Last July, elite bureaucrat Shin Yasunobe sent shock waves throughout government offices in Tokyo's Kasumigaseki district by announcing his resignation from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Ending his career on a high by helping draft a charter on information technology endorsed by the Group of Eight leaders at the Okinawa Summit the same month, 45-year-old Yasunobe left his promising future in government behind to pursue IT-related businesses.
"Frankly, business was more appealing to me," Yasunobe explained in a recent interview.