Elon Musk arrives in Japan for first visit since 2014
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Mr Elon Musk's visit prompted speculation on the purpose of his first known trip to Japan in nine years.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TOKYO - Mr Elon Musk was in Japan on Friday, prompting social media speculation on the purpose of his first known trip to the country in nine years.
“Just arrived in amazing Japan,” the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX said on Thursday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter that he bought in 2022.
In 2014, he visited Japan for a ceremony marking his electric car-making company’s full-scale entry to its market. During that trip, he briefly met with then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was gunned down in 2022
Japanese carmakers are seen by analysts as having fallen behind in the race to develop electric vehicles.
On Friday, Mr Musk posted videos of what appeared to be an exhibition by Japanese art collective teamLab, which is known for combining projections, sound and carefully designed spaces.
Users on X posted comments asking why Mr Musk was in Japan, with some speculating he had come to see musician Grimes – with whom he has two children – perform at a music festival near Tokyo this weekend.
Since buying Twitter in 2022 for US$44 billion (S$60 billion), he has fired thousands of employees and erected a paywall on the site, charging users US$8 (S$xx) a month to access certain features and get a blue checkmark “verified” account.
Mr Musk visited China in late May
