Why only Nintendo?--Challenges Facing the Japanese Software Industry

Every day you drive your Toyota Prius to work; when you return home you watch a Sony television, and your DVD player has a laser semiconductor produced by Mitsubishi. On weekends you take pictures with a Canon digital camera.

Everyone knows that the market is filled with Japanese high-tech products. You might, however, not realize that with the exception of the one running on your game console, you probably have never seen a Japanese software product.

In this seminar, Dr. Fushimi will present his analysis on why the Japanese have been so weak in the global software market. He will first discuss the intrinsic differences between software and hardware, and use these differences as a framework to identify the critical mistakes Japanese software companies have made.

Shinya Fushimi has spent twenty years in the Japanese IT industry, serving various R&D and management positions. Most recently, he was Head of Data Centric Solution Business Unit of Mitsubishi Electric. He received the BS, MS, and PhD in computer science from The University of Tokyo and has received a number of academic awards like the Moto-oka Memorial Prize and Best Paper Award for a Young Researcher. Prior to joining Shorenstein APARC, he was with the Sloan Master's Program of Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, and received the Master of Science in Management.