Talk:Takafumi Horie

Horie's spacecraft

Horie's spacecraft is described as using "the VA of the TKS" of a Russian spacecraft. Should that mean something?

VA: Vozvrashchaemiy Apparat TKS: Transportniy Korabl Snabzheniya From: http://www.astronautix.com/craft/tks.htm

Potentially defamatory material

I have removed the following because I believe the its contributor (1523 (talk page)) is inserting it in bad faith; i.e., not for the purpose of informing readers, but rather to discredit Horie. Also, the quotations are presented devoid of the context in which they were made, thereby making them all the more open to misinterpretation due to their controversial nature. In this respect, I believe the quotations, as well as their perhaps intentionally literal translations, are also potentially defamatory as well as unbecoming to an encyclopedic article. Such information may be appropriate in the Japanese media, but this kind of base character assassination level is not appreciated in English nor is it appropriate to Wikipedia.

For example, his provocative remarks (such as "人の心は金で買える": "money can change people's minds"<!--previous translation very literal (word-for-word) and did not convey the intent of the statement -->, "女は金についてくる": "women are after money") have often sparked public debate about moral money issues.

A more appropriate translation of the latter quotation is "women follow money" or "women go where the money is"—certainly not a statement worthy of praise, but more likely intended as a (misguided) humorous response to a question like "why do you like to earn so much money?" rather than a statement of philosophy on women. Jim_Lockhart 02:17, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Eudora and Horie

Contributor 60.39.180.12 added the following comment today:

Horie's first company, Living on the Edge, is the current licensor of Qualcomm's Eudora e-mail program in Japan.

I appreciate what you are trying to say, but worded this way it is inaccurate and misleading:

1. Horie's first company was called Livin' on the Edge, not Living on the Edge.
2. Livin' on the Edge no longer exists; therefore, it cannot be "the current licensor" of Eudora.
3. A quick visit to Livedoor's website—specifically, to http://eudora.livedoor.com/products/ —indicates that Livedoor currently has the franchise for Eudora in Japan; I'm not sure whether than can be termed "licensor". If "licensor" cannot be confirmed, it would be better to word this some other way; e.g., "Livedoor is the Japanese distributor for Eudora" or something to that effect, than to use a word that is inaccurate or even possible wrong.

I'd like to suggest that, before you make a contribution, you check all your facts first and then reread or edit your contributions to ensure that they are not open to misunderstanding. HTH, Jim_Lockhart 10:05, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Korean Japanese? Nihonjinbanari (日本人反)?

User talk:164.161.40.124 claims that the Japanese media are referring to Horie as Nihonjinbanari (日本人反); they sure have been working hard at character assissination, but I've never heard this expression. Would someone care to explain it, and perhaps cite a source?

Further, User talk:221.27.2.247 seems to think Horie is not Japanese, but a Japanese Korean. Though I think the point of qualifying Horie as a Japanese enteprenuer in the article is to identify what country he works in rather that identify his ethnicity (which is kind of irrelevant given that he also grew up in Japan), this also needs to be substaniated somehow—I haven't been able to find any sources that say his is an ethnic Korean. Perhaps 221.27.2.247 is confusing him with Masayoshi Son, SoftBank's boss and also a native of Kyushu—Son is an ethnic Korean. Jim_Lockhart 11:19, 26 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't know his ethnicity, but given the Japanese authorities penchant for classifying second and third generation individuals with non-Japanese parents or grandparents as "foreigners" in official statistics, despite the fact that they were born and raised in Japan, this is a tricky one. If this is the case, then in the eyes of the Japanese establishent he could be classed as a foreigner, whilst most other nations would count him as Japanese. I think given that this article aims to report objectively, he should be classed as Japanese and not have his nationality determined by Japan's own cultural prejudices. Saiing 03:24, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

What penchant for classifying second- and third-generation born-and-raised-in-Japan individuals with non-Japanese parents or grandparents are you talking about? I have never heard before of the Japanese authorities classifying people on the basis of anything other than nationality (i.e., what passport they hold). Nationality can, by definition, not be determined by cultural or any other prejudices. I was asking about Horie's ethnicity and what the evidence is that his ethnicity, if relevant here, in anything other than Japanese. Too my knowledge (and I have been following Horie's case in the Japanese media), neither the authorities nor the press have made any mention of Horie's ethnicity or nationality; hence my question. All indications are the Horie is just a regular, run-of-the-mill (ethnically speaking) Japanese. Jim_Lockhart 14:02, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

Interesting New York Times article

Not mainly about him, but contains some relevant discussion: Japan Blocks the Young, Stifling the Economy - NYTimes.com -- AnonMoos (talk) 17:32, 28 January 2011 (UTC)