Living on the Edge

On any given day over the past two years, reporters could be found hanging out at the Segafredo coffee bar in the lobby of Roppongi Hills' Mori Tower, one of Japan's swishest office buildings. They were usually waiting for Takafumi Horie, the 33-year-old founder and CEO of Livedoor, one of Japan's hottest Internet companies, whose offices are located on the 38th floor. For passers-by, it was easy to evaluate the magnitude of that day's Horie news by counting the number of reporters on stakeout—in Japan, you see, Horie made the news almost every day. If Livedoor had just announced the acquisition...