I've met Namba-san previously. She grew up in a rather traditional environment, attending an all-female college. What gave her the entrepreneurial ambitions was So-net's CEO suggesting her to get into business online, as the article states. Although HNer bitwize is correct in saying that Japan frowns upon risks, Nanba-san claims the getting an MBA in the states hasn't directly aided her entrepreneurship, and was only a pretext to get a break from her busy career at McKinsey.
She is indeed very ambitious; she aims DeNA to become Japan's best technology company. My friend who works there also got to meet her before, and we both agreed that she is a rare female leader not unlike Margaret Thatcher.
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I've always wondered why there aren't more Japanese startups. They seem to have an outsized number of artistic, technically saavy people there, like a perfect mix of NY and SV. what's the problem?
Japanese society frowns on individual initiative and risk-taking, favoring instead preserving a harmonious fabric of society and doing what your seniors expect of you. Notice how Ms. Namba had a U.S. business education.
And yes, that she is a woman is both enormously significant and not all that surprising; she is going to be bucking Japanese norms anyway, so why not go whole hog?
