Date & Venue
Monday, November 16th, 2009
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)(Soukairo Hall)
http://www.grips.ac.jp/index.html

Schedule
[9:00am - 10:00am] Registration, coffee and networking
MC: Ms. Junko Hatayama

[10:00am - 10:30am] Keynote/Opening
Title: Entrepreneur = Change Agent
Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

[10:30am - 12:00pm] Session 1
Title: What Factors Are Affecting Entrepreneurship in Japan?
Starting a venture is a risky move that requires skills, drive, timing and luck. The roadblocks that the government, schools, peers, parents and other elements of Japanese society put up make becoming an entrepreneur in Japan even tougher. The Economist recently portrayed the state of entrepreneurship here as follows:

The latest GEM global report gives Japan the lowest score for entrepreneurship of any big country, placing it joint bottom with Greece. The brightest people want to work for large companies, with which the big banks work hand in glove, or for the government. Risk capital is rare. Bankruptcy is severely punished. And the small business sector is wrapped in cotton wool, encouraging "replicative" rather than "innovative" behaviour. Over the past quarter-century the rate at which Japan has been creating new businesses has been only one-third to half that in America.

Are these global perceptions of Japan's entrepreneurial environment fair and accurate, or way off? This session will delve into what things are really like here on the ground, and what changes would get more entrepreneurs on-stream and energized.

Moderator: Tim Kelly, Tokyo Bureau Chief, Forbes
Panelists:
- Takeshi Natsuno, Keio University Professor and inventor of the i-Mode
- Ernest Higa, Founder and CEO, Higa Industries
- Bill Hall, President, Synovate Healthcare
- Yoshiyuki Suzuki, CEO, Coach A

[12:00pm - 2:00pm] Lunch and presentation
Title: A Design Approach to Business, Education and Policy
Can the principles and process of design be used to streamline how businesses,
schools and governments work? The answer seems to be yes, whether it is an
entrepreneur trying to develop a new niche, an established company looking to create a lucrative new platform like the i-Phone, a social entrepreneur introducing a novel approach to social issues, or a government experimenting with a policy that will support a dynamic, competitive ecosystem. Design thinking is crucial throughout the process, and the practice is becoming more fundamental in the fast-changing global environment. Two leading Japanese designers will take you through their approaches and then engage in a dialogue with international business strategy professor Dr. Yoko Ishikura of Hitotsubashi University.

Moderator: Dr. Yoko Ishikura, Professor, Graduate School of International Corporate
Strategy (ICS), Hitotsubashi University
Speech: Naoki Sakai, CEO, Water Group
Speech: Kiyoyuki "Ken" Okuyama, CEO, Ken Okuyama Design

[2:00pm - 4:00pm] Session 2
Title: Peter Drucker and Social Entrepreneurship
GEW marks the 100th birthday of Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management and a man who foresaw the essence of "social innovation". This session celebrates the Drucker Centennial and discuss Drucker's innovation and its meaning in society. The panel will introduce examples of social entrepreneurs and discuss management approaches that trigger social innovation. In particular, the session will highlight how the scale of social enterprises has expanded. We will share the management challenges the expansion presents, find new ways of creating social innovation, and discuss the vision of social entrepreneurism.

Keynote: Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka, Emeritus Professor of Hitotsubashi University
Panel: "Creating Social Innovation"
Moderator: Akira Kojima, Special Advisor, Japan Center for Economic Research
Panalist:
- Tarou Shimane, President, Kids Base Camp Inc.
- Naoto Doi, CEO of Human Capital Management Inc / board member of the Drucker Workshop
- Atsuko Hattori, Executive Director of DSIA association
- William Saito, Fellow, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) / CEO, InTecur

[4:00pm - 4:15pm] Special Presentation
Title: Trends In Japanese Entrepreneurship: Data from a project at Stanford
University (STAJE) and the University of Tokyo

[4:15pm - 5:45pm] Session 3
Title: Entrepreneurial Success Stories
True entrepreneurs are the ones who keep standing back up after they get knocked down flat. While everybody loves to hear about the big successes, the horror stories
and comebacks are just as instructive. This session will showcase both angles. Some of the country's top entrepreneurs will zero in on key obstacles and opportunities in Japan, the sources of their success, how they deal with private and government nvestors, and their local and global aspirations. We'll also get into Japanese society's
attitudes toward entrepreneurship in general, right down to the family level and differences in views between generations.

Moderator: Noriko Maki, former announcer for TV Tokyo
Panelists:
- Harry Hill, CEO, Oak Lawn Marketing (Shop Japan)
- Jun Furukawa, CEO, Capital Medica Co. Ltd.
- Fujiyo Ishiguro, CEO, Netyear Group Corporation
- Robert Hori, CEO, Cybird

[5:45pm - 6:00pm] Closing Remarks
Kazuhiro Haraguchi, Minister, Internal Affairs and Communications