Eiichi Shibusawa was Japan’s first modern venture capitalist. He financed and started more than 500 new businesses which he would leave when he felt they could operate on their own. As a serial entrepreneur, he championed the modern shareholder and corporate governance. He created the non-zaibutsu corporate model and created a vision for society as helped to create over 600 philanthropic institutes (zaibutsu: large Japanese business conglomerates, often controlled by one central family).