Generational Change, Technology, and Japan's New Opportunity

An Interview With Me on My New Book

I had a long dialogue about how generational and technological changes are giving Japan a new opportunity for recovery with David Smick, the Editor and Publisher of The International Economy Magazine. This is one of the best introductions to my new book The Contest for Japan's Economic Future: Entrepreneurs vs. Corporate Giants. We talked about many topics including:

• How my meetings with young founders of new companies were so inspiring that I felt compelled to write this book
• How changes in generational attitudes are helping to promote more entrepreneurship
• How Japan just has to do again what it used to do so well: drive rapid growth through entrepreneurship as it did during the Meiji Era and the post-WWII economic miracle
• Is it really true that Japanese culture is inherently risk-averse and anti-entrepreneurial and, if not, what is the explanation?
• The "old company disease"
• How the promotion system in companies affects growth
• How changes in the dominant technological regime require--and can give rise to--changes in business institutions; how this has not yet happened in Japan, but could do so
• The role of flawed financial institutions in the dearth of entrepreneurs
• If France could become more entrepreneurial, why not Japan?
• The pivotal role of globalization in exposing people to diverse ways of approaching problems, from CEOs to potential entrepreneurs
• Interest rates and the yen
• China's economic troubles

To read the interview, see https://richardkatz.substack.com/p/generational-change-technology-and

Richard Katz