Japanese businessman builds new life from dot-com failure
Associated Press
TOKYO — Yuichiro Itakura used to live life in the fast lane — zipping around in a red Ferrari, holding news conferences at Tokyo discos and hanging out with women who looked like movie stars.
That was while Hyper Net, Itakura's Web advertising-software and networking company, was still the darling of Japan's fledgling "New Economy."
By the time Itakura was forced to declare personal bankruptcy three years later, 2.6 billion yen ($21 million) in debt, he had lost not only his company and car, but the roof over his head.
With only a fishing rod left to his name, he swallowed his pride and moved back in with his father.
Itakura's flashy rise to success followed by his Icarus-like fall is a tale all too typical of the recent bursting of the dot-com "bubble" in Japan that has been playing out — although on a smaller scale — much like the one in the United States.
But Itakura's story, told in his book, "Loser President: Why My Company Failed," which has sold 40,000 copies, has struck a wider chord with a nation looking to the Internet as a catalyst for sorely needed change and entrepreneurial energy.
In Japan's conformist culture, winning and losing have been so rigidly defined that failed businessmen often had nowhere else to turn but suicide.
But Itakura is not only still standing — proud and defiant — he is totally unfazed by his past.
The cocky, fast-talking Itakura, 37, has built a new career out of his blunders, hitting the lecture circuit, working as a consultant for venture businesses, appearing on TV, and writing.
He's working on a sequel "Loser Lover," outlining his romantic disasters.
Itakura was just one of the many casualties of the dot-com fizzle. Venture failures here surged 10-fold from a handful in 1995 to more than 80 in 1999, according to Tokyo research company Teikoku Databank.
Itakura may have also been a trifle ahead of his time.
In the past couple of years, Internet use in Japan has been slowly catching up to U.S. levels.
Venture capital is becoming more plentiful with the establishment of Nasdaq Japan last year and the Mothers stock exchange in late 1999, set up to help new companies raise money.
But while Itakura has called himself a loser, his courage to break the rules has made him a role model for some, though graduates of Japan's top universities for the most part still opt for steady jobs at big-name places like Sony and Toyota, instead of hoping to strike it rich with a start-up.
"He's showing us that what you learn from failure is what's important," said Hironori Sato, 24, an aspiring politician who was inspired by Itakura's lecture.
