6 ms·

I imagine it was much different before (and during?) the bubble. There are amazing stories of entrepreneurship from that time- with things like the founding and

I imagine it was much different before (and during?) the bubble. There are amazing stories of entrepreneurship from that time- with things like the founding and fantastic growth of 7-11 Japan, and Softbank. These companies are huge now, but getting them off the ground involved a large amount of risk and a group of people that accepted that. Masayoshi Son (of Softbank) is still seen as a maverick even now despite his well-established success; if he was just starting out now I imagine he would have a harder time than he did in 1981.

hkmurakami 13y ago
Softbank's success is a bit of a red herring. They have basically never been profitable, but have made enormous gains in their investments in things like Yahoo! Japan and Chinese internet businesses. By the time the real estate bubble was truly underway, people were by in large comfortable with the huge companies throwing money at their feet to join their firm (stories of college recruiting are downright ridiculous -- they go way beyond the wining and dining of new grads by consulting and finance firms in the states). The truly ridiculous wave of entrepreneurship was in the post-war era, where the country had very little in its possession and everything to gain by trying very new things.