Research Proposal
I. AREA OF FOCUS
I plan on conducting a comparative study of female entrepreneurship in Tokyo and Silicon Valley with a focus on socioeconomic and political trends.
Before I arrive in Japan, I will arrange to meet with leading professors in Silicon Valley such as Robert Eberhart, a Professor at Santa Clara University, who specializes in Japanese entrepreneurship. Another professor at UC Berkeley is Susan Holloway, who was a Fulbright scholar in Kobe, Japan, and wrote Women and Family in Contemporary Japan in 2010. I will also visit Stanford to connect with the Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship (STAJE).
A good place to begin contacting female entrepreneurs in Japan is the Women Entrepreneurs Center run by the Development Bank of Japan. Both the finalists and judges have a wealth of experiences and knowledge about developing businesses in the Japanese context. Prior to arriving in Japan, I will begin connecting with people associated to the program.
While keeping abreast with recent government policies, I will research publications by professors at the leading universities in entrepreneurship education such as Waseda University, Keio University, Ritsumeikan University and Nihon University. Professors such as Hironori Higashide at Waseda University have expertise in entrepreneurship, venture capitalism, and technology management. Professors at these universities tend to have experience working in multinational corporations and have studied abroad, giving them a more globalized perspective. Another professor who has written specifically about Japanese female entrepreneurship is Philippe DeBroux at Soka University. I will do my best to meet him.
Once I am in Japan, I will visit the Waseda Incubator Center, a place that assists new startups, and Keio Fujisawa Innovation Village, a facility that supports venture entrepreneurs. Through meeting professors, visiting incubators, and contacting Japanese female entrepreneurs, I will amass more information on additional existing resources such as networking groups and upcoming conferences. From there, I can attend events, gain more exposure to the current entrepreneurial environment, and begin conducting in-depth interviews. Based on the research and literature I review and the interviews I conduct, I will gain a stronger sense of the current socioeconomic and political factors that are both hindering and supporting the growth of female entrepreneurship.
By combining the Japanese research I conduct with the interviews of Silicon Valley female entrepreneurs, I can identify ways in which the top success factors can be applied in the Japanese context through socioeconomic policies. For example, if networking made a dramatic impact in Silicon Valley, then the Japanese government could work with prominent associations to develop female-centered networking organizations similar to Women 2.0.
II. BACKGROUND & INTEREST
As a graduate of political economy at UC Berkeley and a proud marketer at three startups since college, I would like to conduct a cross-cultural analysis of female entrepreneurship in Tokyo and Silicon Valley. The hub of technology innovation, Silicon Valley is making the world a more connected place. Simultaneously, Japan is moving towards becoming a more global society, increasing the number of women in the workforce, and developing a healthier entrepreneurial environment.
Currently, Japan has one of the lowest female participation rates in the world, coupled with a reeling Japanese economy and a rapidly declining birth rate. Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, is implementing a three-pronged approach of fiscal stimulus, monetary easing, and structural reforms, such as raising the proportion of mothers who return to work after the birth of their first child to 55 percent. By 2020, Mr. Abe wants women to occupy 30% of all leadership positions, including members of parliament, heads of local government, and corporate executives. With Abenomics in place, the central bank’s monetary easing, and corporate buy-in to support more women in the workforce, Japan is setting the stage for more females to start businesses and join the workforce.
While Japanese people have traditionally been more wary of risking their personal savings to start a company and potentially see it fail, more women are embarking on this non-traditional path to help those around them. One woman, Kyoko Higashiyama, made it a rule at her company to create opportunities for women to work full-time and raise children. Her company specializes in precision metalwork drilling in Higashi-Osaka, and 75% of her employees are mothers, some single mothers, with young children who are in elementary school. Another woman, Mari Tobita, began selling shoes on her website, “912Shop,” for those with tiny and large feet in 2010. She even specializes in catering to the transgender market and has successfully been selling online for over twelve years. Both women have discovered and acted upon their ideas in a way that helps society.
In Silicon Valley, women in top leadership positions and startup founders are encouraging young women to achieve more. One way is through books such as Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, which encourages women to break through their own limitations and act courageously by speaking up, sharing difficult topics, and enlightening people with our ideas. Another way is through online organizations such as Female Entrepreneur Association, a project founded by Carrie Green in 2011 to champion female entrepreneurs all over the world by publishing their stories and providing them with a community.
