Element contents
The Digital Transformation and Japan's Political Economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2022
Summary
Digital transformation and demographic change are usually seen as two separate but equally threatening events that foreshadow job replacement, industrial decline, and social bifurcation. Because Japan is the world's frontrunner in demographic change with an ageing and shrinking society, it is facing these two disruptions at the exact same time. This creates a 'lucky moment,' as it presents an opportunity to employ one as a solution for the problems caused by the other. For example, Japan's traditional sectors are replaced by digital systems that demand fewer people while offering new jobs. Emerging technologies are opening fresh opportunities for Japanese companies to compete globally. The twin disruptions are also upending Japan's political economy. As companies reinvent business strategies and employees reskill to pursue individual careers, the state is reorganizing to find a new role in balancing the unfolding demands of the digital economy.
Keywords
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781108921015Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 30 June 2022
References
Abegglen, James C., and George Jr, Stalk. 1985. Kaisha – The Japanese Corporation: How Marketing, Money, and Manpower Strategy, Not Management Style, Make the Japanese World Pace-Setters. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Restrepo, Pascual. 2020. “Robots and Jobs: Evidence from US Labor Markets.” Journal of Political Economy 128(6): 2188–244.Google Scholar
Amyx, Jennifer. 2004. Japan’s Financial Crisis: Institutional Rigidity and Reluctant Change. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Amyx, Jennifer, and Drysdale, Peter (eds.). 2003. Japanese Governance: Beyond Japan Inc. London: Taylor & Francis Group.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anchordoguy, Marie. 1989. Computers, Inc. – Japan’s Challenge to IBM. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Aoki, Masahiko, and Patrick, Hugh (eds.). 1994. The Japanese Main Bank System: Its Relevance for Developing and Transforming Economies. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
BCG (Boston Consulting Group/Hello Tomorrow). 2019. The Dawn of the Deep Tech Ecosystem. https://media-publications.bcg.com/BCG-The-Dawn-of-the-Deep-Tech-Ecosystem-Mar-2019.pdfGoogle Scholar
Brynjolfsson, Erik, and Andrew, McAfee. 2016. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Buche, Ivy, Howard, Yu, and Malnight, Thomas. 2016. “Recruit Japan: Harnessing Data to Create Value.” Case Study IMD824.Google Scholar
Cabinet, Office. 2019. AI Senryaku 2019 (AI Strategy 2019). www.maff.go.jp/j/kanbo/tizai/brand/attach/pdf/ai-15.pdfGoogle Scholar
Cabinet Office. 2020a. Reiwa 2nenpan kōreika shakai hakusho (2020 White Paper on the Ageing Society). www8.cao.go.jp/kourei/whitepaper/w-2020/gaiyou/02pdf_indexg.htmlGoogle Scholar
Cabinet Office. 2020b. Ministerial Meeting on Digital Transformation, September 23 2020” https://japan.kantei.go.jp/99_suga/actions/202009/_00004.htmlGoogle Scholar
Calder, Kent E. 1988. Crisis and Compensation: Public Policy and Political Stability in Japan, 1949–1986. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Calder, Kent E. 1989. “Elites in an Equalizing Role: Ex-Bureaucrats as Coordinators and Intermediaries in the Japanese Government-Business Relationship.” Comparative Politics 21(4): 379–403.Google Scholar
Cole, Robert E., and Nakata, Yoshifumi. 2014. “The Japanese Software Industry: What Went Wrong and What Can We Learn from it?” California Management Review 57(1): 16–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curtis, Gerald L. 1988. The Japanese Way of Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Curtis, Gerald L. 1999. The Logic of Japanese Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting (ed.). 2020. Hatarakikata kaikaku no jittai chōsa 2020 no kekka o happyō (Results of Survey on the Implementation of Workstyle Reform 2020). www2.deloitte.com/jp/ja/pages/about-deloitte/articles/news-releases/nr20200205.htmlGoogle Scholar
Dore, Ronald. 1973. British Factory – Japanese Factory: The Origins of National Diversity in Industrial Relations. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dore, Ronald. 1986. Flexible Rigidities: Industrial Policy and Structural Adjustment in the Japanese Economy, 1970–1980. London: The Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Dore, Ronald. 1987. Taking Japan Seriously: A Confucian Perspective on Leading Economic Issues. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Estevez-Abe, Margarita. 2008. Welfare and Capitalism in Postwar Japan: Party, Bureaucracy, and Business. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ford, Martin. 2016. Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Glosserman, Brad. 2019. Peak Japan: The End of Great Ambitions. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Holst, Hajo, Aoki, Katsuki, Herrigel, Gary et al. 2020. “Gemba-Digitalisierung.” Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb 115(9): 629–33.Google Scholar
