Strategy for economic recovery from the COVID-19 disaster: Japan aims to become a startup nation again

International Institute for Management Development, a business school in Switzerland known as IMD, started publishing the "IMD World Competitiveness Ranking" in 1989. Japan boldly placed first in the first issue, and for several years afterward Japan maintained that position. Japan, however, was ranked in the 30th place in 2019. After reaching a historical all-time high at the end of 1989, the Nikkei Stock Average plunged to roughly half that amount in 1997, when Hokkaido Takushoku Bank went bankrupt and Yamaichi Securities, celebrating its 100th year in business the same year, ceased its operations. What has been happening to Japan during the past 30 years? This chapter examines the challenges facing Japan in trying to recover from three decades of economic depression, the correlation of this economic malaise to the evolution of innovation ecosystem in the world, and the roles of the key actors including the academia, the industry or big businesses, and the government in addressing the entrepreneurial gap and in fostering technology commercialization and innovation, and the challenges that remain.