With unemployment figures reaching their highest level in the post-World War II era, the Japanese economy shows no sign of a Silicon Valley-like resurgence that could give hope to the unemployed or to "zombie" corporations that have no customers for their products and no growth.
There are a number of reasons for this. First, Japanese themselves dislike the risk factors for Japanese startups: The Stanford University Program on Japanese Entrepreneurship bleakly reports that Japanese venture capital investment is $3 billion a year, on average, in venture funding, for about 3,000 investment deals annually whereas U.S. investors pour out 10 times that amount for startups.
Second, the startups that receive venture funding lack "hit" products or management skills to succeed: According to a 2009 Japan Venture Enterprise Center report, venture firms' initial public offerings (IPO) dwindled significantly in the past seven years. In 2002 there were 86 IPOs of Japanese startups; in 2004 the number rose to 155, but by 2007 the number was 107, and then sank to 42 in 2008. In contrast, in one September week five IPOs were launched on the U.S. Nasdaq.