Hoshi, Takeo, and Kashyap, Anil. 2001. Corporate Financing and Corporate Governance in Japan: The Road to the Future. Boston: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hoshi, Takeo, and Lipscy, Phillip Y. (eds.). 2021. The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
IPA (Jōhō shori suishin kikō) (ed.). 2020. IT Jinzai Hakusho 2020: Ima koso DX o kasoku seyo (White Paper on HR Practices for the IT Sector: The DX is Now Accelerating). www.ipa.go.jp/files/000085255.pdfGoogle Scholar
Ito, Takatoshi, and Hoshi, Takeo. 2021. The Japanese Economy (2nd ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
JFTC (Japan Fair Trade Commission). 2020. Jigyōshadantai no katsudō ni kan suru dokusen kinshi-hō no shishin (Guideline on Antitrust Law Rules Regarding the Activities of Trade Associations). www.jftc.go.jp/dk/guideline/unyoukijun/jigyoshadantai_files/jigyoshadantaigl.pdfGoogle Scholar
JIL (Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training). 2018. “Work Style Reform Bill Enacted.” Japan Labor Issues 2(10): 2–7.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1974. “The Reemployment of Retired Government Bureaucrats in Japanese Big Business.” Asian Survey 14: 953–65.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1982. MITI and the Japanese Miracle – The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925–1975. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1999. “The Developmental State: Odyssey of a Concept.” Pp. 32–60 in The Developmental State, edited by Woo-Cummings, Meredith. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Katada, Saori. 2020. Japan’s New Regional Reality: Geoeconomic Strategy in the Asia-Pacific. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Kimura, Naonari, and Numata, Shunsuke. 2018. Mieruka 4.0: AI x IOT de “kaseguryoku” o torimodose! (Visualing 4.0: How to Regain Profit-Earning Powers through AI x IOT). Tokyo: Nihon keizai shinbun shuppansha.Google Scholar
Kohno, Masaru. 2002. “A Changing Ministry of International Trade and Industry.” Pp. 96–112 in Japan Governance, Beyond Japan Inc., edited by Amyx, Jennifer and Drysdale, Peter. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Komiya, Ryutarō, Ōkuno, Masahiro, and Suzumura, Kotarō (eds.). 1988. Industrial Policy of Japan. Tokyo: Academic Press.Google Scholar
sōken, Kōmuin (ed.). 2021. Kōmuin no shibōsha sannen renzoku genshō (Number of Applicants for Public Service Positions Declines for the Third Consecutive Year). https://koumu.in/articles/1557fGoogle Scholar
Koo, Richard. 2011. “The World in Balance Sheet Recession: Causes, Cure, and Politics.” Real-World Economic Review 58. www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue58/Koo58.pdfGoogle Scholar
Krauss, Ellis S., and Pekkanen, Robert J.. 2011. The Rise and Fall of Japan’s LDP: Political Party Organizations as Historical Institutions. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lebo, Franklin Barr. 2018. Between Democracy and Technocracy: Regulating Administrative Guidance in Japan. London: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Lincoln, James R., and Gerlach, Michael L.. 2004. Japan’s Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maclachlan, Patricia, and Shimizu, Kay. 2021. “Japanese Agricultural Reform under Abenomics.” Pp. 421–44 in The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms, edited by Hoshi, Takeo and Lipscy, Phillip Y., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maclachlan, Patricia, and Shimizu, Kay. 2022. Betting on the Farm: Institutional Reform in Japanese Agriculture. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
McKinsey & Company, and ACCJ. 2021. Japan Digital Agenda 2030: Big Moves to Restore Digital Competitiveness and Productivity, Tokyo, February 2021, www.accj.or.jp/japan-digital-agenda-2030.Google Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2017. Shin sangyō kōzō bijion: Hitori-hitorino, sekai no kadai o kaiketsu suru Nihon no shōrai (New Industry Structure Vision: A Future for Japan that can Help Solve Global Problems). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/shinsangyo_kozo/pdf/017_05_00.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2018a. DX repōto: IT shisutemu “2025 nen no gake” no kokufuku to DX no honkakuteki na hatten (Report on Digital Transformation: Overcoming of “2025 Digital Cliff” Involving IT Systems and Full-fledged Development of Efforts for Digital Transformation). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/mono_info_service/digital_transformation/pdf/20180907_03.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2018b. Arata na jidai no sangyō gijutsu seisaku ni tsuite (Industrial Technology Policy for a new Era). