Daisaku Yamamoto, an up-and-coming Web services creator, recounts being an attention-seeker as a child, always trying to differentiate himself from everyone else.

"You perhaps still remember the song you repeatedly listened to when in high school, or a movie that totally changed your life. . . . That's the kind of thing I always wanted to invent," the Hiroshima native said in a recent interview at his office in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.

The CEO of venture LeLeLe Inc. said writing was his favorite subject because he could pursue it with maximum creativity. He wasn't a math type because the process of seeking just one correct answer held no fascination for him.