The startup ecosystem in Japan has seen gradual growth, supported by the government’s recent "Startup Development Five-Year Plan" and a significant interest from overseas venture capital. This paper lays out the startup financing ecosystem in Japan, with comparison to international peers, and studies potential drivers of startup financing and their relevance for startups’ performance. The results, based on country-level aggregate analysis, underscore the critical role of firm dynamism and entrepreneurship in supporting capital investment and firm valuations. Further analyses at the firm level suggest that equity funding helps startups innovate, grow, and successfully exit. Moreover, the impact of funding on the likelihood of a successful exit appears to be higher in cultures that seem to reward risk taking.

Recognizing that a capacity to innovate and commercialize new high-technology products is increasingly a key for the economic growth in the environment of tighter environmental and resource constraints, governments around the world have taken active steps to strengthen their national innovation systems. These steps underscore the belief of these governments that the rising costs and risks associated with new potentially high-payoff technologies, their spillover or externality-generating effects and the growing global competition, require national R&D programs to support the innovations by new and existing high-technology firms within their borders. The National Research Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) has embarked on a study of selected foreign innovation programs in comparison with major U.S. programs. The "21st Century Innovation Systems for the United States and Japan: Lessons from a Decade of Change" symposium reviewed government programs and initiatives to support the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, government-university- industry collaboration and consortia, and the impact of the intellectual property regime on innovation. This book brings together the papers presented at the conference and provides a historical context of the issues discussed at the symposium.

Japan: Selected Issues

Highly readable yet deeply researched, this book serves as an essential guide to the many ways in which Japan has risen to become one of the world's most creative and innovative societies. During its so-called Lost Decades, Japan has quietly reinvented itself from a nation with an economy playing catch-up into a global leader in innovation and creativity, one whose "soft power" extends from postmodern architecture to pluripotent stem cells. Written by a dozen experts in their fields, including architect Kengo Kuma, designer of Tokyo's 2020 Olympic stadium, this book describes Japan's contributions to the world in fields ranging from fashion and pop culture to development aid and historical reconciliation. In addition, it demonstrates how Japan has led efforts to contend with several social and economic challenges facing the entire developed world, including demographic aging, rising health-care costs, and wasteful consumption. Using these accomplishments as evidence, it argues that, in an era of questions surrounding the capability of American leadership, the time has come for Japan to step into a new role as a purveyor of models and values better suited to today's multipolar and diverse world.

This useful guide walks venture capitalists through the principles of finance and the financial models that underlie venture capital decisions. It presents a new unified treatment of investment decision making and mark-to-market valuation. The discussions of risk-return and cost-of-capital calculations have been updated with the latest information. The most current industry data is included to demonstrate large changes in venture capital investments since 1999. The coverage of the real-options methodology has also been streamlined and includes new connections to venture capital valuation. In addition, venture capitalists will find revised information on the reality-check valuation model to allow for greater flexibility in growth assumptions.

Bridging Islands is a detailed examination of the key role of venture companies in national technical and economic success, contrasting the industrial and social organization of the world's two largest economies, the US and Japan. The author argues that national policy on venture companies is of paramount importance to their economic growth.

Relative to the US, productivity growth and investment in R&D in lagging in the EU, where it is more difficult to finance and scale up promising, innovative startups. Many of the most successful EU startups move elsewhere for financing, causing the EU to lose out on both the direct growth benefits and positive spillovers from these innovative firms. The EU could nurture innovative startups by accelerating the development of its venture capital (VC) ecosystem. Reducing regulatory frictions, especially ones that deter pensions funds and insurers from investing in VC, combined with well-designed tax incentives for R&D investments could help accelerate the development of the VC sector. These and other key CMU initiatives, such as the consolidation of stock markets and reforming and harmonizing insolvency regimes, will take time. Given the urgency to boost innovation, giving public financial institutions like the European Investment Fund a more active and expanded role in kickstarting VC markets where needed and in familiarizing investors with the VC asset class can be a helpful interim step.

As the Internet has matured in technology and reach, we have seen an explosion in tech startups all over the world. Not only are some of these startups changing the world and how we live in it, they are also proving to be the engines of job creation—an aspect that will be critical in the future. To support these startups, new ecosystems are popping up all over the globe to help grow these companies, aided by governments, successful entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. In Startup Capitals, Zafar Anjum brings you a ringside view from the world’s top ten startup cities of the world. Well-researched and highly insightful, this book lays bare the engines of innovation and the lessons that can be learnt from these burgeoning startup capitals.

It was not that long ago that it might have been possible to cover the topic of venture capital in one paper. Now, it is not possible to provide comprehensive coverage in even one book. The industry has flourished, as variations of he initial venture capital funds have been developed and now operates in most developing and developed economies. This is clearly reflected in this volume, which has a strong focus on Europe and Asia. Each of the papers is a stand alone effort. However, a full reading of the volume provides a panoramic picture of the global extent of venture capital, some of its challenges, and the likely direction of future efforts. Venture capital and the venture capitalist have been shown to have a positive impact on performance in many cases. This is clearly the reason why some many emerging economies want to increase the level of venture capital investment in their country.