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Comment by sili | Hacker News Reader

If the Japanese market for start up companies is open, but the culture is a problem, there could be an opportunity to run a start up from Silicon Valley but targeted at Japanese market. Especially if it is an internet service start up with minimal physical presence. I understand not being immediately present in the target market means that you can become out of touch with it; also some legal issues might arise, but an opportunity is there.

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I won't say that is impossible, but anyone wanting to execute on it needs to have a team where everyone speaks a lot better Japanese than I do, and your odds of recruiting that team stateside are pretty slim.

I was thinking more of a team of entrepreneurial native Japanese who simply decided to do it in US in search of better start-up culture.

Feel free to talk to Japanese entrepreneurs about their sorrows sometime, because I don't want to speak for them, but I don't think moving to the US addresses the concerns of the three stakeholders who I generally hear mentioned: girlfriends, parents, and prospective future employers.

Maybe some US funds could offer a good "cover story" for Japanese immigrants if they fail?

Ginzametrics has a relatively high percentage of customers in Japan and I run the company from Silicon Valley. But I also spent 2.5 years in Tokyo making connections and building relationships.

Without that time spent, selling into the Japanese market with no local presence or understanding of how things work there would be exceedingly difficult.

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