Jack Ma, the billionaire cofounder of Alibaba who disappeared from public life in 2020, has given his first class as a teacher in Japan

• Alibaba founder Jack Ma gave his first class at Tokyo University on June 12.
• The university announced Ma's visiting professor role in May, after he'd been lying low for two years.
• The class focused on "management philosophy and how the younger generation can achieve success."

Jack Ma, the billionaire founder of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, taught his first seminar as visiting professor at Tokyo College, which is part of the University of Tokyo, on June 12.

The two-hour seminar focused on "management philosophy and how the younger generation can achieve success in the future," and "was based on Professor Ma's rich experience and pioneering knowledge of entrepreneurship and innovation," according to a statement from Tokyo College released on Friday.

Tokyo University had announced in May that Ma, a former English teacher, would take up a visiting professorship at Tokyo College to teach sustainable agriculture and food production. He's set to keep that position until the end of October, according to his profile on the university's website.

In May 2019, Ma said he'd return to teaching after stepping away from Alibaba the following September.

But in 2020, Ma's relationship with the Chinese government soured after he criticized the country's financial regulatory system, and he's been out of the limelight since then.

At the time, authorities introduced new rules that put a stop to the prospective $37 billion IPO of Ma's fintech company Ant Group, which caused Alibaba's stock price to plummet and Ma's wealth go down by almost half, per Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.

Since November last year, Ma has been spotted in Japan, Thailand, and Hong Kong. He was also appointed honorary professor at the University of Hong Kong in April.

The teaching post at Tokyo College is one of Ma's first public-facing roles since the 2020 fallout with Chinese authorities.

On Saturday, Ma appeared at an Alibaba event, the final of the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition, days after the company's president Michael Evans had said he was "alive," "happy," and "creative," according to CNBC.