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Entrepreneurs in Japan
日本的企業家
Time to get started
到了該開始的時間了
Shinzo Abe is giving new hope to Japan's unappreciated entrepreneurs
安倍晉三給了日本不被看好的企業家們希望
IT BEGINS from now, tweeted Takafumi Horie, the former boss of Livedoor, an internet firm, two months after emerging from prison this spring.
信息技術時代從現在開始， 堀江貴文說道。
Mr Horie is involved in no fewer than 30 new companies, including a space-tourism venture.
堀江貴文是門戶網站活力門的前總經理，前兩個月剛從監獄中被釋放。
If any of them grow to be big, Mr Horie, who was convicted of fraud in 2011, may show that a fallen Japanese entrepreneur can make a comeback.
堀江貴文涉足于不少于30家的新公司，包括一家太空旅行企業。如果這些公司中的任何一家發展起來了，堀江貴文，這個曾在2011年被告有罪的企業家，將證明一個失敗的日本企業家可以東山再起。
The mood among Japan's would-be business moguls is at its most buoyant since the dotcom bubble burst a decade or so ago.
由于十幾年前的互聯網泡沫的破裂，日本那些想要成為商業精英的人正懷著十分沉重的心情。
A higher stockmarket is boosting the chances of a successful initial public offering.
股票市場正在提高它首次成功公開募股的機會。
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is Japan's first leader to treat entrepreneurs as something more than greedy hustlers.
安倍晉三首相，是日本第一位處理這些如貪婪的騙子般的企業家們的問題。
For the past few years Mr Horie, a brash self-publicist, has been exhibit A in the case for holding that view.
在過去的幾年里，堀江貴文，一個傲慢又自我的公關，在那起案件中率先出示證據來闡明自己的觀點。
But now Mr Horie says he is being welcomed back into the business world.
但是現在，堀江貴文說他回到企業界這件事倍受歡迎。
Mr Abe's three-part plan to revive the economy, known asAbenomics, is designed to help start-ups as well as big business.
安倍晉三復蘇經濟的三步計劃被稱為安倍經濟復蘇計劃，是用來幫助新興小企業和已有的大企業的。
First came monetary loosening from the Bank of Japan, and a fiscal stimulus.
首先是日本中央銀行的貨幣放松政策，緊接著加大財政開支。
The third part, a series of reforms to boost long-term growth rates, includes radical deregulation in newspecial economic zones spread across the country.
第三部分是一系列的刺激長期增長率的改革，包括在經濟特區放松管制。
If this pledge is honoured, many new opportunities could emerge for entrepreneurs in industries ranging from medical care to agriculture.
如果這個經濟計劃成功了，很多給企業家的新機會就會大量的涌來，橫跨醫療服務業和農業。
The reforms also involve pressing the banks to stop demanding onerous personal guarantees when entrepreneurs seek loans for their businesses.
這個改革同時施壓給銀行，讓銀行停止向企業家索要大量的個人擔保當企業家們想要為他們的企業借貸時。
Most of all, Mr Abe admits, Japan needs to become more accepting of initial failure.
最重要的是，安倍晉三承認，日本需要去接受首次失敗。
As a second-time prime minister after a disastrous first term, he is himself a comeback kid.
作為一個第一次以失敗告終，第二次登上首相位置的領導人，安倍晉三自己就是一個東山再起的例子。
He reportedly described for guests at his home this summer how the young Walt Disney ran his business into the ground five times before he at last succeeded.
有報道稱，他這個夏天邀請客人到自己家中，并向客人描述年輕的華特迪士尼在最終成功前是怎樣經歷了五次失敗的。
Digital types were delighted when he attended a meeting of the Japan Association of New Economy, chaired by Hiroshi Mikitani, the founder of Rakuten, an online-commerce giant.
數字類型企業很樂觀，當安倍晉三參加新經濟聯盟的一個會議時。此次會議由三木谷浩史主辦。
Mr Mikitani has been brought in to advise the government on its deregulation efforts.
