Something about Masayoshi Son and Japanese Microsoft
Japan entrepreneurs draw swords in reform battle
By Miki Shimogori
TOKYO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Forget the navy blue suits and downbeat neckties, a trio of unconventional entrepreneurs think it's time for Japanese business to brandish samurai swords and warrior topknots.
Masayoshi Son, head of Internet-savvy Softbank Corp, will play the title role of Ryoma Sakamoto in a play about the legendary reformer in Japan's 19th century modernisation efforts.
The staging of ''Ideyo Ryoma (Come out Ryoma)'' coincides with intensifying calls for Japan to encourage entrepreneurs and find its own Bill Gates to pump new life into the moribund corporate sector, which is fast losing its ability to create jobs.
Son, 41, viewed as one of the nation's most charismatic entrepreneurs, has gained a fortune through aggressive investments in Internet-related ventures like Yahoo!, GeoCities and broker E*Trade.
The Softbank chief, ranked ninth last year by Forbes magazine in its list of the world's working rich, has repeatedly said he wants to achieve a digital revolution under which society would benefit from the maximum use of computers, especially the Internet.
''Like Ryoma Sakamoto, if you want to achieve a revolution, you must do more than just dream,'' he said recently, adding that he wants to be king of the digital revolution.
Hideo Sawada, head of discount travel agency H.I.S. Ltd and Yasuyuki Nambu, 47, chief executive of employment agency Pasona Inc, will also appear in the play on Saturday.
The aim, they say, is to urge Japan to carry out much-needed reforms and regain the ''venture'' spirit.
''The important thing for entrepreneurs now is to have the courage to start new things, to be in high spirits, and to continue efforts to achieve (their goals),'' Sawada told Reuters recently.
''The government meanwhile has to reduce controls to the same level as those in the United States and in Europe and let companies do anything they want to do,'' he said. ''It also needs to show a clear vision for the coming five to 10 years.''
Japanese media have dubbed Son, Sawada and Nambu ''the Three Musketeers'' for succeeding with unique strategies despite Japan's economic slump and government controls.
The play and accompanying panel discussion will call for a ''Heisei Restoration,'' similar to the one Japan saw in 1868, when a new government took the lead in opening the country to the Western world and modernising its economy.
Just before the 1868 Meiji Restoration, Japan was pressed hard by foreign countries to open up its closed society and move more in line with global standards.
Son and others suggest the situation is similar today.
On Tuesday, a set of new government measures took effect to encourage startups, including a programme that offers financial aid averaging three million yen ($25,424) for entrepreneurs who have launched companies in the last five years.
But entrepreneurs here agree deregulation is what they need more than anything else.
''Japan is widely known as a heavily restricted society where regulations cover about 42.3 percent of overall private corporate
activities,'' Orix President Yoshihiko Miyauchi said last week. He said a study showed the comparable figure in the United States was only 6.6 percent.
''By freeing up this 42.3 percent, the nation's supply side would be encouraged to start offering a variety of goods and services,'' said Miyauchi, who is also a core member of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's blue-ribbon panel on deregulation.
Heavy government controls also have kept the nation's electricity and other operating costs high, while long-running bad loan woes in the banking sector have started to choke off liquidity for startups, leading to a high level of bankruptcies.
Japan enjoyed a boom in new startups in 1995, but a credit crunch resulting from the banking woes has driven many of them to the wall.
Government data shows that business office closures in Japan over the three years until 1996 topped office openings.
In 1998, leading credit research firm Teikoku Databank said a record 82 startups went bust, surpassing the previous record of 58 in the previous year.
''I still see a positive trend under which a growing number of young people want to open new businesses, as cash-strapped big companies are slowly straying away from their traditional seniority-based wage structures,'' said Toshio Motomori, president of Tokyo Management Institute Corp, a consultant firm.
He said there would be more new businesses in niche or new areas, especially in the information sector, as the Internet was likely to cut costs and help lower barriers to new entries.
''Entrepreneurs in their 40s like Son, Sawada and Nambu are seen as the most energetic. I think the three are models for those starting new businesses,'' said Seiichi Ohno, chief editor of the monthly magazine ''Entre.''
''We're not sure whether we will see another Microsoft that can offer massive jobs, but we're seeing an expansion of startups in the form of franchise businesses or small ventures,'' he said.
($1=118 yen) |
