It's over...
I finished my job of going in front of the camera to talk about Horiemon's first hearing at the District Court.
a bunch of media awaiting his arrival
it was the first time I saw this guy with my own eyes!
(pic from Jiji)
終わった…
地裁でホリエモンの初公判についてカメラの前で話す仕事は終わった。
写真：大量のメディアが彼の到着を待っていた
自分の目でこの男を見るのは初めてのことだな！
（写真は時事から）
Horiemon's first hearing is over, but hell is not over.
The second hearing is already set for tomorrow.
And we also have Aneha's first hearing on Wednesday.
Also... the prosecutors of the Tokyo Distric Public Prosecutors' Office worked its way to arrest a couple in Fukushima starting another campaign of the constuctors' crimes.
Hell is not over... not for a while...
ホリエモンの初公判は終わったが、地獄は終わってないんだ。
明日すでに２回目の公判が予定されている。
そして水曜日には姉歯の初公判がある。
さらに…東京地検が土建屋たちの犯罪を暴く作戦が実行に移され、福島で２人を逮捕した。
地獄は終わってない…しばらくはね…
（以下、共同の記事：和訳は略）
Kyodo's article
◆ Ex-Livedoor head Horie pleads not guilty in 1st hearing of trial
TOKYO, Sept. 4 KYODO
Former Livedoor Co. President Takafumi Horie, once seen as an iconic leader of a more freewheeling style of capitalism in Japan, pleaded not guilty Monday to violating securities law in the first hearing of his trial at the Tokyo District Court.
Horie, an Internet entrepreneur and self-made millionaire, denied manipulating financial figures for Livedoor's business year to Sept. 30, 2004, and spreading false information on a subsidiary's takeover of a publisher in October-November 2004 to raise the subsidiary's stock price and corporate value.
''I never committed such crimes nor did I order them,'' said Horie, 33, making his first public appearance since his release on bail in late April.
''The content of my indictment has been malicious from the outset. I feel annoyed that I was indicted,'' said Horie, who was dressed in a dark suit with a blue tie in lieu of his trademark T-shirt and khakis.
Horie, his hands clasped in front of him, calmly responded to questions from Presiding Judge Toshiyuki Kosaka.
When the charges against him were read out, Horie seemed bored and glared at the prosecutors.
The court, prosecutors and defense lawyers are to focus on whether a conspiracy existed among Horie and four other former Livedoor executives, who have also been indicted on charges of violating the Securities and Exchange Law, and on whether Horie was aware of any wrongdoing in the two cases.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office says Livedoor set up ''dummy'' investment partnerships for the purpose of illegally posting own-stock sales profits of 3.7 billion yen on the Livedoor group's financial books.
The prosecutors claim the profits should have been recorded as capital transactions.
The defense team argues the investment partnerships were acting independently and that the way in which the former executives handled the profits did not constitute illegal accounting.
The court has decided so far to put 18 people on the witness stand, including former Livedoor Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi, 39, and former Livedoor Representative Director Fumito Kumagai, 28, who are among the four executives being tried separately.
Miyauchi, who used to be Horie's right-hand man, admitted to the charges against him in his trial and is seen likely to have a showdown with Horie in court.
Of the former Livedoor executives, Horie is the only one who flatly denies having broken the law.
In their opening statement, the prosecutors emphasized Horie took the initiative in carrying out the alleged accounting fraud.
''This is how it should be. Get tough,'' the prosecutors quoted Horie as saying at the time Miyauchi advised him that Livedoor should stop the alleged fabrication or it would get into trouble.
The prosecutors contended that Horie instructed Miyauchi and the other executives to revise the company's pretax profit forecast upward to 2 billion yen, 3 billion yen and 5 billion yen in sequence ahead of the release of its financial statement for the business year.
The defense team disputed such claims, saying Horie was not ''a dictator of Livedoor'' and he was on an equal footing with Miyauchi within the company.
In the afternoon, an executive of a firm that operated some of the investment partnerships appeared as a witness for the prosecution and said that the partnerships were carrying out its operations under Livedoor's control.
The executive's testimonies supported the investigative scenario of the prosecutors that the investment partnerships were inseparable from the parent company and used as tools to funnel proceeds of own-stock sales to the group.
Horie, who founded Livedoor's predecessor Livin' on the Edge Inc. in 1996, became a household name in Japan with his bold challenges and remarks to Japan's business old guard.
He drew both flak and applause for his aggressive business tactics such as a hostile takeover bid he launched in 2005 against one of Japan's largest media groups.
Until his arrest in January, Horie was touted by some as a new type of business leader who could change Japan's clubby corporate culture.
Horie, a dropout of the elite University of Tokyo who flaunted his wealth and flamboyant lifestyle, ran unsuccessfully in the 2005 general election with support from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
In fallout from Horie's arrest, Yoshiaki Murakami, a high-profile investment fund manager, was arrested in June on suspicion of insider trading in connection with Livedoor's takeover bid for a radio broadcaster.
Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui later came under fire for his ties with the Murakami Fund.
Reflecting strong public interest in the case, 2,002 people lined up for the 61 seats open to the public in the Tokyo courtroom Monday.
The court will hold 25 more hearings by Nov. 28 in an attempt to hand down a ruling before next March.
If convicted, Horie could face imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to 5 million yen.
The first hearing ran from shortly before 10 a.m. to about 4:15 p.m. with a break for lunch.
Horie took off his tie and talked cheerfully with his lawyers immediately after the presiding judge ended the day's session and left the courtroom.
He later released a statement through the lawyers, saying, ''The witness made some surprising remarks during the testimony. I will continue to try hard to bring out the truth in the courtroom.''
Horie also said he has ''never been seated still for a long time like today'' and realized how ''just being seated can make one consume one's physical energy.''
Before the session, Horie's lawyers said he was looking forward to appearing in court to proclaim his innocence in his own words.
One of the lawyers said Horie's state of mind was like ''a boxer who is ready to enter the ring.''
Horie has mostly stayed in the Roppongi Hills area in the heart of Tokyo, where his high-rise residence is located, since his release.
Apart from preparing for the trial, Horie was absorbed in building up his physical strength at a gym in the area, the lawyers said.
Kyodo
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