Up until the time he was arrested, Livedoor President Takafumi Horie was considered the standard-bearer for the new spirit of entrepreneurship in Japan. Since the arrest and the attendant media scrutiny, the idea of venture businesses has changed.
These changes are discussed on TV Tokyo's business-oriented series "Gaia no Yoake" (The Dawn of Gaia; Tues., 10 p.m.). The new trend in venture businesses leans away from money-making schemes and toward social entrepreneurship, whose aim is to contribute something to society. The difference between this new model of social responsibility and the old one is that the old one was mainly based on a volunteer spirit, while the new one is run like a business, even if it's in the form of a nonprofit organization.
The program looks at several social entrepreneurs, including one 27-year-old former IT venture capitalist who is now the president of an NPO that provides day-care services for chronically ill children, a specialized need that even the government hasn't addressed.