Last year's position : Not Placed

The Bill Gates of Japan? Certainly there was a time when his wealth approached the $50bn mark. Not so any more, just the boring mission of carrying Japan's internet economy on his shoulders, mainly by rolling out ADSL to the masses, experimenting with VoIP and investing in various start-ups. That may not sound like a lot, but this Berkeley graduate has a track record for canny investments (remember Yahoo!?) and, post net bubble, still has some cash to play with. In a country not known for its software, Son is an important player.