Hiroshi Mikitani, whose Rakuten Group is losing billions of dollars to break into Japan¡¯s wireless market, said he¡¯s devoting a fifth of his time to a U.S.-based biotech startup for cancer treatments, describing it as ¡°a social project¡± where profitability isn¡¯t a top priority.
¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a problem with the use of my time,¡± Mikitani said in an interview in Yokohama, where he spoke at conference held by the American Society of Clinical Oncology last week. ¡°I probably work three times as much as other people. My role is to make decisions and make action plans; it¡¯s not about time.¡±
Yet time is of the essence for the billionaire founder of the Rakuten e-commerce empire, which has sold new stock, listed its banking unit and amassed debt after four years of mounting losses at its mobile-phone business. Mikitani, a Harvard Business School graduate, pioneered Japanese e-commerce when he started his company in 1997, three years before Amazon.com began operations in the country.
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