[obviouslygreen]

+1, partially because a lot of people here explicitly conflate "cultures conducive to startups" with "Silicon Valley culture," which is nothing short of ridiculous.

The Japanese in particular have a very tough cultural hill to climb in order to remove the various taboos associated with startups and their potential downsides (as well as their non-conformist nature). Hopefully they get off the deflation-is-our-cure train at some point and start moving in this direction; it might help when addressing the other serious problems Japan is facing.