« December 2005 | Main | February 2006 »
January 24, 2006
Today's news, big and small
This weekend I turned on my TV for the first time in ages, and what do I see on every channel? HORIE, HORIE and HORIE. This whole country is obsessed with the scandal involving the internet startup Livedoor and it's iconic leader, Takafumi Horie, or affectionally know to the Japanese public as Horiemon.
News shows feature the story every hour. There are variety talk shows with famous actors, comedians and "talents" explaining or chiming in their opinion on the whole matter. There are specials to explain the whole scandal. There was even a moment last night when news helicoptors were following the van that was taking Horie back to police headquarters. You couldn't even see into the car, but the announcer kept us updated with such useful comments like "the car is still in front of the house" or "the car is moving". I was having flash backs to the OJ Simpson trial coverage.
Why is it such a big deal? Well, in the last year, Horie has become a virtual icon for moving Japanese business into the 21st century. He was a CEO who tried to bunk the establishment by adopting agressive business tactics to build his start-up (such as hostile takeovers), trying to bid against established companies for a baseball team, and wearing T-shirts instead of button-up shirts.
All of this stuff (which is really quite regular stuff in most other countries) has earned Horie lots of air-time in Japan on talk shows, comedy shows, news talk programs and so forth. He even was backed by Koizumi's party when he ran for a local political office last year! Lots of people bought Livedoor stocks and saw him as a sort of business hero.
Which is why I think it is such a big blow to the Japanese public that his company might have done some fraudulent dealings. You can see more details here, here and here.
In other news today, a Japanese nurse got 3 years and 8 months for REMOVING the nails of six female patients in her hospital (shivers), you can now age fine wine by zapping it with a machine (I am very excited about this development!), and Australia recruits! for workers (wanna live down under?).
Posted by Emarrific at 02:18 PM | Comments (1)