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/sangyo_gijutsu/kenkyu_innovation/pdf/007_02_00.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2018c. Seizōgyō o meguru genjō to seisaku kadai: “Connected Industries” no shinka (The Current Status of Manufacturing and Policy Tasks: The Progress of Connected Industries). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/mono_info_service/air_mobility/pdf/001_s01_00.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2019a. Dai yon-kai sangyō kaikaku ni muketa sangyō kōzō no genjō to kadai ni tsuite (Report on the Current Situation and Future Tasks for the Industry Structure in the 4th Industrial Revolution). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/2050_keizai/pdf/005_02_00.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2019b. Rōdō shijō no kōzō henka no genjō to kadai ni tsuite (On the Current Situation and Future Tasks of Structural Change in the Labor Market). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/2050_keizai/pdf/005_03_00.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2020a. Reiwa 3 nendo keizai-sangyōseisaku no jūten (Main Points of Economic and Industrial Policy for 2021), 27th Industry Structure Deliberation Council, September. www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/sankoshin/sokai/pdf/027_02_00.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2020b. DX Repōto 2 [Chūkan torimatome] (DX Report 2 [Interim Version]). www.meti.go.jp/press/2020/12/20201228004/20201228004-2.pdfGoogle Scholar
METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). 2020c. Jizokuteki na kigyō kachi no dōjō to jinteki-shihon ni kan suru kenkyūkai hōkokusho (Report by the Study Group on Long-term Corporate Value Creation and Human Capital). www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/economy/kigyo_kachi_kojo/pdf/20200930_1.pdfGoogle Scholar
MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). 2020. Atarashii jidai no kōkō gakkō kyōiku no arikata waakingu gurūpu (Summary of Working Group on High School Education in the New Era). www.mext.go.jp/content/20201111-mxt_koukou02-000011002_02.pdfGoogle Scholar
Miura, Mari. 2012. Welfare through Work: Conservative Ideas, Partisan Dynamics and Social Protection in Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
MRI (Mitsubishi Research Institute) (ed.). 2021. 3X – Kakushinteki na tekunorojii to komyuniti ga motarasu mirai (The Three X: The Effects of Disruptive Technologies on Community). Tokyo: Diamond.Google Scholar
Muramatsu, Michio. 1981. Sengo nihon no kanryōsei (Japan’s Postwar Bureaucracy). Tokyo: Toyo Keizai.Google Scholar
Muramatsu, Michio, and Krauss, Ellis S.. 1984. “Bureaucrats and Politicians in Policymaking: The Case of Japan.” The American Political Science Review 78(1): 126–46.Google Scholar
Muramatsu, Michio, and Krauss, Ellis S.. 1987. “The Conservative Policy Line and the Development of Patterned Pluralism.” Pp. 516–55 in The Political Economy of Japan, edited by Yamamura, Kozo and Stanford, Yasukichi Yasuba: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Nakano, Koichi. 1998. “The Politics of Administrative Reform in Japan, 1993–1998: Toward a More Accountable Government?” Asian Survey 38(3): 291–309.Google Scholar
NEDO (New Energy Development Organization). 2018. Heisei 29 nendo Nihon kigyō no mono to sābisu sofutobea no kokusai kyōsō pojishion ni kan suru jōhō shūshū (Information Collection Regarding the Global Competitive Position of Japanese Manufacturing and Software Firms in 2017). Tokyo: NEDO/METI.Google Scholar
Nishiyama, Keita. 2021. DX no shikōhō: Nihon keizai fukkatsu e no saikyō senryaku (New DX Thinking: The Ultimate Strategy for Revising the Japanese Economy). Tokyo: Bungei Shunju.Google Scholar
OECD. 2021. Creating Responsive Adult Learning Opportunities in Japan. www.oecd.org/publications/creating-responsive-adult-learning-opportunities-in-japan-cfe1ccd2-en.htmGoogle Scholar
Ozawa, Ichiro. 1994. Blueprint for a New Japan: The Rethinking of a Nation. Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Patrick, Hugh, and Rosovsky, Henry (eds.). 1976. Asia’s New Giant: How the Japanese Economy Works. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Patrick, Hugh T., and Rohlen, Thomas P.. 1987. “Small-Scale Family Enterprises.” Pp. 331–84 in The Political Economy of Japan, Part 1: The Domestic Transformation, edited by Yamamura, Kozo and Yasuba, Yasukichi. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 1974. “The Bureaucratization of Policymaking in Japan.” American Journal of Political Science 18(40): 647–64.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. 1998. Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Baron, James N.. 1988. “Taking the Workers Back Out: Recent Trends in the Structuring of Employment.” Research in Organizational Behavior 10: 257–303.Google Scholar
