It seems like yesterday that Takafumi Horie (Horiemon) was Japan's Web 2.0 enfant terrible. But as I look at the timeline, I recall that he reached his peak in 2005 was when he tried to buy out Fuji Television. He was promising a revolution, shaking up old-school Japanese leaders, upsetting their cozy status quo…

He even stood for election to the Diet and announced his intention to launch a space tourism company within five years. Soon after that, his empire collapsed amid accusations of fraud…

Today he lost his appeal against his custodial sentence. He'll serve two and a half years.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=aYbIYi97jlfw

Perhaps he deserves it, but I wish it wasn't such an "Icarus" story for aspiring web entrepreneurs.

I hope for a happy ending in which he re-emerges as a "reformed" character and successful business leader. We may well see him burst onto the scene again in 2010 with his enthusiasm for shaking things up undented. He's not one to fade away quietly…

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