After earning a Harvard degree, Yoshito Hori gave up the life of a salaryman to start a school for would-be entrepreneurs

"When Yoshito Hori quit Sumitomo Corp. in the early 1990s and started a business school, many of his colleagues thought he was taking too great a risk. As it turned out, he was on the leading edge of the venture boom."

"Hori founded Globis Management School in Tokyo in 1992 and then launched the venture capital fund Globis Capital Partners in 1996.

Hori was a Kyoto University graduate and got his MBA from Harvard Business School. Unlike in the United States, becoming an entrepreneur was not common in Japan in the early 1990s, especially for those who had graduated from a prestigious university and had a job at a large company.

All that has changed.

"These days, young people don't think of starting a new venture as a risk," Hori, 46, said at his company's headquarters in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo. He notes the growing number of young Japanese entrepreneurs in high-tech and other sectors.

In 1992, when he was 30, Hori began offering classes in a small classroom in Shibuya Ward. He and other MBA holders taught marketing and finance to young, career-minded businesspeople.

Some 20 students joined his academy, Globis Management School. Tailored for the Japanese business environment, the program was structured around case studies, which the students analyzed and debated.

The school was popular with those who wanted a brief, less expensive taste of an MBA experience in Japan rather than attending courses in the U.S. or Europe. A business course like this was rare in Japan at the time, Hori said.

The school was accredited as an official graduate school of management in December 2005 and now offers MBAs. It became an educational corporation this April and will open a new campus in Nagoya next year. "