Assessing and managing risk is vitally important, and is increasingly studied in a range of areas including politics and international relations, finance and insurance, and innovation and the valuing of intangible assets such as patents and intellectual property. The degree to which innovation is encouraged or otherwise - a key factor for many businesses - depends in part on the attitude towards risk in the context in which it takes place.

Taplin considers the different attitudes towards risk and innovation, and the different ways in which risk and innovation are handled, in Japan,...