GMO Internet Group held a press conference on November 2 over an unauthorized access incident, and the performance of chairman and president Kumagai Masatoshi has drawn attention well beyond the breach itself. Kumagai's distinctive phrase "inochi no sunadokei" — an hourglass of life — spread widely online, and coverage has settled on a label: a theatrical press conference.
Companies facing a crisis normally use such a briefing to lay out the facts and their response. Kumagai instead spoke at length about what he had learned, his own life and proposals for society, in what was described as a solo performance, even as the damage from the breach risked spreading.
Kubota Junsei, an adviser on media response, argued that the criticism misses what the briefing exposed. "There are voices saying it was a failed press conference that lowered the company's value, but the conference brought GMO's problems into relief, so in the long run it was good that he did it," he said.
A vow, and a byline that undercut it
The moment that traveled furthest came early in the briefing. After 20 seconds of silence, Kumagai spoke through tears.
“I have never, in 31 years, not once used the words "make money" or "profit"! Please check with our 8,300 employees. I have said nothing except that we should make customers happy, and that we should therefore build the best service!”Kumagai Masatoshi, chairman and president, GMO Internet Group
Social media users quickly pointed to Kumagai's official website, which lists among his books and supervised works a serialized column for the evening paper Nikkan Fuji titled "Kumagai Masatoshi's Make Money! Profit! Internet," published from June 5 to July 4, 2003.
Kubota's assessment is that the gap between the tearful vow and the record is what made the briefing read as comedy. A chief executive who takes himself entirely seriously, he said, can look absurd from the outside.
The briefing also drew criticism for its tone toward employees. One remark, "I will fire you immediately," was widely shared, with social media users calling it blame-shifting and pointing to the visible power gap between the president and staff.
Under the editor's direction, this story frames the episode as a question of disclosure culture: Japanese firms still tend to treat a breach as a public-relations problem rather than a security failure. The source material does not state that framing directly, and it does not give the cause of the breach, the number of people affected, or what the attackers sought.