Until their culture changes drastically I'm going to say No, for the following reasons:
- It is too risk averse. Making big mistakes, especially with your career, is looked down upon and it makes you a social pariah.
- Japan is too brand name obsessed and it's not limited to products either. It extends to your career, as to what company you work for and what schools you graduated from. i.e. You need to work for already successful companies. It also doesn't look too kindly on drop outs or anyone different either, who are probably the very people building successful start ups.
- While the younger generation is better, Japan still has a xenophobic society. Most foreigners unless they are of Japanese descent still can't get citizenship. Foreigners bring a lot of innovation and different ideas to the start up sector that Japan misses out on it. The US isn't perfect on this matter either, but compared to Japan it's way better.
In Japan's defense, most of the EU suffer similar problems.
- It is too risk averse. Making big mistakes, especially with your career, is looked down upon and it makes you a social pariah.
- Japan is too brand name obsessed and it's not limited to products either. It extends to your career, as to what company you work for and what schools you graduated from. i.e. You need to work for already successful companies. It also doesn't look too kindly on drop outs or anyone different either, who are probably the very people building successful start ups.
- While the younger generation is better, Japan still has a xenophobic society. Most foreigners unless they are of Japanese descent still can't get citizenship. Foreigners bring a lot of innovation and different ideas to the start up sector that Japan misses out on it. The US isn't perfect on this matter either, but compared to Japan it's way better.
In Japan's defense, most of the EU suffer similar problems.