Old’s guard revenge〜FT Editorial Commentより

最近の時事英語を追っかけるべくちょっと勉強。

Takafumi Horie has been a thorn in the side of Japan's corporate establishment since the brash young entrepreneur sought last year to take over Fuji TV, a large and sleepy broadcaster. Now, with Mr Horie and Livedoor, his internet company, under investigation for possible securities law violations, the establishment is tasting revenge.

Much more is at issue than the legalities of what Mr Horie did or did not do. What is basically at stake is what he represents. Though he failed ultimately to acquire Fuji TV, he has come to personify many of the unwelcome new forces challenging Japan's traditional business order. If he were publicly discredited, a sigh of relief would sweep through many of the country's boardrooms, which would probably conclude that it was safe to return to their comfortable old ways.

It is not necessary to approve of all of Mr Horie's tactics in order to applaud his impact. A flamboyant publicity-seeker, he has often, by his own admission, sailed close to the wind. Some in Japan also disparage him as a get-rich-quick speculator who created a business empire through financial deal-making rather than through superior management skills. Whatever his shortcomings, he has done Japan a big service.

First, as one of its few large-scale successful entrepreneurs, he is an invigorating breath of fresh air in a country where individual initiative and new ideas are too often stifled at birth by hidebound bureaucracy and rigid corporate conformism. Encouragingly, his buccaneering approach has made him something of a folk hero for a nation that is yearning for a break with the past, albeit in an often unfocused way.

Second, by doing deals that have frequently tested financial market rules, Mr Horie has highlighted the rules' inadequacies. That has provided much-needed impetus for reforms to improve transparency and fairness in Japan's clubbish capital markets. Third, and most important, his aggressive methods have sent a shiver of apprehension through sleepy managements and challenged them to perform better.

Mr Horie's critics would argue that he is only in business for himself, and that there is in any case something socially disreputable about making money out of money. That is missing the point. The objections raised by his opponents in big business are equally self-serving: their overriding aim in preserving the status quo is to cling to a quiet life, untroubled by shareholders' interest in better returns.

Japan needs to accept that free and open financial markets, a vigorous market in corporate control and effective corporate governance are not threats to its prosperity but essential to wealth creation. Until that lesson is learned - and irrespective of the outcome of the current investigation - Japan needs more, not fewer, aggressive mould-breakers like Horie.

（補助）
Thorn 悩みの種
Brash　（人や言葉が）」無作法な
Tasting revenge 復讐を楽しむ
Personify 体現化する
Applaud 褒めたたえる
Disparage　けなす
Invigorate　活性化させる
Stifle　窒息させる
Hidebound 偏狭な
Conformism　画一主義
Buccaneering　海賊を働く
Making money out of money マネーゲームをする
Irrespective of 〜とは関係なく
Mould-breaker　型破りな人