Japan’s Internet Maverick Has New Global Target: $180 Steaks
- Former Livedoor chief Horie aims to create premium Wagyu brand
- Wagyumafia plans first overseas outlet in San Francisco
Wagyu steak by Chef Dan G Christiansen from Denmark sit on a table at Wagyu Mafia, members only restaurant, in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2017.
Photographer: Shiho Fukada/BloombergJapan’s corporate enfant terrible Takafumi Horie built one of the country’s most successful Internet businesses, stood for parliament, went to prison and started a space company that aims to put the country’s first privately funded rocket into orbit. Now he has a new frontier: cattle.
The founder of Interstellar Technologies has teamed up with his friend Hisato Hamada to form Wagyumafia, which brands, promotes and distributes Wagyu beef. Horie, 44, compares the soft, fatty meat with Domaine Romanée-Conti, a wine estate in Burgundy, France, that has built its brand into one of the most expensive in the world.