Some Western media seem to want to dismiss the Livedoor scandal now convulsing Japan as an example of Japan's conservative establishment seeking to shoot down a high-flying, unconventional entrepreneur who had been too successful. The reality is quite different.
What we see is an establishment duped into believing that a group of brashly indulgent, fly-by-night operators led by a chubby manipulator, Takafumi Horie, 33, who was able to create an empire valued at over a trillion yen mainly by smooth talk, cooked books, stock-market manipulations and dubious "greenmail" was a business genius and model for the new Japan.
Even worse was the sight of Japan's prime minister and his close associates believing that this same Horie should be elected to the Diet as some shining representative of Japan's new generation. If ever a proof of the shallow vanity and lightheaded foolishness of Japan's present political leadership was needed, it is this.