Just over a year ago, 29-year-old Masanobu Kimura was one of the many eager Japanese individual investors rushing to put their savings in dozens of small venture businesses, including a fast-rising Internet portal named Livedoor Co.

But the collision with "Livedoor shock" on Jan. 16, 2006, put an end to that fever, traumatizing him and thousands of other individual investors who were just beginning to take an active and influential interest in reviving Japan's stagnating stock market.

After prosecutors raided Livedoor's offices in Roppongi Hills for evidence of alleged securities law violations, Kimura lost nearly 4 million yen as Livedoor's price nosedived to one-seventh of its value in about two weeks. Following a steady stream of negative media reports leaked by prosecutors about Livedoor, founder Takafumi Horie and his key executives were arrested, and the stock was given its death sentence: delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.