Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-20T20:13:41.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Abenomics and Japan’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Is the Third Arrow Pointed in the Right Direction for Global Competition in the Silicon Valley Era?

from Part IV - Third Arrow of Abenomics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2021

By
Kenji E. Kushida
Edited by
Takeo Hoshi  and
Phillip Y. Lipscy
Takeo Hoshi
Affiliation:
University of Tokyo
Phillip Y. Lipscy
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

This chapter asks whether the Abe administration’s “third arrow” of structural reforms was useful in fostering innovation and strengthening the global competitiveness of Japan’s economy. It takes the Silicon Valley model and evaluates how much the third arrow of Abenomics added flexibility to some of the core institutions of Japan’s traditional model by pushing toward or adding institutional elements of the Silicon Valley model. The goal for Japan should not be piecemeal adoption but instead strengthening the institutional underpinnings that enable Japan’s startup ecosystem to flourish and coexist with the large-firm-dominated model. This chapter concludes that Abenomics’ third arrow legitimized the institutions supporting Japan’s startup ecosystem by amplifying trajectories of change already underway – not by forcing change in areas that were headed in a different direction. Since institutions supporting the startup ecosystem are emerging in parallel to the existing institutional configuration, the legitimacy provided by Abenomics’ third arrow reforms do represent positive developments and policy for helping innovation in Japan’s economy.

Keywords

JapanentrepreneurshipinnovationAbenomicsthird arrowSilicon Valley
Type
Chapter
Information
The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms , pp. 394 - 420
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, S. 2016. “Immigrants and Billion Dollar Startups.”Google Scholar
Aoki, M. 2001. Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Aoki, M., Jackson, G., and Miyajima, H., eds. 2007. Corporate Governance in Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Aoki, M., and Patrick, H. T.. 1994. The Japanese Main Bank System: Its Relevance for Developing and Transforming Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Callon, S. 1995. Divided Sun: MITI and the Breakdown of Japanese High-Tech Industrial Policy, 1975–1993. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Center, V. E. 2018. Benchaa Hakusho (Venture White Paper). Venture Enterprise Center.Google Scholar
Dasher, R., Harada, N., Hoshi, T., Kushida, K. E., and Okazaki, T.. 2015. “Institutional Foundations for Innovation-Based Economic Growth.” National Institute for Research Advancement.Google Scholar
Grimaldi, R., Kenney, M., Siegel, D. S., and Wright, M.. 2011. “30 years after Bayh–Dole: Reassessing academic entrepreneurship.” Research Policy 40(8): 1045–1057.Google Scholar
Kenney, M. 2000. Understanding Silicon Valley: The Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kenney, M. 2011. “How venture capital became a component of the US National System of Innovation.” Industrial and Corporate Change 20(6): 1677–1723.Google Scholar
Kenney, M. 2017. “Explaining the Growth and Globalization of Silicon Valley: The Past and Today.” BRIE Working Paper 2017–1.Google Scholar
Kenney, M., Han, K., and Tanaka, S.. 2004. “The globalization of venture capital: the cases of Taiwan and Japan.” In Financial Systems, Corporate Investment in Innovation, and Venture Capital, edited by Bartzokas, A. and Mani, S., pp.52–84. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Kenney, M., and Zysman, J.. 2019. “Unicorns, Cheshire cats, and the new dilemmas of entrepreneurial finance.” Venture Capital 21(1): 35–50.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. 2018. “Is the lack of “Unicorns” in Japan good news or bad news? Injecting a historical institutional perspective into debates about Japan’s startup ecosystem.” NIRA Opinion Paper 39.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2011. “Leading Without Followers: How Politics and Market Dynamics Trapped Innovations in Japan’s Domestic “Galapagos” Telecommunications Sector.” Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade 11(3): 279–307.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2012. “Entrepreneurship in Japan’s ICT Sector: Opportunities and Protection from Japan’s Telecommunications Regulatory Regime Shift.” Social Science Japan Journal 15(1): 3–30.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2014. “Foreign Multinational Corporations and Systemic Change in Japan.” In Syncretization: Corporate Restructuring and Political Reform in Japan, edited by Kushida, K. E., Shimizu, K., and Oi, J., pp.199–246. Stanford, CA: Shorenstein APARC.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2015. “The Politics of Commoditization in Global ICT Industries: A Political Economy Explanation of the Rise of Apple, Google, and Industry Disruptors.” Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2015. “The politics of commoditization in global ICT industries: A political economy explanation of the rise of Apple, Google, and industry disruptors.” Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade 15(1): 49–67.Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2017. “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Japan: Why Japan (Still) Matters for Global Competition.” SVNJ Working Paper Series (2017–2).Google Scholar
Kushida, K. E. 2018. “Departing from Silicon Valley: Japan’s New Startup Ecosystem.” In Reinventing Japan: New Directions in Global Leadership, edited by Fackler, M. and Funabashi, Y., pp.81–102. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Lerner, J. 2009. Boulevard of Broken Dreams: Why Public Efforts to Boost Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Have Failed – and What to Do About It. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Leslie, S. 2000. “The biggest ‘angel’ of them all: The military and the making.” In Understanding Silicon Valley: The Anatomy of an Entrepreneurial Region, edited by Kenney, M., pp.48–70. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Markoff, J. 2016. Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground between Humans and Robots. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Matsui, R., Kotosaka, M., and Fukuda, R.. 2017. “Data about Mothers CEOs’ Careers at time of listing.” https://iber.sfc.keio.ac.jp/?p=9564, accessed October 1, 2019.Google Scholar
Metrick, A., and Yasuda, A.. 2010. “Venture capital and the finance of innovation.”Google Scholar
Milhaupt, C. J. 1996. “Market for Innovation in the United States and Japan: Venture Capital and the Comparative Corporate Governance Debate.” Northwestern University Law Review 91: 865.Google Scholar
Nikkei. 2019. “Sutatoapputenshoku, nenshuu 720 mangoe, joujoukigyougoe (Startup job hires, annual salary exceeds 7.2 million yen, listed firm salaries).” Nihon Keizai Shimbun.Google Scholar
Saxenian, A. 1994. Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Saxenian, A. 2006. The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tabata, H. 2005. “The incorporation and economic structural reform of Japan’s national universities.” Social Science Japan Journal 8(1): 91–102.Google Scholar
Tambe, P. 2014. “Big data investment, skills, and firm value.” Management Science 60(6): 1452–1469.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, S. K. 2006. Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry Are Reforming Japanese Capitalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Zysman, J., and Newman, A., eds. 2006. How Revolutionary Was the Digital Revolution? National Responses, Market Transitions, and Global Technology in a Digital Era. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×