The man who is money-mad
On Monday last week the president of Livedoor, Takafumi Horie, was arrested. Hearing that, I was very surprised. The Japan times said that:
Livedoor’s aggressive style apparently had a dark side, prompting business leaders to raise questions of ethics after the arrest of Horie and other Livedoor executives.
“What Livedoor has been doing is extremely unique to that company. It was OK for them to act illegally if they were not found out,” said economist Takuro Morinaga, author of the best-seller “The Economics to Survive the Era of Annual Income of 3 Million yen.”
Shigeru Nakajiｍa, an attorney specializing in M&As, said that ideally, companies take over other entities because of the synergic spinoffs of such integration, but Livedoor pursued takeovers without clear synergy.
“The relevancy and necessity of mutual business should come first in doing M&As,” he said.
Before the executives got arrested, I thought that Livedoor was a very smart and great company. Livedoor planned and spread their business not only on the Internet, but also into used cars and real-estate development, amongst other things. Maybe everyone thought that Livedoor is today’s most powerful company. Actually, millions of people use Livedoor’s internet service, and I am one of them. But now that Livedoor’s executives have been arrested, I don’t want to use their Internet service very much; I have a little aversion.
About the former president of Livedoor, Horie Takafumi: I think he is very smart, but sly. It is a well known fact, he said, that “a person’s mind can be bought with money.” Maybe he thought if only there is enough money, it can do everything. Generally, his way of thinking will be disliked and form many enemies. I think he should show some modesty. If so, he might get up and be successful again.
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Japan's Cabinet extends military mission to Iraq
Mainichi reports that “Japan’s Cabinet on Thursday approved the extension of the country’s troop deployment in Iraq for one year, paving the way for the government to prolong Tokyo’s largest military mission since World War II.”
The details:
Japan deployed about 600 troops to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah on a humanitarian mission in early 2004 as part of the U.S.- led coalition. The one-year renewal extends the deployment—due to expire next week—to Dec. 14, 2006.
The extension, however, does not require the troops to remain in Iraq for the full year, and local media have reported that Tokyo intends to pull out around the middle of next year as opposition to the mission rises in Japan.
This makes me think: the humanitarian mission is very important, but this mission is involved in many matters. A documentary about Iraqi on NHK showed a small Iraqi boy saying: “I want to go out and play soccer, but I can’t because I am frightened of the explosions.” When I heard his comment, I was a little bit perplexed while I felt really sad and sorry.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, “We decided that we need to support the effort of the Iraqi people to establish a stable and democratic government,” However we must also consider that Japan’s constitution bans the country form taking offensive military action. If Japan wants to help the Iraqi people, we must disobey the constitution, which is really a grave matter. But Japan wants to lend support. What should we do? Every side contradicts the other. Besides, we must also consider many relationships such as between Japan and the U.S.
It will take a long time to solve the problems of the Middle East. However, I think we must consider how can Iraqi people live in safety and happily in reality above all.
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