What follows is an overview of places outside of Tokyo that are home to a lot of new high-tech action. And there are many such places. There is a great shortage, however, of concrete figures. The latest government statistics on the number of IT ventures are not yet two years old, but they are already hopelessly out of date. The Net world is constantly in flux.
Companies appear, disappear, and merge with great frequency.
There are, though, some discernable trends. Throughout Japan, associations are being created with the almost uniform purpose of creating places for students, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs to mix. There are also some regional differences. Though in almost every prefecture the government is funding at least one incubator for startups, the extent of the role of the state differs greatly. It's just the sort of state intervention that throws the editorialists at The Asian Wall Street Journal into an ideological lather.