January 19, 2006 - 2:22PM
A passer-by looks at a news report showing the president of Japan's top internet firm Livedoor, Takafumi Horie, displayed on a window of a securities firm in Tokyo. Photo: AFP
One of the closest aides to the young Internet tycoon at the center of a scandal that has shaken Japan's stock market has been found dead in an apparent suicide, reports said Thursday.
Hideaki Noguchi, 38, was found Wednesday bleeding in a hotel bed with cuts to his wrists on the southern Japanese island chain of Okinawa and he was later confirmed dead, the Yomiuri Shimbun and Jiji Press said.
Noguchi, the vice president of H.S. Securities Co., was one of the closest advisers to Livedoor president Takafumi Horie, who is embroiled in a scandal, reports said.
Horie, 33, contacted by Nippon Television about the apparent suicide, was momentarily speechless and said, "Why?"
Asked whether Noguchi was linked to the Livedoor scandal, Horie said, "I don't really know," the network said.
"Pardon me. ... I don't want anybody else to die," Horie said when asked about the suicide, the report said.
Okinawa police declined comment on the incident. H.S. Securities was due to hold a news conference later Thursday.
Prosecutors raided Livedoor and Horie's home late Monday on suspicion that the company misled investors to hide losses, which triggered a massive sell-off on the Tokyo stock market Wednesday.
Noguchi joined On the Edge, formerly a part of Livedoor, in 2000 and worked on the company's initial public offering on the Mothers market, the exchange operated by the Tokyo Stock Exchange for emerging companies, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
He worked as president of a Livedoor group company until he joined H.S.
Securities, the report said.
The avalanche of sell-offs Wednesday led the Tokyo Stock Exchange to shut down 20 minutes early in an unprecedented measure to prevent a systems crash.
AFP
Hideaki Noguchi, 38, a close aide to Livedoor president Takafumi Horie was found bleeding in a hotel bed with cuts to his wrists on Wednesday in Naha, the capital of the southern prefecture of Okinawa. He was later confirmed dead and the police suspect that he committed suicide. Hideo Sawada, the president of HS Securities, told reporters in Tokyo that Noguchi's family had identified the body.

Noguchi was a board member at Japan M&A Management Co., a unit of H.S. Securities Co. The firm was raided by prosecutors earlier this week in connection with fraudulent practices at Livedoor, according to the Kyodo News agency. He was a graduate of Tokyo's Meiji University, and joined Livedoor in 2000. He had previously worked at Kokusai Securities Co. as an adviser in financing. Livedoor was publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in April 2000. Noguchi then set up the investment unit Capitalista Co., which merged with HS Securities.

News of the suicide is being featured in the Japanese media in connection with what is being termed the "Livedoor Shock". The problems at Livedoor have led to the loss of a third of its $6.3-billion value in the stock market. Livedoor maintains that its own investigation reveal that it did not violate any securities laws. 

Some view the affair as an outcome of the larger struggle between competing business cultures in Japan. Takafumi Horie is part of a new generation of Japanese entrepreneurs with little patience for the customs of a traditionally cautious business culture. Horie has shown an appetite for publicity through his internet blogs and appearances on TV shows while living a rock star lifestyle that includes private jets and actress girlfriends.

Horie is also credited with popularizing stock trading among individual investors. The practice of day trading is relatively new in Japan. The Nikkei index was up about 40% last year, its best performance since 1986.