
Hey Japan, What's Up With Your Startup Culture? - dsr12
http://www.fastcolabs.com/3016958/hey-japan-whats-up-with-your-startup-culture
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PhasmaFelis
Interesting how the article explicitly tries to set up a contrast between the
image of the entrepreneur in Japan ("selfish, greedy, untrustworthy") and
America ("Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg"), when those adjectives accurately
describe those people.

Edit to expand on that a bit: Mark Zuckerberg fights constantly to block
undermine his users' privacy decisions and feed more personal information to
advertisers; Steve Jobs lied to Wozniak's face to cheat him out of $2150,
refused to acknowledge his own daughter for years while she grew up on
welfare, and didn't allow Apple to give to charity during his life.

Japan's stagnant corporate culture needs shaking up, but Jobs and Zuckerberg
are not good role models for how to do that responsibly.

~~~
w1ntermute
> those adjectives accurately describe those people

I think there's a big difference between someone who blatantly broke the law,
like Horiemon, and someone who failed to contribute as much philanthropically
as people would have liked to have seen (Jobs). Moreover, we have examples of
successful entrepreneurs who have given back (such as Gates).

~~~
protomyth
"who failed to contribute as much philanthropically as people would have liked
to have seen"

Given some of the stuff coming out after his death, it seems to be more of the
case he didn't satisfy people's need to hear about it as opposed to doing it.
And since he died very early, we will really never know what the final word
would have been.

I guess I would be a horrible billionaire too, since my father taught me it is
impolite and improper to brag about giving. I can see why Gates does it
(publicity is needed to make his goals), but that is not always the case (and
sometimes, it messes up what you try).

~~~
PhasmaFelis
The part where he cheated his best friend and his daughter out of large sums
of money (child support, in his daughter's case) are at least as important to
my evaluation of his character as the charity thing.

I have heard that he'd become somewhat less of an asshole in his later years,
and I know he reconciled with his daughter at some point. I hadn't heard about
stuff coming out after his death, though. I'd like to see a source on that.

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oscargrouch
The answer is clear.. culture. and thats not only in japan

This is neocolonialism kind of thought pure and simple.. why instead of asking
why country X dont have the same cultural values of country Z (as if country Z
have some sort of superior values), maybe whe should ask what county X really
needs? and what is its own natural path?!

different cultures SHOULD follow different paths, and thats a good thing...

did you ask if country X has something to teach to country Z? im sure it has..

why the senior culture of japan, of respect to the older people is inferior to
the arrogant youth culture that doesnt have any respect for the older and
marginalize them?

The sad history of ocidental intervention to conquer and profit of the
oriental japan in the 1800´s, anihilizing its milenar culture, and the crush
of the samurai class by the newly born ocidental-like army has nothing to
teach us?

The japanese people are more happy now than before?

its alrigth to ask about the startup culture of country X, but lets take care
of the moral tone of superiority, like if some culture could be granted as
superior to any other..

we should know better by now.. we need ways to make different cultures to
flourish in its own way and path.. the right thing to ask is.. "what can the
values of my culture do to help the culture of country X to flourish without
them to loose their cultural identity?"

instead of "hey you guys why are you guys are not like us, if what we are are
better?"

~~~
guiomie
I agree. Maybe the respect of seniority in Japans society is actually a good
thing, and perhaps their society would have been worst off with more
entrepreneurs.

