Most Americans own at least one product emblazoned with the words “Sony”, “Panasonic” or “Sharp”. But in Japan, a country famed for its electronic widgets and technological prowess, home-grown software providers and internet entrepreneurs are conspicuously absent.

Foreign companies, particularly those headquartered in the US, have, for the most part, leapfrogged their Japanese counterparts both in terms of collaborative networking sites and in providing innovative software.