The better answer is Japan’s complicated bureaucracy and regulation that makes it difficult to launch and raise capital for an enterprise. According to the World Bank’s Doing Business index, Japan ranks 107 out of 183 countries for ease of starting a business. Venture capital is scarce.
Both are inadequate responses for true entrepreneurs. That’s at least what I witnessed tonight when all of Tokyo’s start-up stars came out for an awards fete hosted by U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos. Ambassador Roos has promoted, more than any other American chief of mission, entrepreneurship, encouraging Japanese innovators to “aim global.” Here are a few I came across:
Chikahiro Terada, Founder of San San. It’s an IT platform that says it has a new approach to organizing business cards on-line. The site’s only in Japanese, so I’ll take Terada’s word for it. Curious though what would Evernote say…