After college, I immediately joined Google and became enthralled with the booming startup world in Silicon Valley. Not only have I attended countless networking groups through which I have developed strong relationships with both male and female entrepreneurs, but I have also volunteered at Women 2.0, an organization dedicated to the next generation of technology leaders. Through this organization, I have met many inspiring female entrepreneurs—a subset of the Silicon Valley population that is now gaining more recognition and venture capital funding. Although they face unique personal and professional challenges such as balancing a partner or family with their full-time startup, the ones I have met are incredibly mature, maintain a positive outlook, and continue working extremely hard to achieve their goals. With immense admiration for the female entrepreneurs I have met, I hope to develop similar bonds with successful Japanese women and help encourage more women to embark on a new journey of independence and freedom.
III. SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS
Political
-
Equal Employment Opportunity Law of 1986 promoted fair and just treatment of female employees
-
The central government is offering loans with a low interest rate of 1.5% to female entrepreneurs through the Life Finance Corporation.
-
The government also has an ambitious goal to create 400,00 new daycare spaces by 2018.
-
Recent launch of a $200 billion yen fund to support young female entrepreneurs, and the Kakehashi Project that seeks to increase innovation in Japan by bringing youth to Silicon Valley for a few weeks at a time.
Socioeconomic
-
Women are highly educated with advanced degrees.
-
Even though the majority of women leave the workforce after marrying and having children, they seek independence and desire to give back to the community.
WEAKNESSES
Political
-
Only in the past five years, has Shinzo Abe begun implementing policies to help promote women in the workforce. Japan still has a long way to go, but one way it can make a dramatic difference is through the establishment of more childcare centers in the private and public sector with financial incentives for companies.
Socioeconomic
-
Japan is a male-dominated society with demanding, corporate work schedules of around 60 hours per week. On top of the regular working hours, employees are highly encouraged to drink with bosses and colleagues after work to further their careers.
-
Women are expected to leave the workforce once they get married, and especially once they have children.
-
Female participation in the labor force is 63%, far lower than other high-income countries.
-
When women have their first child, 70% of them stop working for a decade or more, compared with just 30% in America. Many of those 70% are gone for good.
-
One of the reasons could be deeply-rooted, negative attitudes towards working mothers.
-
-
When women re-enter the workforce, they can only get low-paying jobs.
-
The “head of household,” normally a man, is allowed to claim a tax deduction of ¥380,000 ($3,700) as long as his spouse’s income does not exceed ¥1.03 million.
OPPORTUNITIES
Political
-
“Abenomics” promotes fiscal stimulus, monetary easing, and structural reforms such as raising the proportion of mothers who return to work after the birth of their first child to 55 percent by 2020. As such, the environment for female entrepreneurs is ripe to blossom.
-
By 2020, Mr. Abe would like women to occupy 30% of all leadership positions, including members of parliament, heads of local government and corporate executives.
-
The government can implement policies to remove restrictive personal financing and tax laws, encourage companies to hire women after they have given birth with a monetary incentive, and install quotas to increase the number of women in management positions with an enforcement mechanism.
-
One practical step Abe has taken is to shorten waiting lists for childcare by allowing private companies to develop centers. In the past, it was a state-run initiative similar to public schools.
Socioeconomic
-
Raising female labor participation to the level of men’s could add 8 million people to Japan’s shrinking workforce.
-
Japanese women desire flexibility, autonomy, a desire to be one’s own boss, an increase in income, a need for self-achievement, and independence, so they may embark on a path of entrepreneurship.
-
Technological advancements make it easier to start and run an online business.
-
Over 90% of buyers of consumer goods are Japanese women, and they tend to hold the family purse strings.
THREATS
Political
-
In the Gender Empowerment Index, Japan ranks 43 out of 80 countries.
-
There is massive public sector debt, a strong yen and deflation. At the same time, Japan is still experiencing the ramifications of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake.
-
A high potential for “positive discrimination,” whereby public authorities create policies and programs with a clear idea in mind of what is suitable or not for female entrepreneurs.
Socioeconomic
-
The fertility rate in 2012 was 1.41, meaning that Japan’s working population will fall by 40% by 2050.
-
Japan has an exponentially aging population coupled with the world’s lowest birth rate.
-
Promotion tends to be based on tenure and overtime, rather than on productivity and performance.
-
Women who complete graduate degrees abroad return to Japan frustrated by limited employment opportunities.
-
A high risk of failure and losing one’s personal savings stops many women from even attempting to start their own business, coupled with a lack of privately-managed specialized programs for startups and young companies.
-
Over 90% of women will forgo business opportunities if they think it will create opposition or disharmony within the family.