Support System that Foster Human Resources for University Start-ups in Japan

: Since the late 1990s, Japan has followed the cloning Silicon Valley model typified by American-style technology, capital, and systems, with a major focus on technology transfer, patent revenues, and the makeup of funding. However, the University of Tokyo, which has formed entrepreneurial clusters, has constructed an ecosystem built on technology agglomeration by educating its undergraduate and graduate students and forming a support network for alumni employed at financial institutions, major corporations, and central government offices. In forming an ecosystem for industry–academia collaboration, it is crucial to understand start-ups, even if not starting a business oneself, and to educate and develop human resources that can function throughout society.


Introduction
Industry-academia collaboration has taken Silicon Valley as its model for success (Nishimura, 2003). Attempts to replicate this success in the U.S. and throughout the world have also adopted a number of policies that can be termed as "cloning Silicon Valley" (Rosenberg, 2001). Since the late 1990s, Japan has also taken various measures of this sort, but it is considered to be seriously lagging behind the U.S. in both quality and quantity (Kutsuna, 2020).
However, the University of Tokyo, which currently holds the top spot among universities for turning out university start-ups in Japan, does not appear to be pursuing the Silicon Valley model in its original form. This paper gives an overview of the history of university-industry collaboration 1 in Japan and the programs adopted by universities and identifies their differences with the U.S. system. This is where Japanese universities, which face many more restrictions than industry-academia collaboration in the U.S., have tried to groom students to become entrepreneurs.

History of Industry-academia Collaboration in Japan
In Japan, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (currently, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) has been implementing industry-academia collaboration programs adopted from U.S. policies since the late 1990s. First, during the third "venture boom" in 1995, it organized venture business laboratories" (VBLs) at national universities. VBLs were set up at national universities throughout Japan for the three purposes of (i) promoting R&D programs for future industry's basic technology, (ii) developing creative human resources filled with an entrepreneurial spirit, and (iii) establishing specialized research and educational facilities. In 1997, the ban on faculty members of national universities holding concurrent positions 2 was lifted. To encourage the transfer of universities' intellectual property rights, the Act to Facilitate Technology Transfer from Universities to the Private Sector was enacted in 1998, which set up a system of technology licensing organizations (TLOs), 3 and the Act on Special Measures concerning Industrial Revitalization was enacted in 1999 (the so-called Japanese version of the Bayh-Dole Act). In 2000, teachers at national universities were permitted to concurrently hold executive positions in the private sector, 4 and 2001 saw the launch of the "Hiranuma Plan" aiming for 1,000 university start-ups, a goal that was achieved in 2004.
As these relationships with universities became institutionalized, the corporations offered support programs. Stock options programs were launched in 1997, and restrictions on trading unlisted shares were lifted. The Limited Partnership Act for Investment was enacted in 1998, which made it easier to set up venture funds. Measures taken with regard to funding included the 1999 establishment of such new markets as the Tokyo Stock Exchange's MOTHERS market and NASDAQ JAPAN and the revision of special tax incentives to promote investment in venture businesses (the angel tax system) in 2 Regulations of five hours per day and eight hours per week were lifted, and teachers at national universities were able to provide private corporations with research guidance under certain conditions. 3 Licensing costs were also critical for Japanese corporations (Nakano, 2020). 4 Liberal arts instructors were allowed to be auditors, and science instructors were allowed to be auditors as well as board members tasked with the commercialization of research findings and board members of TLOs promoting the use of university research findings in the private sector. Then, in 2002, restrictions were lifted on their serving in nonexecutive positions providing advice on corporate management and legal affairs.
2000. The small business innovation research (SBIR) system (the Japanese version of the SBIR system), based on the Law for Facilitating the Creation of New Business, was created in 1999.
While a number of policies modeled on Silicon Valley were implemented during this period, the growth of university start-ups slowed after the Livedoor Incident in 2005, which put an end to the third "venture boom" (Nakano, 2017). According to the report on the

