????想在日本找到一位傳奇的車庫創業者嗎？這樣的車庫可不好找。日本初創企業的集聚地東京鮮有這樣的場所。光是一個停車位的月租金已和加州的出租式公寓差不多，更別提什么車庫了。（寫字樓的租金非常昂貴，而且一般也很少接納新公司。）

????考慮到日本的經濟規模，互聯網初創企業較少，這或許也是意料之中的事。眾所周知，在日本創業素來困難重重，租房只是創業人員需要克服的第一個障礙。根據世界銀行（World Bank）的數據，日本每年的新企業平均進入率在世界經合組織（Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development，簡稱OECD）國家中墊底。此外，也缺乏冒險精神和天使投資人。銀行通常都不懂科技初創企業想要做什么，因此相比美國，在日本起步騰飛的這類初創企業很少。

????但在巖石和荊棘間，倒也有人生根發芽。“這個行業在日本得到的支持力度很小，行業建樹不多已引來國際關注，”一位在東京生活和工作的、成功系列創業家泰瑞?勞埃德表示。“不過，在日本傳統的優勢領域，創新并沒有落后太多。游戲是一個顯而易見的選擇，還有過去幾年里新冒出來的很多移動應用軟件(圖像，溝通，社區)。”

????龐大的國內市場以及藏龍臥虎的人才資源推動一些初創企業蓬勃發展，隨便舉兩個成功的例子，如Gree和Line。也有一些努力和嘗試，為創業者提供更多的種子資金，最值得一提的是來自日本政府的支持，但迄今為止效果并不好。日本政府已經設立了幾百個孵化器，孵化器數量已從1999年的30個增加到了今天的336個。但斯坦福大學（Stanford University）的一份報告顯示，有些資金可能被用于大理石浴室裝潢，而且掌握這些資金的往往是鮮有商業經驗的前官員。

????年輕的創業者們警惕此類優惠措施可能帶來的政府干預。資金緊張？他們的解決方法是在日本合租辦公室，降低租房成本，這樣他們就可以不必接受官員們自上而下的管理和誤導性意見，靜心創業，打造新的產品和創意。

????在東京新宿一條熱鬧繁華的大街上，臨街一棟大樓的5樓就是Happon。創業者只需支付少量租金，即可共享一個龐大的開放式辦公室空間、會議室和工作格子間等設施。現在由幾家科技初創公司共享這個簡單而時尚的工作空間，巨大的公共桌子獨具新意地呈現了日本各縣的地圖形狀。

????Anyone looking for Japan's legendary garage entrepreneurs should not start in the garage. Tokyo, the startup hub for Japan, has few such shelters these days. While the monthly stipend of even a single parking space can cost the same as a rental apartment in California, never mind a garage. (Office rental space, too, is expensive and hard to come by for new firms.)

????Considering the size of Japan's economy there are fewer internet startups that one might expect. In country that has become infamous for the hardships facing would-be entrepreneurs, securing workspace is just one obstacle would-be-startups have to overcome. According to the World Bank, Japan comes last in the average annual entry rate of new enterprises among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Add to that the lowest appetite for risk, a dearth of angel investors, and banks that often don't understand what tech startups want to do, and you have only a fraction of such enterprises kicking off compared to the US.

????And yet some do manage to sprout now again amidst the rocks and thorns. "This sector is the most under-supported in Japan and therefore attracts the most international attention for its under achievements," says Terrie Lloyd a successful serial entrepreneur living and working in Tokyo. "None-the-less, where there are areas of excellence, the innovation is not far behind. Gaming is an obvious choice, but so are the many new mobile apps (graphics, communications, community) that have popped up in the last couple of years."

????A massive domestic market tied with Japan's latent talent means some stratups are flourishing—Gree, Line, to name but two successes. There have been attempts, most notably by the government to seed more such self-starters but so far with mixed results. Officials have set up hundreds of incubators—up from 30 in 1999 to 336 today—but according to one report from Stanford University money has gone on marble bathroom fixings and are often administered by ex-bureaucrats with little business experience.

????Young, cash-strapped entrepreneurs wary of the hand-holding of such dubious merit seem to have come up with their own solution—tech startups that take advantage of Japan's cheap, shared-office space where they are unfettered by the curse of top down management and misdirected civil servants and can quietly get along with creating new products and ideas.

????Five floors above a frenetic high street in Tokyo's Shinjuku district is Happon where hopeful entrepreneurs pay a small rent for facilities such as a large open plan office, conference rooms and work cubicles. Several tech startups share the simple but stylish space with its large, novel communal desks cut in the shape of Japan's prefectures.