Porter, Michael E., Takeuchi, Hirotaka, and Sakakibara, Mariko. 2000. Can Japan Compete? London: Macmillan Press.Google Scholar
Prahalad, C. K., and Hamel, Gary. 1990. “The Core Competence of the Corporation.” Harvard Business Review 68(3): 79–91.Google Scholar
Reed, Steven R., McElwain, Kenneth Mori, and Shimizu, Kay. 2009. Political Change in Japan: Electoral Behavior, Party Realignment, and the Koizumi Reforms. Stanford: Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center.Google Scholar
RIETI (Research Institute of the Economy, Trade and Industry), Committee on the History of Japan’s Trade and Industry Policy (ed.). 2020. Dynamics of Japan’s Trade and Industrial Policy in the Post Rapid Growth Era (1980–2000). https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-15-1987-1Google Scholar
Sato, Seizaburo, and Matsuzaki, Tetsuhisa. 1986. Jiminto Seiken (LDP Rule). Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha.Google Scholar
Schaede, Ulrike. 1995. “The ‘Old Boy’ Network and Government-Business Relationships.” The Journal of Japanese Studies 21(2): 293–317.Google Scholar
Schaede, Ulrike. 2000. Cooperative Capitalism: Self-Regulation, Trade Associations, and the Antimonopoly Law in Japan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schaede, Ulrike. 2004. “Cooperating to Compete: Determinants of a Sanctuary Strategy among Japanese Firms.” Asian Business and Management 3: 435–57.Google Scholar
Schaede, Ulrike. 2008. Choose and Focus: Japanese Business Strategies for the 21st Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Schaede, Ulrike. 2020. The Business Reinvention of Japan: How to Make Sense of the New Japan, and Why It Matters. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Schaede, Ulrike. 2021. “Sōgōshoku no fukugyō/kengyō ga, Nihon ni innobeeshion o umidasu.” Nikkei Business Online KAISHA no saikō #7. https://business.nikkei.com/atcl/gen/19/00235/052100007/Google Scholar
Schwartzman, David. 1993. The Japanese Television Cartel: A Study Based on Matsushita v. Zenith. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Shirakawa, Masaaki. 2021. Tumultuous Times: Central Banking in an Era of Crisis. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
SMEA (Small and Medium Enterprise Agency). 2019. 2019 nenban Chūshōkigyō hakusho: Reiwa jidai no chūshōkigyō no katsudō ni mukete (2019 Small and Medium Enterprise White Paper: Toward Revising SME in the Reiwa Era), www.chusho.meti.go.jp/pamflet/hakusyo/2019/PDF/chusho/00Hakusyo_zentai.pdfGoogle Scholar
Solís, Mireya. 2017. Dilemmas of a Trading Nation: Japan and the United States in the Evolving Asia-Pacific Order. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Solís, Mireya. 2020. “The Underappreciated Power: Japan after Abe.” Foreign Affairs 99(6): 123–132.Google Scholar
Suzuki, Kenji. 2006. “The Changing Pattern of Amakudari Appointments, 1991–2000.” Pp. 202–20 in Institutional Change in Japan, edited by Blomström, Magnus and La Croix, Sumner. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Takenaka, Harutaka. 2021. “Expansion of the Prime Minister’s Power and Transformation of Japanese Politics.” Pp. 43–67 in The Political Economy of the Abe Government and Abenomics Reforms, edited by Hoshi, Takeo and Lipscy, Phillip Y.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Yō. 2012. Sebun-irebun owarinaki kakushin (The Never-Ending Transformation of Seven-Eleven). Tokyo: Nikkei Bijinesu-jin bunko.Google Scholar
Toya, Tetsuro, and Amyx, Jennifer A.. 2006. The Political Economy of the Japanese Financial Big Bang: Institutional Change in Finance and Public Policymaking. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Toyama, Kazuhiko. 2020. Kōporeeto toransufōmeeshion: Nihon no kaisha o tsukurikaeru (Corporate Transformation: CX for DX). Tokyo: Bungei Shunju.Google Scholar
Vogel, Ezra F. 1979. Japan as Number One: Lessons for America. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Vogel, Steven K. 2006. Japan Remodeled: How Government and Industry are Reforming Japanese Capitalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Vogel, Steven K. 2018. “Japan’s Labor Regime in Transition: Rethinking Work for a Shrinking Nation.” Journal of Japanese Studies 44(2): 257–92.Google Scholar
Waldenberger, Franz. 2013. “‘Company Heroes’ versus ‘Superstars’: Executive Pay in Japan in Comparative Perspective.” Contemporary Japan 25(2): 189–213.Google Scholar
Womack, James P., Jones, Daniel T., and Roos, Daniel. 1990. The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production – Toyota’s Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars that is Now Revolutionizing World Industry. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Yamamura, Kozo, and Yasuba, Yasukichi (eds.). 1987. The Political Economy of Japan, Vol. 1: The Domestic Transformation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
- 1
- Cited by