三木谷浩史，日本樂天公司的創始人，一位網上貿易偉人。三木谷浩史建議過日本政府實行貨幣放松政策。
For now, Japan's vital signs on entrepreneurship are dire.
現在，日本企業家的狀況不容樂觀。
The overall number of firms is shrinking, and the rate at which new companies are born as a proportion of existing ones is less than half that in America and Britain.
公司的總數正在大量減少，新公司的誕生率比英美的一半還少。
In 2012 the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a survey by a group of universities, put Japan in joint last place out of 24 developed nations for levels of entrepreneurial activity.
根據2012年的全球創業觀察報告的一份調查顯示，日本由于創業活動長期不景氣的水平，被放到了24個發達國家之外。
Japan's record on fostering new firms is worse even than continental Europe's.
日本的一份關于發展新興企的報告結果甚至比歐洲大陸的還要糟糕。
Just 6% of Japanese participants in the survey thought there were opportunities to start a business in their country, and only 9% believed they personally had the skills required.
調查顯示，只有6%的參與者認為在他們本國家日本創建新企業是有機會發展的，9%的人認為他們已經掌握了創建新企業所需要的技術。
The equivalent figures for the French were 38% and 36%.
相同的調查問題在法國的結果是38%和36%。
Other Asians, in contrast, were bursting with optimism.
相反地，在其他亞洲地區新興企業的發展很樂觀。
That lack of ambition means venture-capital firms have few big payoffs to look forward to, with the result that there is a limited pool of cash available for those who do want to have a go at starting a business: a vicious circle that will be hard to break.
抱負心的缺乏使得風險投資公司很難下定決心去投資，從而使得那些確實想要經營一家企業的企業家缺少現金支持，這將會成為一個很難打破的惡性循環。
Young Japanese firms attract around one-twentieth of the venture-capital money that start-ups in America pull in.
新興的日本公司會吸引二十分之一的新興美國風投公司的資金投入。
The outlook for creating new businesses could begin to improve if Mr Abe succeeds in leaning on the banks to stop demanding extensive debt guarantees.
如果安倍晉三成功的讓銀行不再要求借貸企業家提供大量的借貸憑證，創建新型公司的前景可能會有所發展。
Now many would-be entrepreneurs, faced with the risk of losing their homes, give up before they start.
現在，很多想要進入企業家行列的人由于會擔有失去家的風險，所以他們在開始之前就放棄了。
In the short term the reform may make capital a little scarcer as banks tread cautiously.
在短期內，此項改革會使得銀行放出更少的資金投資，因為銀行的每一步都會走的很慎重。
But in the long run it could transform Japan's attitude to entrepreneurship, says Yoshito Hori, the founder of GLOBIS, a business school.
但是長期來看，這項改革將會改變日本人對企業家原有的態度，堀義人說道。堀義人，商業學校GLOBIS的創建人。
The industry ministry is promising to provide generous funding with the aim of doubling Japan's rate of business start-ups by 2020.
工業部門保證，他們會提供大量資金，讓日本在2020年前實現新興企業增長率變為兩倍。
To do that it will have to add another 100,000 start-ups to the current annual tally.
為了實現這個目標，必須在當前的基礎上，每年再增加100,000個的新興企業才可以。
However, its record on picking winners is not great:
然而，挑選贏家的報告卻不是很好：
its bureaucrats famously tried to stop the young Sony importing transistor technology and Honda from moving into cars.
官員們已經煩透了去阻止索尼進口三極管科技和本田公司轉向汽車行業。
So the risk is that it ends up backing many duds, draining the public coffers to little benefit.
所以這樣做的風險是，會對很多已有的企業不利，所得的利潤也微乎其微。
The mother-in-law factor
岳母的因素
There are other reasons to be optimistic.
當然也存在著樂觀原因。
The success of the big firms born in Japan's great period of post-war entrepreneurialism later discouraged graduates from joining newer ventures.
大公司在日本戰后鼎盛時期的成功誕生削弱了畢業生們加入這場商業冒險的想法。
Experienced managers are seldom keen to leave large companies.
