When Keiji Okayasu founded his game software company, Studiofake, in 2000 he wanted it to be a limited liability company, a form of business popular with software developers in the West.

But because LLCs did not exist in Japan back then, Okayasu, formerly of game giant Sega Corp., registered his company as a limited partnership, or "goshi gaisha."

Limited partnerships are similar to LLCs but make the owner, in this case Okayasu, personally liable for all the debt his company takes on.