Senpai culture is killing innovation in Japan

Fifteen years ago, University-run venture funds were all illegal here in Japan, but today a higher percentage of major Japanese universities have VC funds than in the US or Europe. Today we sit down with Kei Furukawa, a partner at the University of Tokyo IPC, a $300M venture fund, and we talk about the unique role these funds play in Japan, how they drive innovation in rural areas, and why he has to talk professors out of becoming startup CEOs. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

You can listen to Senpai culture is killing innovation in Japan online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Senpai culture is killing innovation in Japan is an episode from Disrupting Japan by Tim Romero.

This episode is 43:49 long.

This episode was published on Apr 28, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Disrupting Japan when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.