Accomplishing our institute’s vision ‘Pax Japonica’. How can this word be defined?

This time, it will examine ‘why it is difficult to make innovations happen in Japan’. In the process of accomplishing Pax Japonica, it is necessary to know the ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ in Japan.

The word innovation is defined by multiple meanings. The word innovation in this blog will be used to refer to the ‘production of added value from zero’.

Before examining what disturbs innovations in Japan, it will introduce four basic elements to make innovations in the US from ‘Global Competition- The New Reality’ (1985) by John A Young.

It is believed that Japan succeeds in making a lot of innovations in general, there is a tendency that new things are not created based on knowledge and experience even though Japanese people have rich knowledge. It is sometimes seen that big corporations which used to create revolutionary products do not achieve new results.

・’Creating, applying and protecting technology’ which is a priority of competition

・Increasing capital supply which can be used for investment to reduce business costs in the US

・Raising labour force who is more mature, flexible and motivated

・Prioritising domestic commerce to strengthen the world trade system that we, ourselves, manipulate

On the other hand, big corporations and successful medium businesses in Japan tend to not financially support innovative venture capital corporations because of anxiety about the future.

Moreover, Japanese big corporations deploy technologies from overseas while they do not create an innovation ecosystem with venture, small and medium businesses. In addition, in terms of human resource management, the person who does not correspond to ‘universal’ is considered to be bad since they do not cooperate with ‘normal’ colleagues.

After considering the four elements above, could it be said that Japan applies those in its society?

It can be argued that Japan renounces the option to innovate themselves.

Through the process of examining Pax Japonica’s concept, it also needs to examine what is lacking in Japan and how to improve it.

We will continue considering the concept of Pax Japonica.

Reference:

Harada, T., 2017. Pax Japonica; the resurrection of Japan, 2, Japan as a State of Failed Innovation, pp.58-112.

Young, J., 1985. Global Competition – The New Reality; Results of the President’s Commission on Industrial Competitiveness, pp. 501-509.