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On October 20, the SPRIE-Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship (STAJE) hosted a panel discussion featuring venture capitalists and a group of U.S.-Japan experts. The discussion with the title, "U.S.-Japan VC Cooperation and the Fly Over Phenomenon" was moderated by SPRIE Researcher, Robert Eberhart and held at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Panelists included Michael Alfant, CEO of Fusion Systems, Martin Kenney, Professor at UC Davis, Allen Miner, Founder of SunBridge, Scott Ellman, CEO of USAsia Venture Partners, Quaeed Motiwala, Managing Director at DFJ JAIC, and William F. Miller, Co-director of SPRIE. They discussed the tendency of U.S. based venture capital firms to fly from Silicon Valley, over Japan, and invest into China.

The panel noted that the reasons usually given by U.S. venture capitalists for the flyover phenomemon is that Japan has obscure accounting, uncertain relief in courts, and too far away to monitor. But since those risks are much larger in China other explanations were needed.  The lack of innovation - i.e. copycat firms -  that flourish in new niches in China are more attractive for VCs than the highly competitive and risky new technologies in Japan. Panelist also suggested that investing cycles are dominated by "fashion" with Japan being out of fashion, and noted the late stage investing pattern in China versus earlier stage investing in Japan and the U.S.  Finally, the panel posed an interesting question for STAJE research that perhaps under certain circumstances protected markets that are now in China might reduce the risks and increase returns for venture capitalists.

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Since 2000, Japan has undergone a revolution in new business incubation, investing in national capacity and building hundreds of incubation facilities. This paper contextualizes developments in Japan within international trends, while identifying model incubator types. A typology of incubation management styles is proposed, contextualized within practices in the U.S. and Europe. The paper is based on an original database constructed of all incubators operating in Japan, in addition to survey and interviews with incubator managers and tenant firms. Several findings are evident. Incubation management style and incubation managers (IM) play an important role in supporting start-ups, and the nature of IM resource networks is crucial. Through a review of key policy history in Japan, policy lessons for national, regional and university level practitioners are identified. Case studies examine comparative best practices stimulating university-based new business start-ups in emerging sectors. A hybrid (university-private sector, training-network support) incubation management model has emerged in Japan, one that cultivates a bamboo network root system, supporting an innovative ecosystem for start-ups.


About the Author


Kathryn Ibata-Arens, PhD is Associate Professor at Department of Political Science, DePaul University, Chicago. She is currently a visiting scholar at the Research Institute for Economy Trade and Industry (RIETI) and visiting researcher in the Graduate School of Management, Ritsumeikan University, Japan. Ibata-Arens specializes in international and comparative political economy, entrepreneurship policy, high technology policy and Japanese political economy.

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Governments regulate risky industrial systems such as nuclear power plants in hopes of making them less risky, and a variety of formal and informal warning systems can help society avoid catastrophe. Governments, businesses, and citizens respond when disaster occurs. But recent history is rife with major disasters accompanied by failed regulation, ignored warnings, inept disaster response, and commonplace human error. Furthermore, despite the best attempts to forestall them, “normal” accidents will inevitably occur in the complex, tightly coupled systems of modern society, resulting in the kind of unpredictable, cascading disaster seen at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Government and business can always do more to prevent serious accidents through regulation, design, training, and mindfulness. Even so, some complex systems with catastrophic potential are just too dangerous to exist, because they cannot be made safe, regardless of human effort.

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Japan Colloquium Series Inaugural Event  
 

Japan is facing a major set of challenges in the aftermath of its triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. It had just begun recovering from the 2008 global financial crisis when the disasters hit. Richard Katz will discuss the economic and political prospects for Japan after this catastrophe in a broader global context. He will also be presenting lessons from Japan for U.S. policymakers fighting the current slump. 
 

