>The speaker was Dave McLure, and he told the Japanese people to wake up, it's no longer the time for the Japanese to be sitting in the comfort zone, because this country is on fire. He tells people to become the nail that sticks out, move fast and break things, and don't be afraid to fail, because key factor to innovation is creativity, failure and iteration.

I hope this was part of a stand up comedy show.

Else this is cliche-country 101.

You hear better stuff in high school graduation speeches.

I have been living in Japan for the last 3 years and there is also another Japanese saying. "出る釘は打たれる". Very well known in the West as "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down". This is a culture of uniformity and always taking the safe route and making sure to never lose face. It's not easy for someone to go the start-up way here.

At the same time the Japanese are really hard working and there are some Japanese companies out there which are trying to change the norm and I do sincerely hope they succeed.

To the question if start-ups can grow in Japan I believe so yes. But not in the same way and context as in the west and in the silicon valley. The culture is just too different and as a result so will the start-ups.

I have met some really bright people here and I have also come across many social barriers and rules that don't make sense (to my way of thinking). For the sake of the Japanese economy I hope that the culture slowly but steadily becomes more accepting of start-ups and entrepreneurship and encourages these bright people to create instead of smothering them.

There is a famous saying in Japanese "七転び八起き" which means even if you fall 7 times, get up 8 times and move forward. But at the same time, the Japanese wants to do things well and organized, the citizens does not like failure, it's a country that fears shame.

I've been working in Korea for the past 4+ years, and they suffer from the same exact issues - the extreme shame of failure and unwillingness to "lose face."

Korea and Japan produce a lot of engineers and have amazing tech infrastructures even compared to the West, but they'll never be able to become a thriving startup ecosystem because the culture is just too different from that of Silicon Valley. You can relocate or attract new mentors and investors to a given place, but culture is one of those things that just does not change easily, if at all.

The OP and this thread (except for a few comments) could be summarized as follows:

[barely testable social theory or hypotheses] [supported by a cliché or historical anecdote].

In my humble and down-to-earth opinion the main takeaway from any talk about "cultures" or "societies" or any other similar human-like concepts (did you notice that we often talk about "cultures" like they are living people?) is the idea that certain traits (fear of failure in this case) could impact my own performance. The next logical step is to modify something relevant in my live to test the effects and adjust behaviour based on this information if needed. Repeat this or just walk by if there are no effects present.

McClure continued: "You're simply the best. Better than all the rest. Better than anyone -- anyone I've ever met." standing ovation

I'm not sure I've learned anything from this video or comments. Nothing is really backed up.

Even the speaker admits they are a VC who's not rich.

Yes westerners all think the Japanese have a culture with problems, but of course we do, I really need some sort proof or a speaker who has proven themselves.

You may or may not like DML's antics, but you can't say the guy doesn't have some balls.

McClure

There is a famous saying in Japanese "七転び八起き" which means even if you fall 7 times, get up 8 times and move forward. But at the same time, the Japanese wants to do things well and organized, the citizens does not like failure, it's a country that fears shame.

Are we really that different? In the US, we seem to have this sense of superiority on this issue, but I think our tolerance of risk is paper-thin. It's superficial.

To get deeper into it, I find VC-istan to be especially hypocritical, because while it takes what seems to be a progressive attitude toward business failure, it's also a world in which, if you're not a C*O by 35 and an investor (read: rich and semi-retired) of some sort by 42, you're written off entirely as a useless human being. How, exactly, is this supposed to encourage resilience? If anything, that's the exact mentality that created the stodgy risk-aversion of these blue-chip corporations VC-istan considers itself ready to replace.

VC-istan is a postmodern corporation in which "tech companies" are disposable, because they're mere sub-projects of the meta-company. "Founders" are nominally independent project managers and investors are the real executives. What seems like a tolerant attitude toward business failure is actually the (probably beneficial, but cutthroat) willingness of this meta-company's executives (investors) to cancel projects for a variety of reasons.

Getting people to "wake up" isn't about changing one culture. The problem is that human nature is to pick leaders based on apparent success, and to ostracize failures. That works well in groups of 20 individuals that are barely surviving-- that is, our evolutionary frame-- but is not what you need in order to design or encourage a rational technological economy.