Over the past 50 years, Japan has helped to shape the world’s technology landscape. Looking at the massive global impact made by companies like Sony and Toshiba , we can see an interesting comparison to the nature of technology developments in Silicon Valley and the United States. While Silicon Valley is populated by companies that have emerged from startups over the past decade or so, Japan’s technology landscape is still very top-heavy with little to show of ‘idea-to-company’ success stories. The large corporations command such an influence over the talent pool, legislation, market channels, and a thousand other aspects of the economy that what is less well seen and talked about is the Silicon Valley-style startups that could be changing and molding the technology and cultural landscape.
