Kimi Takura quit his fast-paced job as a deliveryman when he was 22 after he was hospitalized for a month with exhaustion. Out of work, he sold his much-loved Jaguar car, bought a secondhand bus and started a one-man business catering to Taiwanese tourists.

He worked every day he could for the next year, ferrying passengers between Tokyo and Osaka, and to Kyoto and other sightseeing spots, when a travel agent offered to lend him money to buy three more buses. Takura's business boomed so much he found he needed even more.

For a country boasting multinational giants like Toyota and Sony, there are comparatively few people like Takura willing to spurn the security of lifetime employment for a riskier, but potentially more lucrative, career as an entrepreneur. Only a quarter of small companies have been in business for less than a decade, compared with more than half in most countries in the developed world.