Richard Katz is editor of the Oriental Economist Report, a monthly newsletter on Japan, as well as the semi-weekly TOE Alert e-mail service on Japan. He is also a special correspondent at Weekly Toyo Keizai, a leading Japanese business weekly. Katz is the author of two books on Japan. The first is Japan: The System That Soured--The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Economic Miracle (M.E. Sharpe,1998); it was published in a Japanese edition as Kusariyuku Nihon To Iu System (Toyo Keizai, 1999). His second book, entitled Japanese Phoenix: The Long Road to Economic Revival (M.E. Sharpe, 2002), was published in English, and in Japanese as Fushicho no Nikon Keizai (Toyo Keizai). Katz has taught about Japan as an adjunct professor in economics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and at the New York University Stern School of Business. He regularly writes op-eds for newspapers such as the Asian Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, as well as essays for a variety of journals, including the article “The Japan Fallacy?” for the March-April 2009 issue of Foreign Affairs. He has testified about in Japan in Congress on several occasions. Katz received his MA in economics from New York University in 1996.

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Richard B. Katz Editor Speaker The Oriental Economist Report
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The unprecedented rapid rate of scientific progress is creating new opportunities for transnational criminal and terrorist organizations to exploit advances in technology for unintended nefarious purposes. While much research has been dedicated on the common cyber security threats of today, little if any study has been devoted to next generation forms of technological crime and terrorism.

This discussion will provide an engaging and entertaining futurist perspective on the effects technological progress on crime, policing and national security. Specific topics to be covered include the criminal and terrorist implications of emerging technologies such as robotics, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, the human genome, virtual worlds, the social data revolution and ubiquitous computing.


Speaker Biography: Marc Goodman is a global thinker, writer and consultant focused on the disruptive impact of advancing technologies on security, business and international affairs.  Over the past twenty years, he has built his expertise in next generation security threats such as cyber crime and cyber terrorism working with organizations such as Interpol, the United Nations, NATO, the Los Angeles Police Department and the U.S. Government.  Marc provides a front seat view into the digital underground and insights into the emerging technological, geopolitical, and security trends shaping our common future.

Mr. Goodman frequently advises industry leaders, security executives and global policy makers on transnational cyber risk and intelligence and founded the Future Crimes Institute to inspire and educate others on the security implications of newly emerging technologies.  In addition, Mr. Goodman serves as the Chair for Policy, Law and Ethics at Silicon Valley’s Singularity University, a NASA and Google sponsored educational venture dedicated to using advanced science and technology to address humanity’s grand challenges. 

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Marc Goodman Chairman and Founder Speaker Future Crimes Institute
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Joan Casanovas will provide an analysis of the evolution of the current Spanish economic crisis and the way this crisis is presented by the media. The focus will be on Spain's financial solvency and that of its financial institutions, as seen by someone who has been immersed in the situation from the outset.

A recent article about Spain's economic crisis can be found in the Oct. 20th NY Times article, "As Spain Faces a Possible Recession, Criticism of Its Central Bank is Growing"

The RSVP deadline has been extended to Monday, April 30th.

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Joan Casanovas Arbó CFO (ret.) Speaker Grupo Catalana Occidente
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PLEASE NOTE VENUE CHANGE

In association with the annual Shorenstein Journalism Award for Asia, conferred this year on China's pioneering Caixin Media group, this panel will look at the current state and the future of the Chinese media. The Chinese state continues to play a powerful role in controlling the media and the free flow of information to the Chinese people. But China's media is undergoing rapid change, from the growing role of social media to the proliferation of new publications, some of which, like Caixin, are challenging the boundaries of state control. Which will win in China's changing media landscape—the forces of the market, state censorship, or quality journalism?

PANELISTS

Hu Shuli, editor-­in-chief of Caixin Media, and dean of the School of Communications and Design at Sun Yat-sen University, has a distinguished career that spans both print and broadcast journalism. Hu is a former Stanford Knight Journalism Fellow (1994) and a recipient of the Louis Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism (2007). She is frequently named on annual Who’s Who lists by publications such as Foreign Policy and Time Magazine.

Wang Shuo, managing editor of Caixin Media, was ranked among China’s top 10 young editors in 2011. He is a former international editor for People’s Daily, a Chinese government-run newspaper published nationally. Recognized as one of the brightest rising stars in his field, Wang was named as a Young Leader in 2007 and 2008 by the Boao Forum for Asia, and as a media leader by the World Economic Forum. He has led the investigative journalism teams at Caixin.

Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director at the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations, and is also a former jury member for the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. He has written extensively on China, and was awarded the 1997 George Peabody Award for producing the groundbreaking documentary the Gate of Heavenly Peace. He received the Shorenstein Journalism Award in 2003.

