motoe spent his childhood in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. After secondary education, he continued his studies at the Law Faculty of Keio University.
At first, he did not think about becoming a lawyer. However, there was one incident that made him fall in love with the profession.
While in college, his car hit another vehicle from behind. At that time, he did not have an insurance scheme that covered damage to property. Insurance agents from other vehicle owners also asked him to cover all the damage. Then, his mother asked him to consult a lawyer.
He was advised to inform the insurance agent that in the case of an accident involving two parties, the damage is usually jointly borne by all parties involved. In the end, he only paid 70 percent of the total repair cost.
“If I don’t attend the consultation session, I will have to pay full compensation. That’s when I thought lawyers could really help other people,” Motoe said in one interview with Japan Times.
He finished college in 1998. After that, he studied hard day and night to take the notoriously difficult professional exams. Only a few can pass.
After passing the professional examination in 1999 and completing an 18-month mandatory internship program, Motoe worked at the law firm Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, one of the leading law firms in Tokyo.
There, he met several successful entrepreneur clients in the internet field who inspired him to set up his own IT company using his expertise as a lawyer.
In 2005, he decided to go out and open his own law firm Authense Law Office. In the same year, he also founded Bengo4.com Inc., a sort of directory platform online for lawyers and people who need legal assistance.
Through this site, visitors can find a lawyer that suits their needs while consulting the law. Registered lawyers can enter information related to the types of legal services provided to provide personal consultations online. To advertise themselves on these sites, lawyers are charged a fee.
At first, Bengo4 was difficult to accept among lawyers. Motoe even went so far as to offer the site’s services for free.
“Many existing lawyers reject the idea of publishing their names on the internet,” he said.
His efforts were not in vain, slowly but surely more and more lawyers were interested in joining. In 2014, Motoe brought Bengo4 to the floor on the small board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Within a year, he launched the CloudSign electronic signature business unit which became a turning point for his success.
CloudSign wants to efficiently address document authentication needs in the digital age. Previously, Japanese citizens used to use a physical stamp called a ‘hanko’ for authentication.
“I used to have to put my stamp on piles of documents one by one. I felt the inefficiency of the business culture,” said Tomoe in an interview. Forbes last September.
During the pandemic, more and more Japanese companies are needing electronic signature technology to replace traditional contracts. No doubt, Bengo4’s CloudSign service is becoming increasingly popular.
Last year, CloudSign served more than 100 thousand companies in various sectors and controlled 80 percent of the market share of the electronic signature business in Japan. Some of the big companies that take advantage of these services are Toyota and Nomura.
CloudSign’s success made Bengo4’s stock soar many times last year. As an illustration, on March 13, 2020, Bengo4’s share price was only 3,390 yen. However, in October 2020, the share price touched 15,880 yen.
As the majority shareholder, Forbes noted that Motoe’s wealth skyrocketed to US $ 1.2 billion or around Rp. 17.28 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of Rp. 14,400 per US dollar) and made him one of the newcomers to the list of the richest people in Japan this year.
He was ranked 49th on the Forbes list of the 50 richest people in Japan in April 2021. As of Friday (25/6), Bengo4’s share price was recorded at 9,330 yen.
Apart from law and business, Motoe is also interested in politics. He has been a member of the Japanese parliament since 2016. After a year, he left the position of CEO of Bengo4. Then, he resigned from the chair of the Bengo4 commissioner before finally serving as Deputy Minister of Finance of Japan as of September 16, 2020.
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