This week's edition of the business-related nonfiction series "Rubicon no Ketsudan" (The Rubicon Decision; TV Tokyo, Thurs., 10 p.m.) covers the rise and rise of Hiroshi Mikitani, the man behind the so-called Internet Mall, Rakuten Ichiba, and, according to Forbes magazine, the sixth richest man in Japan.
Mikitani quit his job at a major Japanese bank in 1995 and started looking at various types of new business models. He hit on the idea of Rakuten Ichiba because he wanted to make an Internet retail site that would appeal to people who didn't have much practical knowledge of computers.
Mikitani's main problem in getting his enterprise off the ground was convincing merchandisers and wholesalers to work with him. His story is told through a mix of drama and documentary. B eat Takeshi, who just won a prestigious award from the French government for his filmmaking career, will again host a group of people from different countries on the special two-hour discussion show "Kinkyu Sekai Summit: Takeshi Japan 2" (Emergency World Summit: Takeshi Japan 2; TV Asahi, Fri., 8 p.m.).