The organizers of the legendary TTI-Vanguard conference series organized a conference on “Futureproofing” in Tokyo, and invited me to give a keynote on Japan’s creativity and first-to-market for many technologies and business models, and Japan’s difficulties to capture global value from this creativity, a phenomenon often called “Japan’s Galapagos syndrome“.
The organizers, and particularly the legendary Bob Lucky and organizer Hal Levin made great efforts in assisting me to plan and prepare my talk. Although I was given about 30-40 minutes for my talk I was asked to present the conclusions in the first slide at the beginning of my talk and then essentially be prepared for open discussion during the 30-40 minutes instead of giving a traditional talk.
Conclusions 1: Japan has invented and first brought to market many new technologies and business models in today’s hottest areas, and Japan has been terrible at capturing global value from this incredible creativity
Conclusions 2: why does it take at least 10 years to reinvent the wheel in London?
Conclusions 3: WHAT is holding Japan back to capture global value from fantastic inventions?
Fasol mentions that there is excellent science in Japan, for example Shuji Nakamura’s invention and development of blue and white GaN based LEDs and Lasers (see: Nakamura and Fasol: the Blue Laser Diode).
Fasol also mentions the necessary transition from “old Japan” to “new Japan”. “Old Japan” is run by a tightly knit group of older men, without space for women or foreigners. Shuji Nakamura escaped this “Old Japan” for Santa Barbara in California.
Fasol also mentions that Japan has excellent human resources, and foreign companies can today take advantage of opportunities in Japan, which did not exist, or were unaccessible for foreign companies 50 years ago.
Success stories vs failure. Why some foreign companies succeed in Japan’s high tech sector, and why others fail.
Stanford University Japan Technology Center lecture by Gerhard Fasol, given in 1999 – most still applies today!
New opportunities vs old mistakes – foreign companies in Japan’s high-tech markets
Stanford University lecture, given on October 28th, 1999 – most still applies to day as in 1999
This lecture was given on October 28th, 1999 to an audience of Stanford University faculty, students, post-docs and alumni working in Silicon Valley firms. Although this lecture is now some time ago, much of what was said still is true today. As an example, our recognition of the interplay of “old Japan” vs “new Japan” is still extremely relevant today, with old traditional corporations coexisting with new venture start-ups, some of which, like SoftBank and Rakuten have grown to very large size even on a global scale.
Stanford University Japan Technology Center lecture: outline
(note that some statistical data have changed since this lecture was given, the main change is the growth of China, for example today Japan is not the second, but the third largest economy after China).
Why is Japan important?
Japan is the world’s second largest market
60%-70% of Asia’s economy is in Japan
10%-20% of the world’s internet/telecom/e-commerce markets are in Japan
Some important recent high-tech breakthroughs come from Japan, e.g. blue LED and lasers, mobile internet, high-speed train system, mobile payments and e-money
For US corporations Japan is in general the most important/largest foreign market & competitor & partner, eg Apple, Amazon.com, Starbucks…
“Old Japan” versus “New Japan”
The “old official Japan” may fade into irrelevance, large sections (60%) of Japanese society were excluded from equal access to the “old Japan”, e.g. women, Korean residents, foreign nationals, “half”-people….
A “new Japan” is emerging: e.g. Nichia, SoftBank, Don Quichote, etc
Education is a major problem
Foreign corporations should tune into the “new Japan” new
Opportunities which never existed before
Foreign corporations for the first time ever can hire top Japanese performers
For the first time ever foreign corporations can acquire Japanese corporations on a meaningful scale
Some typical mistakes of foreign companies in Japan
Manage Asia from Singapore or Hong-Kong (thats like managing All-Europe operations from Tel-Aviv or Reykjavik)
Hire the wrong people (wrong Japan-CEO, wrong peronnel, e.g. too much emphasis on English vs true performance or technical excellence)
Partnerships or joint ventures with wrong partners or wrong expectations
Enter Japan, build R&D labs etc without first planning strategy and aims
Forget to do the homework (there is Gigabytes of information you better learn about Japan before you start, training on the job increases risks)
Be too fascinated by cherry blossoms & be too optimistic or too pessimistic about Japan
Taking things for granted in Japan, which are not:
brand recognition
Japanese consumer & customer habits and needs
Assume global corporations have the same depth as you are used to elsewhere in the world
Gerhard Fasol gave an invited plenary talk at the 11th General Conference of the European Physical Society EPS-11 on Thursday, September 9th, 1999, 11:50am – 12:30pm (40 minutes).
Gerhard Fasol gave a talk at the German Chamber of Commerce in Tokyo (Deutsche Industrie und Handelskammer in Japan) on Thursday, March 18, 1999, at 18:00pm followed by a buffet reception to continue the discussions.
Topic: “Trends in Japan’s R&D World and their Effects on Foreign Corporations”
(Audience: managers of Japan subsidiaries of German multinationals: e.g. BOSCH, VW, Porsche, Siemens etc.)
Gerhard Fasol gave an evening Colloquium talk at the beautiful Magnus-Haus in the center of Berlin, Germany, on Tuesday, December 1st, 1998 at 19:30. The talk was followed by a buffet reception, where we continued discussions until late at night.
