History of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Japan

       This is the first Open Access book introducing more than 20 of Japan’s leading innovative entrepreneurs from the 17th century to the present. The author outlines the innovative business models created by entrepreneurs including SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo)’s Yanai Tadashi, Honda’s Soichiro Honda, Sony’s Akio Morita, Panasonic’s Konosuke Matsushita, and Toyota’s Kiichiro Toyoda, as well as their predecessors including Takatoshi Mitsui of Mitsui Zaibatsu, Shibusawa Eiichi of Daiichi Bank.

       While introducing the innovators, the author also raises three broader questions: 1. Why did Japan industrialize earlier than any other country outside Europe and the United States? 2. Why was Japan able to realize unsurpassed economic growth between the 1910s and the 1980s? 3. Why has Japan’s economy stagnated for more than 30 years since the 1990s? Drawing upon analytical concepts including Schumpeter’s breakthrough innovation, Kirzner’s incremental innovation, and Christensen’s disruptive innovation, the author contends that Japan’s successes were based on unique and systematic breakthrough innovation and an accumulation of incremental innovation, while it later fell victim to a combination of breakthrough innovation from advanced countries and disruptive innovation by developing nations.

• Open Access
• Breakthrough Innovation
• Incremental Innovation
• Disruptive Innovation
• Entrepreneurship
• Japanese Entrepreneurs
• Economic Development
• History of innovation in Japan

• Graduate School of International Management, International University of Japan, Niigata, Japan

  Takeo Kikkawa

Takeo Kikkawa, PhD in Economics, The University of Tokyo, is Vice President and Professor at the Graduate School of International Management, International University of Japan. He was Associate Professor at the Department of Business Administration, Aoyama Gakuin University; Professor at the Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo; Professor at the Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Hitotsubashi University; Professor at the Graduate School of Innovation Studies, Tokyo University of Science; Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School; and Guest Professor at: St. Gallen University; Yonsei University; and the Berlin Free University. He is Professor Emeritus of The University of Tokyo, and Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University.

     Professor Kikkawa’s expertise is Japanese business history, and his main research field is the energy industry. He served as President of the Business History Society of Japan from 2013 to 2016, and isalso a member of the Japanese Government’s Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry).

     Professor Kikkawa has published many monographs and articles, including Policies for Competitiveness: Business-Government Relationships in the “Golden Age of Capitalism”, co-edited with Hideaki Miyajima and Takashi Hikino (Oxford University Press, 1999), and Ethical Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi and Business Leadership in Global Perspective, co-edited with Patrick Fridenson (University of Toront Press, 2017). He has received several academic awards, including the Energy Forum Award for his book, Nippon Denryoku Gyo Hatten no Dainamizumu [Development Dynamism in Japan’s Electric Power Industry] (Nagoya University Press, 2004).

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