USA Today -- Japanese customs seem to discourage entrepreneurs
usatoday.com
Tech tripping on tradition
Japanese customs seem to discourage entrepreneurs
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
TOKYO - Shinosuke Honjo, 26, graduated from a top
university here and did the unthinkable: He went to work
for a new Internet company.
[...]
"In Japan, the free flow of information is something to
be feared," says Hiroshi Menjo of the Silicon
Valley-based consulting firm, the McKenna Group.
[...]
Honjo was considering a job at a Japanese bank when he
met Hiroshi Mikitani, 34. Mikitani, a Harvard-educated
investment banker, had just quit his job to start his
own business, an online shopping mall,
www.rakuten.co.jp/. Started in 1997, it now has 600
stores and 18 employees and is profitable. Mikitani may
take it public. "I want to make all of these young guys
rich so that they can go out and start companies," he
says.
[...] |