Title: “Crisis and opportunities in Japan’s Research and Development World – an entrepreneurs perspective”
(Audience: Presidents, high-level managers of German national and industrial R&D laboratories, Berlin area researchers, managers, and Professors)
Gerhard Fasol was one of the invited speakers of the “Device Applications of Nanoscale Materials Symposium” at the 1998 National ACS Meeting in Dallas, Texas, which was organized by John St. John of Texas Christian University.
Gerhard Fasol’s talk: “Selective Electrodeposition of Magnetic and Metallic Nanowires: A New Approach to a Fundamental Technology”
Symposium purpose: The two main purposes of this symposium are (1) to demonstrate current, innovative applications of chemistry in the nanometer size regime for use in optoelectronics and (2) to identify potential areas for partnerships between industry and academia where research in nanoscale chemistry can be applied to emerging technologies. It is hoped that this symposium will benefit chemists working in nanotechnology by providing a forum for discussing applications with leading industries.
Press Conference participants:
James R. Von Ehr II, Zyvex LLC;
Howard E. Katz, Bell Laboratories-Lucent Technologies;
Jie Han, NASA Ames Research Laboratory;
Gerhard Fasol, Eurotechnology Japan K. K.;
Technical program
8:00 am: Marye Anne Fox , University of Texas, Austin; Imaging With Chromophore-Modified Self Assembled Monolayers
8:40 am: Howard E. Katz, Bell Laboratories-Lucent Technologies; Chemical Structure, film Morphology, and Deposition Process Optimization of Organic Transistor Semiconductors
9:20 am: James R. Von Ehr II, Zyvex LLC; Building a Molecular Nanotechnology Industry
10:00 am: William Hinsburg, IBM Research Division; Resist Requirements for Sub-100 nm Microlithography
10:30 am: Gerhard Fasol, Eurotechnology Japan K. K.; Selective Electrodeposition of Magnetic and Metallic Nanowires: A New Approach to a Fundamental Technology
11:10 am: Alan J. Heeger, IPOS, UCSB, and UNIAX Corp.,.; Polymer Light Emitting Electrochemical Cells: A Device Application of Nanscale Chemistry
11:50 am: Jie Han, NASA Ames Research Laboratory; Exploring Carbon Nanotubes for Nanoscale Devices
2:00 pm: Richard Brotzman, Nanophase Technologies Corporation; Nanoscale Materials for Optoelectronics
2:30 pm: Louis Brus, Columbia University; Spectroscopy and “Blinking” of Single Semiconductor Nanocrystals at Room Temperature
3:10 pm: Jeffery L. Coffer, Texas Christian University; Nanophase Silicon as an Optoelectronic / Biocompatible Material
4:00 pm: James M. Tour, University of South Carolina; Molecular Scale Electronics
4:40 pm: Tapesh Yadav, Nanomaterials Research Corporation; Device Applications of Nanoscale Materials
Gerhard Fasol and Katharina Runge: “Selective Electrodeposition of nanometer scale magnetic wires” Applied Physics Letters, 70, p. 2467-2468 (5 May 1997)
G. Fasol, “Spontaneous Spin Polarization in Quantum Wires”, Proc. 22nd International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors (ICPS), edited by D. J. Lockwood, (World Scientific, Singapore, 1995), p. 1739-1742.
G. Fasol and H. Sakaki, “Spontaneous Spin Polarization due to Electron- Electron Interaction in Quantum Wires”, in “Nanostructures and Quantum Effects”, edited by H. Sakaki and H. Noge, [Proceedings of the JRDC Int. Symposium on Nanostructures and Quantum Effects, 17—18 Nov. 1993, Tsukuba (Japan)], Springer-Verlag, Berlin, p. 121-130 (1994).
G. Fasol and H. Sakaki, “Spontaneous Spin Polarization in Quantum Wires”, Philosophical Magazine, 70, 601-616 (1994).
G. Fasol and H. Sakaki, “Prediction of Spin-Polarization Effects in Quantum Wire Transport”, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 33, 879-886 (1994).
G. Fasol, Y. Nagamune, J. Motohisa und H. Sakaki, “Determination of Quantum Wire Potential and Hot Electron Spectroscopy Using Point Contacts”, Surface Science, 305, 620-623 (1994).
G. Fasol, “Calculation of Electron Coherence Lengths for Quantum Wires”, in: 21st International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors, ed. by Ping Jiang and Hou-Zhi Zheng, World Scientific, (Singapore, 1992), p. 1411.
G. Fasol and H. Sakaki, “Electron-electron Scattering in Quantum Wires and its Possible Suppression due to Spin Effects”, Physical Review Letters, 70, 3643-3646 (1993).
G. Fasol and H. Sakaki, “Spontaneous Spin-Polarization of Ballistic Electrons in Single Mode Quantum Wires Due to Spin Splitting”, Applied Physics Letters, 62, 2230-2232 (1993).
G. Fasol and H. Sakaki, “Electron-Electron Scattering in Quantum Wells and Wires”, Proceedings of the 19th Int. Symposium on Gallium Arsenide and Related Compounds, (Karuizawa 1992), Institute of Physics Conference Series No. 129, p. 311 (1992).
G. Fasol, “Absence of Low Temperature Saturation of Electron–Electron Scattering in a Single Mode Quantum Wire”, Applied Physics Letters, 61, 831-833 (1992)
G. Fasol, “Electron Dephasing Due to Coulomb Interaction”, Applied Physics Letters 59, 2430-2432 (1991)
