On July 14th I was honored to attend a Salon hosted by the Japan Society
of Northern California at the Consul General of Japan’s home in San
Francisco. At the Salon, Madame Kayoko
Hosokawa, the former First Lady of Japan, spoke about her latest endeavors in
support of musicians with special needs.
The day before, she had introduced the U.S. Japan Friendship Special
(Family) Music Concert, which brought together musicians with autism from Japan
and the U.S. At the Salon, Madame
Hosokawa passionately described how she was moved to start advocacy for those
with disabilities over 30 years ago when she learned about a young woman who
was a Special Olympian from Japan. Since
then, she has worked on several projects to promote equality. Her efforts include co-foundering the Special
Olympics of Nippon in 1994 and producing 4 movies about some of the extraordinary
accomplishments of those special needs.
Why am I bringing this up on a blog about entrepreneurship? Good question. I do this because I would like to highlight
Madame Hosokawa’s endeavors as examples of entrepreneurship that don’t fall
into what people often define as entrepreneurship. The Special Olympics of Nippon was not a
brand new idea, but it took a lot of work to create this organization. And what about films? A film is not a new firm, but could be considered
a new venture.
What do you consider entrepreneurship?
