In its December 25 edition, the magazine said that starting with nothing 20 years ago, Mr Son had built Softbank into an Internet holding company with stakes worth more than $18 billion, measured by the sector's current depressed state.

"(In) Masayoshi Son, one can see the worst excesses of the Internet bubble or a visionary entrepreneur who may help transform the world's second-largest economy," said Forbes Global, adding it was leaning toward Mr Son as a visionary. "Son is working feverishly to open Japan's ossified capital markets to a new generation of entrepreneurs who could, with access to funding, transform the Japanese economy," Forbes said.

The magazine noted that Mr Son's critics point out Softbank's value has fallen by 90 per cent since February, and profits have fallen by 78 per cent to $79 million in the fiscal year ended March 31. It also said Mr Son launched Nasdaq Japan in June in the teeth of the technology stock slump.

"But Mr Son is on the move," it said. In June, the company led a group of investors in a takeover of the Nippon Credit Bank Ltd., which collapsed in 1998. The same month, Softbank launched Nasdaq Japan in alliance with the US National Association of Securities Dealers.

(Reuters)