Provisional Translation

July 8, 2022
Keizai Doyukai
FY2022 (37th) Karuizawa Appeal 2022

Striving for a Society Co-created by its Seikatsusha—Virtuous Cycle of Growth, Investment, and Distribution—
The world is now right in the middle of a turning point in many aspects such as
economy, geopolitics, and advanced technologies. Above all, Japan is confronting apressing issue to focus on maintaining and expanding its sovereign power, while
bracing for the environment to continue with uncertainties and risks.
Most of the solutions to get out of the 30-year-long stagnation are already on thetable. For Japan to have a substantial presence in the international community as “acountry not only valuable, but indispensable, to the common good of the world,” wemust redefine Japan’s “purpose” or what Japan should strive for, and make itannounced to the world.
In other words, Japan—a front-runner in taking on newly emerging issues—needs asociety where everyone is happy and with peace of mind over the future, supported
by sustainable economic growth. In this regard, we call it “a Society Co-created byits Seikatsusha,” where each Seikatsusha becomes actively involved with achieving
it, believing that our country has a unique power to make it through.
The Japanese term Seikatsusha means all individuals, who have multifaceted roles
as consumers, workers, members of families, and participants in communities. Theterm also encompasses all active stakeholders in Japan, including organizations
run by individuals of the society. The main objective of the Society Co-created by its
Seikatsusha is to drive the society toward a desired direction, with theSeikatsusha’s purpose synchronized with that of the nation, and by allowing
Seikatsusha as active players to make selections at will.
—Japan’s country image to strive forin the Society Co-created by its Seikatsusha—
With sustainable economic growth, all Seikatsusha realize happiness, morewell-being, and future confidence. To be more specific, Japan achieves world’s
leading position from the perspectives of economic growth, inclusiveness, andsustainability, by embodying images as follows.
 Children and young people live with peace of mind, freely developing theirpersonality and independence.
1 The society supports all individuals to make efforts to strengthen their powerof value creation for life, and to select opportunities by their own choice.
 There are enterprises of various size, business sector, and structure, withclear purposes connected to the power of value creation and competitiveness.
 Each Seikatsusha actively uses opportunities to participate in policymaking of
the government and public sector well trusted by Seikatsusha.
The Society Co-created by its Seikatsusha will be realized, when unfavorable reality
nobody wants to see becomes visualized, and a sense of crisis for the future like“clinging to the status quo will only result in the downfall” is shared among thepublic.
The clock is ticking. Let’s present a commitment to take a step forward from now,
toward a single direction of the Society Co-created by its Seikatsusha.
1. Seikatsusha’s commitment to strive for the Society Co-created by its
Seikatsusha(1) Accelerate mobility of people and diversity
 In the age of drastically changing economic/social structure, smooth humanmobility to growth/high value added sector is indispensable. So is acceleration ofmobility of people in the society as a whole.
 From an aspect of supporting each Seikatsusha—a player in the community—tocontinue an effort for life to enhance his/her human value as well as to select anappropriate workplace, it is essential to optimize all social system, including
education, labor market, and social security, to be in line with the age of diversity.
(2) Create various innovations with “Mutual Assistance Capitalism”
 Facing the critical fiscal conditions, we cannot keep depending on thegovernment’s public assistance for solving increasingly complex and expandingsocial challenges. Instead, our future growth will originate from continuously
solving social issues using a power of the private sector or, in other words, fromgenerating innovation and growth from “mutual assistance” not depending on thepower of the government and public finance.
 Thus, companies lead open collaborations with NPOs, NGOs, universities,
research institutions, and communities, gain sympathy of social stakeholders,and invigorate ambitions of younger generations. Through these collaborations,the companies reform the organizations and business management of their own.
 Furthermore, supply chains for value co-creation are to be publicly open to the2world. Japan must attract human resource abroad with diverse nationality, profile,and cultural background, thereby evolving and promoting diversity.
(3) Distribution as investment to human value
 Going forward, distribution should be looked at from a perspective of investment
to an individual’s personal growth and potential, such as for social participation,
skill enhancement, and supporting a motivation to study.
 For meeting the needs of social support and help that are accurate, swift, andefficient, we address the issue of making the most of digital value, which was
highlighted by the coronavirus pandemic. More use of the My Number System forsocial security and taxation is one of the examples.
