The cosy practices of big, established companies leave no room for small firms to grow. They are confined instead to subcontracting, living off the scraps that the big companies toss them. Getting rich quick is deemed to be vulgar. Individual success is frowned upon. The Japanese think of themselves as lacking initiative, creativity and individuality.
Mass production requires scale economies, and scale economies require standardisation.
When education is standardised and homogenous, when student abilities are all little round circles, it is easy to sort the circles out by size. This is all true, and not very encouraging, says Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese management guru. Five years ago Mr Ohmae set up a Japanese school for entrepreneurs, called Attackers. The course runs for six months and classes are held after work. Each student must come up with an idea for a new venture, draft a business plan and present it to the rest of the class.