Archive for Japan

Ashoka seeks Country Representative for China and Japan

Ashoka (www.ashoka.org) is the world’s largest association of social entrepreneurs — men and women who are creating new institutions and system-changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Since 1980, Ashoka has pioneered the field of social entrepreneurship, electing and connecting more than 2,000 individuals with system-changing ideas in over 70 countries. China For [...]

Business Week’s selection of Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneurs

Business Week has release their finalist list for the annual Asia’s Best Young Entrepreneur award. The list includes 25 young entrepreneurs mainly from Indonesia, but also from Japan, Singapore and Korea. I found it astonishing to find no indian finalist in the list and their heavy reliance on winners from previous other entrepreneurship competition. Nevertheless [...]

Kentaro Lemoto – the new generation of japanese entrepreneurs

Inspirepub shares the inspiring story of Kentaro Lemoto, a young japanese entrepreneur who founded Clara Online. By age 15, Kentaro Iemoto was a CEO, and author of a Japanese language autobiography entitled “Why I Became A Company President At The Age Of 15″. His story began several years earlier. Kentaro wanted to be a pro [...]

Application deadline Asia Pacific Future 100!

7 days to go! Just a quick reminder that the application deadline for the Asia Pacific Future 100 program is approaching! 31st August 2009 Apply now and join the most outstanding community of young entrepreneurs and social Changemakers in Asia ! For info and applications: future100@fyse.org www.fyse.org

Where are all the entrepreneurs in Japan?

A recent article in Forbes magazine, titled “Searching For Entrepreneurship in Japan”, posits that Japan is way behind the U.S. in entrepreneurship and needs to do something about improving the environment for breeding new companies so as to reinvigorate its economy. There is a great paucity of venture capital invested into Japanese start-ups, which is [...]

Incubating Japanese entrepreneurs

Interesting article in Forbes about incubating musicians in Japan and the difference the support of one large japanese company can make to start-ups: Office workers in Tokyo’s Marunouchi building often stop on their lunch breaks to listen to a concert held in the lobby. After the show they can buy the CD–or sign up to [...]

METI Announces 55 Leading Japanese Social Businesses

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced on February 17, 2009, that it has selected 55 leading social businesses among applicants from around Japan. With emergency employment measures being taken by the Japanese government, expectations for social businesses, which strive to resolve social and local issues while generating profits, are being raised. [...]

Used bottle caps funding polio vaccines for world’s children

The Ecocap Movement, a Japanese nonprofit organization (NPO) in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, established in 2007, has been engaged in the donation of polio vaccines to children in developing countries through the collection and sale of plastic bottle caps to recycling companies. Currently in Japan, a large amount of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are used. However, [...]

For Young Japanese, It’s Back to the Farm

By Hiroko Tabuchia, New York Times As the Japanese recession has worsened, younger workers have taken the brunt of wage cuts and layoffs, especially in manufacturing. Now the government views the slump — Japanese exports fell almost 50 percent year-to-year in February — as a chance to divert idle labor to sectors that have long [...]