(4) Shift to a government that is purpose-driven, agile, and reliable
 The role of a government is to support—not disturb— Seikatsusha likecompanies to create diverse innovations. Thus, a focus is on development ofenvironment such as providing public goods including infrastructure for using
advanced technologies and regulatory reform, in order to implement innovations.
 The government must strive for more agile, flexible policymaking andimplementation, by using data as well as evidence-based assessment andmonitoring, in line with characteristics of innovations and governance of privatecompanies.
2. Decisions to be made now for desired future Prices of semiconductors and food/energy are rising worldwide, due todisruptions of global value chains hit by the coronavirus pandemic and a series ofsupply constraints caused by the war in Ukraine. Japan that lived with deflation
for such a long time is also suffering from cost-push inflation, accelerated by theweaker yen.
 Recent consumer prices are not rising as fast as corporate goods prices, but thedeclining real wage, induced by the rising consumer prices, should be eliminatedfor the purpose of maintaining prosperous life of the public. This is the time topromote human mobility, industrial reorganization and replacement of the oldbusinesses with the new ones, educational reform, and investment for humanresources such as reskilling, as well as to enhance Japanese economy’s powerof value creation. This should result in higher productivity and a transformation ofJapan’s economic structure to the one with stably increasing income per capita.
 An external labor market full of diverse human resource is essential to realize
high-quality employment and frictionless, flexible labor transfer. We request the3Meeting on a Social Security System Oriented to All Generations to quickly start
discussions on integrated reform of taxation, social security, and labor market, fordrawing up a timetable toward a target without delay.
 The government must listen to the private sector—voices of business managers,
above all—at the phase of strategy setting and implementation in order to makegrowth strategy more effective. “A grand design and action plan of the newcapitalism” should have a long-term public-private commitment, and go through afar strengthened and exhaustive PDCA cycle in a rapid and appropriate manner.
 Government meetings and councils in charge of strategy setting should seek, inan urgent manner, presentation of agenda by private sector members,
EBPM-based and verifiable data publication, and establishment of monitoring
scheme based on evaluation /analysis of policy effects.
 Use of nuclear power plants with confirmed safety inspection is indispensable, toachieve carbon neutral and ensure stable supply of energy. As the international
community aims to strike a balance between safety and higher utilization ofnuclear power plants, Japan should follow suit with preparation for striking suchbalance.
 Labor shortage is becoming more serious again toward restart of economic andsocial activities in the post-pandemic phase. First, we must raise productivity ofJapanese economy by making the most of digital technologies and data. Second,
we must overhaul our regulatory and institutional structures introduced in theanalogue era in a drastic and swift manner. This is for maximization of thewell-being of the public through wise spending and based on limited fiscal
source.
 To enable startups to compete in the global scene for a remarkable success, wemust press ahead with fundamental regulatory reform, such as a review ofregular depreciation of goodwill—a barrier to M&As—and regulations on working
hours.
3. Business leaders and Doyukai to lead a movement for a Society Co-createdby its Seikatsusha(1) “Kai yori hajimeyo”1: Business leader’s commitment
 A company becomes sustainable only when it creates values required by thesociety now and in the future, makes earnings, and wins market appreciation. All
business leaders must strengthen their power of value creation, reflecting thisprinciple of capitalism.
 They must also seek market evaluation on their approach to address long-term
1

Translator’s comment: Old Chinese proverb meaning “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”4

issues, such as innovation and solutions to social challenges. In this regard, theyneed engagement with the markets.
(2) Update to Keizai Doyukai 3.0 Keizai Doyukai endeavors to discover contacts with multi-stakeholders andagendas shared with them as a group of business leaders in action, with a focus
on collaboration there.
 In particular, Doyukai pursues enhancement of Seikatsusha platform function
such as of the Future Selection Forum, as well as its communication capability.
Its objectives are to establish channels of dialogue and network such as with
NPOs/NGOs—expert in resolving social issues—, startups, next generations
who play an active role in the future, and leaders in the local public/private
sectors. Doyukai’s action starts with ramp-up of cooperation and collaboration
with Keizai Doyukai in each region, as an effort to make Doyukai andmulti-stakeholders become a communication hub.

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