Takafumi Horie, 40, the recently paroled founder of Internet firm Livedoor Co., said Wednesday he wants embattled Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto to become prime minister one day, citing his "ability to challenge" and "alter the status quo" of politics.

Arrested in 2006 and later sentenced to a 30-month prison term for falsifying his firm's financial reports, Horie was paroled in March and appeared before the foreign media at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo on Wednesday, his outspokenness unabated.

The once iconic entrepreneur reiterated the importance of minimizing the role of government, going so far as to suggest that Japan is better off if it "just does nothing."