This paper outlines a book-length project to analyze recent changes in the political economy and institutional arrangements related to high-tech entrepreneurship in Japan. More specifically, I look at recent legal and social changes to the environment for start-ups and new companies in Japan to assess how and why barriers to high-tech entrepreneurship have changed over the last 15 years. Changes in venture capital activity, angel investors, incubation and seed accelerator facilities for start-ups at both universities and in the private sector, university-private sector collaboration, and government promotion of entrepreneurship are explored. For example, the Innovation Network of Japan (INCJ), a temporary public-private partnership managed by METI and created after the 2008 financial crisis to promote the competitiveness of Japanese companies, especially new companies and new technologies, is analyzed. The study is based on available data combined with interviews of Japanese entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Japan, American entrepreneurs working in Japan, and Japanese government officials and academics working in this area, in an approach common in business history. Overall, the paper assesses recent changes in norms regarding risk-taking, wealth-making, and labor mobility; and institutional and policy change.