Hu Ben, a journalist with Southern Weekend, is the current Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Knight Fellow at Stanford. He started his journalism career in 2005, when he joined a writer's network blogging about international affairs not covered by official media. At Southern Weekend, he has written about how Chinese government works, how public policies are made, and how information flows inside the government.

Daniel Sneider serves as the associate director for research at Shorenstein APARC and also as a research associate with the prestigious National Asia Research Program. He frequently contributes articles to publications such as Foreign Policy, Asia Policy, and Slate and had three decades of experience as a foreign correspondent and editor for publications including the Christian Science Monitor and the San Jose Mercury News. 

ABOUT THE AWARD

The Shorenstein Journalism Award was launched in 2002 to recognize the contributions of Western journalists in deepening our understanding of Asia. In 2011, the recipients of the award have been broadened to encompass Asian journalists who are at the forefront of the battle for press freedom in Asia and who have played a key role in constructing a new role for the media, including the growth of social media and Internet-based journalism. The award will also identify those Asian journalists who, from that side of the Pacific Ocean, have aided the growth of mutual understanding between Asia and the United States.

Carrying a cash prize of $10,000, the award was named after Walter H. Shorenstein, the philanthropist, activist, and businessman who endowed two institutions that are focused respectively on Asia and on the press: Shorenstein APARC in the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Read the 2011 Shorenstein Journalism Award press release for more details about Caixin and about the history of the award.

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Please join the Center on Philanthropy and Civic Society, the Program on Social Entrepreneurship, Spark, and the Clayman Institute for Gender Research for a special evening screening of:

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Friday, November 4, 2011

Doors Open 6:30 pm, Film Program 7:00 pm-9:30 pm

CEMEX Auditorium at the Knight Management Center,

Stanford Graduate School of Business

This film is set in 19th century China and centered on the lifelong friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid cultural norms imposed on women.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with Director Wayne Wang and producers Wendi Murdoch and Florence Sloan, and author Lisa See.

This program will also launch a new Stanford initiative to facilitate an intergenerational conversation on the women’s movement. As such, the Q&A will focus on a historical framing of the women’s movement, the role of culture in shaping feminism and the ways in which leadership within the movement is transferred between generations.

To RSVP, visit the Stanford PACS website at:

http://pacscenter.stanford.edu/events/upcoming-events

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Stanford Graduate School of Business

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Caixin Media, a Chinese company that produces several print and online news publications, will receive the 2011 Shorenstein Journalism Award from the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center. Caixin was selected for its leadership in establishing an independent media in China and its commitment to journalistic integrity.

Caixin is the first Asian recipient of the $10,000 award since it was first given in 2002. For the past nine years, the award has recognized contributions of Western journalists who deepened Americans’ understanding of Asia. The pool of contestants has expanded to include Asian journalists who are at the forefront of the battle for press freedom and are using social media and Internet-based journalism to build new roles for the media. The award also honors Asian journalists who have aided the growth of mutual understanding between Asia and the United States.

Hailed by the Economist as “one of China’s more outspoken media organizations,” Caixin is internationally recognized for its tough-minded investigative reporting on China’s economic and social issues.

In recent months, Caixin has probed the errors that led to the crash of a high-speed train in China, and investigated the seizure and sale of children by family planning officials in Hunan province.

In 2011, Caixin editor-in-chief Hu Shuli, a former Knight Journalism fellow at Stanford, was named one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Influential People, and managing editor Wang Shuo was ranked among China’s top 10 young editors. 

Caixin publishes several leading print and online publications, including the weekly business and finance magazine Caixin Century, the monthly periodical China Reform, the bimonthly journal Comparative Studies, and the English-language Caixin Weekly: China Economics and Finance. Caixin’s other offerings include a Chinese- and English-language news portal Caixin.cn, a publication series, video programming, an international journalism fellowship program, and extensive use of social media.

Hu and Wang will accept the Shorenstein Journalism Award at Stanford on Dec. 7. They will participate in a public panel discussion on the future of China’s independent media, joining acclaimed China historian and former Pulitzer Prize jury member Orville Schell, Shorenstein APARC associate director for research Daniel C. Sneider, and other noted Asia specialists.

The award was named after Walter H. Shorenstein, the philanthropist, activist, and businessman who endowed two institutions that are focused respectively on Asia and on the press: Shorenstein APARC in the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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