The fact that people in the professional world there often only work for one or maybe two companies in their entire lives does not help. I've me people in my travels who've told me "it's changing" but they often worked in professions like school teachers (where the lifetime commitment isn't common).

I've heard South Korea is similar (with like 1/3 of the nation basically owned and run by Samsung) and it really kills any type of real startup culture in either nation.