Remedying Japan’s deficient investment in people

ABSTRACT

This paper asks if there is deficiency of investment in people in Japan. To answer this question we examine comparative and historical data, as well as the reasons behind the data. We then look at public policies of recent administrations, particularly the Kishida administration, since one of its core policy agendas is ‘investment in people’. We find that there is a deficiency of investment in people, by governments, companies and people themselves, for a variety of reasons, and that the Kishida administration has to date only proposed temporary measures without long term solutions. The paper concludes with policy implications and some proposals for additional action.

KEYWORDS:

• Education
• investment in people
• Japan
• Kishida cabinet
• youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Maitsuki kinrō tōkei chōsa, heisei 12 nen (Monthly Labour Survey, 2000) and Reiwa 3 nen kakuhō (Final Report of 2020 Monthly Labour Survey). The figures are for Ippan Rōdōsha (full-time employees) of all industries.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the JSPS [Kaken JP20KK0030].

Notes on contributors

Yoshifumi Nakata

Yoshifumi Nakata is a Professor of Strategic Human Resource Management at the Graduate School of Policy and Management as well as the Director of Research Institute of STEM at Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan. His research interests focus on relation between work environment and engineers/software engineers’ performance.