日本の女性起業家の特徴 -日・韓比較 -

This paper describes the characteristics of women's entrepreneurs in Japan and analyzes the results in terms of comparative study with Korea. Since the late 1990s, Japan has begun to pay attention to women as a new entrepreneur, and to become interested in women's entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, comparing other developed economies, the entrepreneurship of female entrepreneurs is still weak, which is similar to Korea. The paper tries to reveal the characteristics using the special survey data and related reports on female entrepreneurs by Japan Finance Corporation in 2013, with the second analysis approach. As a result, first, in the human capital of female entrepreneurs, we found the tendency of aging and the ratio of the spouses were lower than male. The low proportion of spouses suggests that the balance between house work and social work is an big obstacle. Second, while male entrepreneurs tend to have a higher proportion of livelihoods-driven, female tend to be more likely to be opportunity-driven entrepreneurs. Third, it can be seen that female entrepreneurs are relatively small in size and concentrated in specific industries. Fourth, after the start-up, the proportion of surplus is lower than that of men in the early stages, but it is characterized by the fact that the surplus is more than men, after starting from 3 years. Based on the findings of other studies on female entrepreneurs in Korea, it is common to point out that the firm size, the compatibility of the house work and the social work, and the lack of business network are the causes of the difficulties in businesses. However, relatively different aspects at two countries are found in the promotion policy of female entrepreneurs.