Japan's entrepreneurial model builds long-term value

Nation may be short of flashy startups, but that should not be only yardstick

Neil Seeman

January 15, 2023 05:00 JST

20230112 Toru Nishikawa Preferred Networks.jpg

Toru Nishikawa, co-founder and CEO of Preferred Networks, at the company's lab in 2018: Japan's valuable startups tend to be capital-intensive companies that benefit from research and development rather than blitz marketing. (Photo by Maho Obata)

Neil Seeman is chairman and founder of public sentiment research company RIWI and author of the forthcoming "Accelerated Minds: Unlocking the Fascinating, Inspiring and Often Destructive Impulses that Drive the Entrepreneurial Brain" (Sutherland House).

While the collapses of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and medical testing company Theranos have taken some of the shine off startup culture in the U.S. of late, Japanese entrepreneurialism looks ripe to blossom for the long term.