
Startups not status: Japan's top grads rethink success - raleighm
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Trends/Startups-not-status-Japan-s-top-grads-rethink-success
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hardwaresofton
While I think this trend is growing (and moving at a snail's pace, like most
things that aren't engrained in japanese culture), I want to point out that
students from the University of Tokyo (colloquially "toudai") are the most
likely to attract funding/find the connections to be funded as startups.

Toudai has a reputation as a school full of eccentric people (quite often
literally called the equivalent of "weirdos"), likely because of the high
percentage of "smart"/obssessive types who go there (this is probably some
equal percentage stereotype, truth, and self-fulfilling prophecy). This is
also probably a big contributing factor to the fact that the percentage of
people doing startups instead of other options.

I think Japan could be a really huge place for startups to be honest -- the ~4
years of undergrad in college here are actually really really lax, and could
have so much potential as a time to try ideas. The right school, with the
right hacker-space and the right supporting generalist classes could produce
an amazing set of entrepreneurs, but no one's doing it yet.

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g09980
_the ~4 years of undergrad in college here are actually really really lax_

Is this because undergrad does not prepare you for a career and the bulk of
the "useful" learning happens later on the job?

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cocktailpeanuts
If you get into Tokyo University in Japan, as long as you don't flunk out and
get kicked out before graduating, you're pretty much set for life, because
unlike the U.S. or some European countries where there are multiple top grade
schools, each famous for certain major, Tokyo University is the ABSOLUTE top
in Japan (as in there is ONLY one absolute #1 school), and literally everyone
sees you differently if you say you went to Tokyo University.

This is on a completely different level than say if you told your American
neighbor you went to MIT. Basically, in the US if you're an engineer, you
could go to Caltech, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UIUC, etc. and
all of them are considered top, so the "genius" factor is a bit spread out
therefore the scarcity is not as high (relative to how Japanese people see
Tokyo University) Tokyo University is absolute #1. Period. There are some
exceptions but I think that's the biggest difference.

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chrischen
What about if you said you went to MIT, while in Japan.

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cocktailpeanuts
It depends who you ask, but generally when we're talking about uber-famous
colleges like MIT or Harvard, I think the brand would generally work in Japan
too.

But not all Japanese are aware of MIT or Harvard, and not all of them are
aware of how concretely hard it is to get into those. All they know is through
what they heard from others, and based on how the media portrays those
colleges.

For most ordinary Japanese people, if you say you went to Caltech or UIUC,
etc. they will have no idea what the status is (the only credibility you will
enjoy is from other academics), because there has not been a TV show or movie
about UIUC and Caltech students.

Compare that to Tokyo University, 100% of Japanese people know exactly how
hard it is to get in, because they all have gone through high school and they
are completely aware of how many of their peers went to Tokyo University.

I'm sure in the U.S., regardless of where you live--midwest, alaska, or
wherever--you probably have seen at least a few friends who went to any of the
above colleges, because there are multiple of them. However in Japan, many
high schools never see any of their graduates enter Tokyo University at all,
which means for some people a "Tokyo University student" will almost feel like
a mythical unicorn.

This is not unique to Japan and I am aware of at least a couple of other rich
countries where the social structure works this way. U.S. is a special case
because it's such a large country and the entire nation is built on the
premise of diversity, but in many countries around the world there is a very
clear and absolute pyramid structure in university "rankings".

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Kiro
What does "Startups not status" mean?

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antonkm
I'd guess that instead of going for the Big Co career path you choose to start
a business instead. And a startup might not carry the same status in Japan as
in the West?

I found the title weird when I read the article. Startups is nothing but
status in my book. People work almost for free as long as they can tag
themselves as startup people. Must be a cultural difference.

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yks
"I am a cofounder" is the new "I play in a band"

I guess Japanese society values stable trajectories in life more than money,
whereas in the US the common trope is "you work for someone — you never get
rich" and since getting rich is the only definition of success we have this
hustle culture.

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machinehermit
haha absolutely.

I even noticed this with a black and white picture of some AI startup group
picture google bought. It looked exactly like a band picture from the 90s.
Everyone all serious looking, different fashions, the lead singer/ceo a little
bit more forward and center in the photos.

Another amusing cultural thing is I remember the saying like "even CEOs of big
business want to be in the music industry".

Now it is the opposite and even the biggest music artists in the world want to
be CEOs.