有經驗的管理者很少會離開大公司。
Wives, mothers and mothers-in-law exert a strong influence on men not to join risky start-ups, says Yoshiaki Ishii, head of new-business policy at the industry ministry.
妻子，媽媽，以及岳母給了男人們很大的影響，讓他們不要踏入有風險的新興企業，石井說道。石井，工業部門新興企業的管理者。
But the perceived balance of risk is shifting.
但是這種感知到的風險正在轉移。
Many of the giants are struggling.
很多的領袖搜在努力著。
The cost of starting a firm is plunging thanks to cloud computing and other innovations.
創建一家新企業的花費得益于云計算和其他一些創新。
Mr Horie says he is financing his new ventures through crowdfunding networks such as Campfire.
堀江貴文說，他正在通過群眾募資網站為他的企業籌資，例如： 螢火網站。
The government could help to remove plenty of other hurdles to entrepreneurship.
政府可以幫助去除很多阻礙企業家精神的障礙。
One difficulty for science and technology start-ups is that large Japanese firms have signed up exclusive rights for the bulk of university discoveries.
創業的科學技術難點之一就是日本的大公司會簽約買下大量的大學研究成果。
Small, disruptive firms are not usually able to access and develop them. And a widespreadnot invented here mindset stops established firms joining up with small ones to commercialise new ideas.
這樣子就會導致小公司無法很好的發展。一個廣為流傳的不要在這里起家的心態也使得公司不想要去和小公司合并。
As a result many recent ventures—such as DeNA and GREE, two social-gaming operators—have been internet and software businesses that depend less on research, notes Daisuke Iwase, a founder of Lifenet, an online insurance firm.
結果使得現在很多的企業—像DeNA和格力，兩家社交類游戲經營公司—都經營著網絡和軟件這些不太依賴于調查的業務，一家網上保險公司救生網的創建人Daisuke Iwase闡述道。
There is too much talent chasing after smartphone apps and social gaming, he says.
繼智能手機應用軟件和社交類游戲之后，有太多類似的很棒的應用陸續出現，他說道。
So, some experts have recommended forcing large firms either to develop the discoveries to which they have the rights, or else to pass them on.
因此，一些專家建議，強制大公司繼續買斷大學研究成果，或者把研究成果轉讓。
Japan's entrepreneurs still feel vulnerable to sudden crackdowns, and fear they would be punished more harshly than big-business chiefs.
日本的企業家們因為這樣的制裁而身心疲憊，他們害怕自己會受到比這些大公司領導更為嚴厲的懲罰。
Last year GREE unexpectedly found itself under investigation for possibly violating gambling laws.
去年，格力公司意外地發現自己可能由于違反賭博法律，而處于被監視狀態。
Its young, billionaire founder, Yoshikazu Tanaka, has since tried to ingratiate himself with the establishment:
格力旗下年輕的億萬富翁田中良和試圖讓自己符合與公司制度：
he now appears in a suit, not a T-shirt.
現在，他在公司不穿體恤衫而改為西裝了。
In all, much has to change before Japan becomes a kinder place for those trying to create businesses.
總而言之，在日本變得很適合創業者們生存之前，還有許多的改變需要去做。
There is a risk that Abenomics fails and brings about quite a different sort of rupture in the corporate climate, says Jeffrey Char, an entrepreneur and investor.
安倍經濟復蘇計劃存在著失敗的風險，這將會使得公司合作風氣破裂，杰弗里查說道。杰弗里查是一位企業家，也是一位投資商。
If the central bank's radical monetary loosening is not followed by thorough deregulation and strong growth, the result could be a sovereign-debt crisis.
如果中央銀行的貨幣放松政策沒有徹底的實施和強有的鞏固的話，可能會導致嚴重的主權債務危機。
In such a crisis many of Japan's biggest firms could collapse, says Mr Char:
在這樣一種危機下，很多日本的大公司都將會瓦解，杰弗里查說道：
that would leave people with no choice but to start their own businesses. Boosting entrepreneurship through reforms would certainly be less painful.
這將會使人們沒得選擇，只能創建新公司。通過改革而刺激企業家精神明顯是一個更好的選擇。
