Few have risen and fallen as spectacularly as Takafumi Horie, 34, the self-made Internet billionaire now on trial in Japan's courts of justice and public opinion.
At age 31, he became famous overnight for trying to wrest a baseball team from a league controlled by some of Japan's most powerful businesspeople, or, in his words, "the club of old men."
He turned his start-up, Livedoor, into a household name and built it with the kind of aggressive moves unseen in Japan. A swooning media crowned the spiky-haired, T-shirt-clad, trash-talking upstart as the living challenge to Japan's ossified establishment.
PHOTO: AP
For 18 short months, Horie defied gravity. Then early last year, the offices of Livedoor, which had built an eclectic social network site, were raided, and he was arrested on charges of securities fraud; depending on one's view of Horie, the charges amounted to just deserts or political payback.
Television networks showed his enemies gloating about his downfall, reinforcing the impression that the establishment, or some part of it, had decided to destroy Horie. He was transformed into the symbol of all that was bad about the new Japan and its supposed embrace of a ruthless, American-style capitalism.
Denounced and demonized, Horie has yet to be silenced. In a country where defendants face enormous pressure to plead guilty and criminal cases almost always result in convictions, he has fiercely proclaimed his innocence.
And though his trial has yet to end, Horie has taken the extremely unusual step of speaking out to the media, leaving nothing unsaid.
"I'm being made into a bad guy through endless leaks from the prosecution to the media," he said. "So when something's wrong, I have to state that it's wrong. Otherwise, they'll set people's image of me, and that's not good."
At the Tokyo District Court, prosecutors have demanded a four-year prison term for Horie, whom they accuse of having masterminded accounting frauds totaling more than US$40 million and other securities violations at his company.
Driven by greed, lacking a law-abiding spirit, Horie had shown no remorse and still presents a menace to society, they said.
"Isn't it a fact that you raised the value of Livedoor shares, sold them and used the profits to pursue your personal interests and desires?" one prosecutor asked early in the hearing.
"You have a twisted mind. You should repent," Horie replied.
He said Livedoor's accounting practices were on the level. He has acknowledged misreporting the source of about US$10 million, but blamed Ryoji Miyauchi, now 39, the chief financial officer.
Miyauchi, who has pleaded guilty to similar charges against him, said in court that Horie was aware of the wrongdoing. But Miyauchi wavered on this point under cross-examination.
Horie said he was caught in the cross hairs of a Japanese establishment of elite bureaucrats -- who he said do not want ordinary Japanese "to think too much" -- and powerful business executive who fear the changes he represents.
The infractions with which he is charged "are not something that typically merit a raid and arrest," he said.
Indeed, by any standard, Horie has been treated very severely by the authorities. In Japan, companies have long engaged in financial window-dressing, often in collusion with accounting firms, though regulators have cracked down on this practice in recent years.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS