Live with confidence: were Japan's thirty years really lost?
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
A few days ago I had dinner with a senior mentor, and we talked about what mindset to bring to today's slowing economy.
His answer was simple: "Live with confidence."
We got onto one country: Japan.
Many people say Japan went through "three lost decades": from the bursting of the bubble to an ageing population, from high growth to stagnation, as if everything stood still.
But is that really true?
Solving "real but small" problems
Around this time last year, I was lucky to join SIDEC on a trip to Japan to look at the local startup ecosystem.
Japan's startup environment is very different from China's and America's. Startups there often chase "fast, hard, precise": round after round of funding, IPO after IPO, as if you're only a success once you're a unicorn.
Japan is different. Many of its startups solve problems that are "real but small". The one that impressed me most was a startup called Instalimb. They use 3D printing and AI to redesign how prosthetic limbs are made, bringing the price down from tens of thousands to a few thousand. Their target market isn't developed countries, but developing ones like India and the Philippines.
Prosthetic technology itself isn't new. What's truly admirable is that they use technology to give people who "couldn't afford it" their quality of life back.
Honestly, a project like this struggles to get traditional VC money. The market isn't big enough, the payback is too long, and there's no "unicorn story" to tell. But when I listened to the founder talk about his vision, I saw his eyes light up. He wasn't pitching. He was sharing his care for people and his commitment to society.
More than a year has passed. I don't remember the name Instalimb that clearly any more, but I still remember the look in his eyes when he said it.
Were Japan's thirty years really "lost"?
Maybe we should look at it from a different angle.
Over the past 30 years, Japan has produced more than 20 Nobel laureates. In soft power, from anime and design to precision manufacturing, it has exported a huge amount of influential work. In baseball, figure skating and shogi, its young generation keeps appearing on the world stage. Even many of today's seemingly trendy lifestyles, minimalism, sustainability, the craftsman's spirit, essentially come from Japan's attitude of "living finely".
It may not be as easy to make money as in the 1980s, but the Japanese still live with confidence: they take small things to perfection, turn difficulties into training, and live with quality. To me, that culture and spirit is very much worth learning from.
Not every great thing has to bring huge returns. Not every startup exists to "list and cash out". Sometimes choosing to do the right thing is what's most remarkable.
For founders, when the outside environment is bad, don't rush to blame the world. Go back inside first, and find your original intent and your confidence again.
Confidence isn't just reading the trend right. It's holding firm to your own mission.