I always feel like one thing that is missing in the western-american culture
is respect of seniority. And especially for the current 25 and less in the
work force.

~~~
lovemenot
A foreigner, I live and work in Japan, visiting companies large and small. I
agree with this sentiment in principle. There is nothing intrinsically wrong
with Japan's system. Indeed it has in the past brought wealth to the whole
society. Nevertheless, right now, this model is failing hard. What is needed
now is for Japanese people and companies to invent the future. Instead they
seem to be waiting for a new model to follow, which they assume will come from
outside. Japan is capable of huge transformational change in a short time, but
it prefers to wait until no alternative remains. While some other societies,
tend to have their (r)evolutions one entrepreneur at a time.

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jmadsen
I would like to hear more Japanese weigh in on this, but I have lived in Japan
for more than 11 years and think this is a horrible fluff piece written by
someone with little more than stereotypes & superficial knowledge of the
country.

A few specifics:

\- "Japanese-English" tends to take words from foreign languages and use only
one specific meaning. The words "entrepreneur" & "freelancer" have negative
connotations, but not the ideas behind them. We just call ourselves "founder"
& "contract expert" and get along just fine

\- China, India & Japan have rather large populations, in case you haven't
checked wikipedia recently. There are some VERY large on-line companies here
that dwarf many (most?) western companies, that you simply haven't heard of.

\- "Life-long employment" & all the ideas people have about it in Japan died
when the Bubble burst back in the 80's, and was crushed during the latest
recession. There is still a system that makes job-hopping difficult, but most
Japanese - while they may not expect to change companies during their career -
no longer look at it as some sort of unmentionable thing that could never
happen to them.

\- There is actually a quiet boom among upper level management to leave their
companies and start new companies. Years of frustration with the old-fashioned
corporate culture & reaching a point where they can do so with a bit of
security has done a lot for this movement

\- And finally, as a personal observation - IMHO, there are few people like
the Japanese for becoming so passionate about a subject that they will finally
leave their jobs and start that tiny, overly-specific shop or bar or
restaurant simply because "it was always their dream". The type of completely
impractical thing that everyone in the US would urge them not to do - because
we always look at these ideas as "will it make you a millionaire?".

Perhaps because life IS so regimented here, people have a little cornier sense
of romanticism about "chasing your dream", and cut a lot of slack that they
wouldn't give someone who was just chasing a get rich plan.

So, in summary - I wouldn't put a lot of effort into analyzing this article,
if I were you.

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mildtrepidation
_Japan is a rich country, with one of the best education systems on Earth._

I'd call this -- aside from being very, very questionable -- an important
missed point that might otherwise have been a cornerstone of this article.

The Japanese educational system, from preschool to college, is built to do one
thing: Prepare Japanese people to pass Japanese standardized tests for the
purpose of obtaining work with a Japanese company.

The author's other points aside, I don't see how this could possibly _not_
contribute to a weak entrepreneurial culture.

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johnchristopher
This is off-topic but: >"After World War II," Ohashi said, "40 years ago,
[Japanese] people took risks. But _Japan is almost a developed country now_ ,"
and many have grown complacent.

Interesting how a 40 years-old in Japan think that.

~~~
jamornh
I thought that was quite interesting as well... But it's the CEO who's 43.
Ohashi, the PR manager, his age was never mentioned, I don't think.

EDIT: They did mention this though: > Ohashi, like most of Terra's 15
employees in their mid-twenties, ditched the prospect of working for a famous
company to take a risk at a job where he'd be challenged.

So I assume he's in his mid 20's like the guy who's 26 at the beginning of the
article.

~~~
johnchristopher
Oops, thanks for pointing that out.

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belowlightsblue
The article quotes someone as saying: "Selfish, greedy, untrustworthy: That is
the image of the entrepreneur in Japan since around 2000"...I don't think
Startup culture in America avoided that image after the dotcom bubble and even
with all of its success, there is still a lot of suspicion

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stared
"If you're stuck in a system that promotes by seniority, it's living a slow
death, like animals on a farm. I wanted to be in a tough, competitive place."

Seems to be applicable to academia, globally.

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Mikeb85
Being risk averse isn't always bad... And while Japan doesn't have a Google,
they do have a number of very successful companies. For a country with
effectively no natural resources, it's amazing what Japan has accomplished...

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late2part
America is different from Europe and Asia. We accept failure here. The
cultural generalities in Europe and Asia do not reward try and try again. They
hide failure. In America, we tend to celebrate it, just look at our gossip
magazines.

