"Reflections on Failure and Success: Contrasting Venture Realities in Silicon Valley and Japan"

One thing I always think about when I come to Silicon Valley is how casually people mention stories like, "Before my current job, I was running a startup and raised around 10 billion yen, but it went bankrupt." With countless failures of 10 billion yen, statistically, there will be unicorns or decacorns too. What Japan lacks is the number of failures.

Having observed the Japanese stock market for nearly 20 years, it's true that there are only a handful of companies that achieved a market capitalization of 1 trillion yen through IPOs, and most of them reached that milestone through secondary offerings. That's why investing 10 billion yen in an unlisted company holds no value in the Japanese market. It's simply a difference in market size, so if you want to take a 10 billion yen bet, do it in Silicon Valley. That seems to be the conclusion.