Cloning Silicon Valley Policy
Many scholars have proposed ideal models for this type of "regional ecosystem." Etkowitz (2008) proposed a triple helix model based on interaction among universities, business, and government. Universities, the business community, and the government would work together on the regional level to bring together organizations and functions supporting the resultant mutual collaboration and teamwork, thus creating seamless, integrated innovation.
Also, Doutriaux (2008) describes the following three steps in building regional systems within knowledge clusters: (i) preconditions, whereby it is a sufficient condition if certain levels of people and technology can be accumulated, (ii) cluster emergence, whereby support organizations are set up as a necessary condition employing this agglomeration of people and technology, and (iii) cluster growth, whereby the sufficient conditions of (i) and the necessary condition of (ii) are combined to spur the growth of such agglomeration. Of these, (i) requires an entrepreneurial university that will function as a central university-level organization promoting a certain accumulation of people and technology. Here, an entrepreneurial university is a university that values innovation, has embarked on industry-academia collaboration, and has a research park, university-industry cooperative research center, TLO, business incubator, or other such facility (Etkowitz, 2002). Along with this, if the region (ii) has a support organization and some successful ventures have come into being, the region will recognize it as an ecosystem, and if in that region, (iii) technology-based companies start to be created and grow, the incubator companies themselves will constitute the regional culture, so that the region will become known for its formation of new high-tech industries.
Nishizawa (2014)  But that being said, the problem is that Japan introduced this while ignoring the differences between the Japanese and U.S. ecosystems. The military industrial complex has always played a key role in the U.S. regional ecosystem. In the 1960s, a large proportion of U.S. university research was being funded by the government, while that funded by business was small, and most funding from corporations was linked to arms either directly or indirectly (Nishimura, 2003). Thus, the government's cloning Silicon Valley policy was a policy aimed at consolidating the system of development and support among the arms industry, industryacademia collaboration, and venture capital and building a regional ecosystem for the region's university start-ups (Nishizawa, 2014). In fact, half of the U.S. SBIR system's spending was for the Department of Defense (Yamaguchi, 2015). Therefore, to create high-tech industries through industry-academia collaboration, the source of funding had to change from arms-related sources to the private sector, and to do this required the states to take the lead in promoting industrial agglomeration (Feller, 1997).
Meanwhile, in Japan the focus was on technology transfer, not on the arms industry, as in the U.S., and the amount of money coming from corporations in the arms industry to support universities was minuscule. So, how did support for university start-ups in Japan come to be? For a specific example of how industry-academia collaboration has been happening, let us look at the University of Tokyo, which currently maintains the top position among universities for generating university start-ups. 5

Case: Collaboration in University of Tokyo
In 2004  where almost none existed 20 years ago. Why has industry-academia collaboration borne fruit to a certain extent?
The University of Tokyo has been implementing many serious programs for its undergraduate and graduate students, as described above. Furthermore, it offers courses such as "Global Venturing I and II" to students and graduate students in the Faculty of Economics and Graduate School of Economics, which do not possess much technology. The vast majority of students at the University of Tokyo go on to work for the government or major corporations. Offering a variety of programs to these students will increase the number of students doing internships at start-ups and the number of students wanting to start businesses while they are still in school. So, entrepreneurs who are University of Tokyo graduates are serving as role models who are changing students' perceptions about entrepreneurship and especially changing the perceptions of students who will not start-up companies themselves. Rosenberg (2001) asserts that high-tech is a cultural necessity for entrepreneurs as well as policy makers and educators, but that its formation is difficult. In other words, one cannot build an ecosystem that creates start-ups using technology, the system, and funding alone. The University of Tokyo is trying to lay the groundwork for an ecosystem by educating undergraduate and graduate students. In other words, University of Tokyo alumni have succeeded in building an ecosystem that goes beyond technological agglomeration by forming support networks for the human resources networks among people working at financial institutions, major corporations that embrace open innovation (Chesbrough, 2003(Chesbrough, , 2006, and central government agencies.
Twenty-five years after Japan's introduction of the cloning Silicon Valley model, which is based on American-style technology, funding, and systems, Japan is known only for its technology transfers from academia, its patent revenues, and its funding composition. Still, this suggests that the University of Tokyo, which has been creating startup clusters, has an understanding of entrepreneurship in the formation of ecosystems in industry-academia collaboration, even though it does not establish start-ups itself, and that it is essential to educate and develop people who can function throughout our society.