If Mitsubishi UFJ Financial’s lightning strike to pick up a 21 per cent stake in Morgan Stanley last month was the exception, then its trust bank subsidiary’s slow-burn alliance with Aberdeen Asset Management looks more like the rule.

A year in gestation, the deal under which Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank (MUTB) has agreed to promote Aberdeen products to Japanese institutions was cemented yesterday when MUTB acquired 9.9 per cent of the fund manager. Cue much rejoicing at Aberdeen, a 9 per cent intraday spike in the UK company’s share price and column inches of colourful background about the historic links between Aberdeen and Mitsubishi, the industrial giant that the “Scottish samurai”, Thomas Blake Glover, helped form in the 19th century. Glover, born near Aberdeen, was a fast-mover and a visionary, but he could probably have told Martin Gilbert, Aberdeen Asset Management’s hard-headed chief executive, a few things about the need for patience when breaking into the Japanese market.