During the last bubble era, the excess of money went into real estate. This time it's gone into IT shares. And what's more, it's been made worse because people have invested in companies whose achievements or financial status they know nothing about purely because of the belief that because such shares boomed in the United States, they're going to do the same thing here. Kimura is also critical of the interest that has been shown toward IT-related venture capital companies largely because of the belief that their share prices are poised to escalate. What really should be happening is that investments are made in venture capital companies with the intent to help nurture the firm's development, but instead, it's become something of a fashion.
Moneylenders are much the same.
They'll quote economic indicators or capital-adequacy ratio regulations when they refuse a loan, but at the same time, they're spending money setting up venture capital affiliates and investing in IT companies. Actually, an employee of an IT company I know received some of the company's stock options, which soon were worth more than 10 million yen after being listed. Having witnessed how poorly Japanese society can treat venture capital companies, the current desire to nurture them is great. Kimura says that success on the stock market should be more than a matter of choosing which company to invest in by picking them out of a hat. It's no good to think it's like a lottery, where if you make enough money from one company you can afford to invest in 1,000.