(iii) Business partnerships

Business partnerships involve entering into a production or sales outsourcing contract and having the contractor either manufacture or sell your products. The advantage of such arrangements is the low risks when expanding business operations or when considering withdrawing from the business.

Business partnerships are often selected when an enterprise lacks knowledge about the overseas business, is unable to raise sufficient capital for direct investment, or lacks proof the business is sustainable over the mid-to-long term. Collaborations between enterprises are increasing in the ICT field, partly because standardized technologies and systems often transcend national borders and barriers between enterprises (Figure 1-2-5-4).

## (2) Applying ICT to stimulate inbound demand

### a. Growth of ICT-driven inbound demand

With a declining population and limited growth markets, consumption by overseas tourists (inbound demand) has important significance in mid-term economic growth scenarios. The numbers of overseas visitors has skyrocketed in recent years due to relaxation of tourist visa requirements and the trend toward a cheaper yen (Figure 1-2-5-5). Spillover effects from inbound demand are expected to show up in other industries, such as manufacturing and the wholesale sector. The application of ICT is a necessary part of promoting inbound tourism and widening inbound demand.

When gathering information before coming to Japan, overseas tourists find personal blogs, travel portal sites, and accommodation websites useful. In the interest of having in-country travelers access these information sources and providing compelling information about local regions, secure and convenient free public Wi-Fi services play an important role and are strongly in demand by overseas tourists.

Information provision in general is an effective means of stimulating demand, because it appeals to potential travelers to Japan as well as aiding in-country travelers. It is possible today for many entities to provide information from Japan's many regions via the Internet, broadcasting, and other forms of media. Broadly disseminating information about the attractions of Japan's regions to the world is expected to increase inbound tourism, in addition to providing substantial stimulus to regional economies.

We anticipate other state-of-the-art initiatives exploiting Japan’s advanced ICT to appear. One area is the provision of multiple payment methods such as electronic money, credit card terminals, and payment apps. Another is applying big data on consumption patterns to study and analyze tourism trends and to plan tourism. And a beneficial means to eliminate language barriers is making available multilingual tourism apps with tourism information and maps as well as multilingual interpretation and translation apps.

Figure 1-2-5-4 Examples of business partnerships with overseas enterprises by ICT enterprises

Japanese enterprise	Partner enterprise	Country	Summary
Information Services International-Dentsu	Indocyber Global Technology	Indonesia	Information Services International-Dentsu entered a business partnership with PT. Indocyber Global Technology, which has developed an IT business in Indonesia, via its subsidiary, PT. ISID Indonesia, and has started providing Lamp, a core business system for leasing and financial businesses, to local enterprises in Indonesia.
International Technology Center	Titan Technology Corporation	Vietnam	The companies aim to develop markets in Japan and the Southeast Asia region by establishing innovation centers in both countries and jointly constructing new cutting-edge and competitive business models. International Technology Center is also moving ahead with offshore development in Vietnam.
Human Holdings	Ace Plus Solutions Ltd.	Myanmar	The business partnership has started offshore IT operations for website and app development. The companies are constructing a business platform extending from personnel supply and support to website and app development.
NTT	e-shelter	Germany	NTT has partnered with Germany's largest data center operator. NTT's aim is to strengthen its competitiveness in Europe.
SoftBank	PT Tokopedia	Indonesia	SoftBank invested 100 million dollars in PT Tokopedia, the largest EC site in Indonesia, to enter the fledgling Indonesian EC market.
SoftBank	Snapdeal and Ola	India	SoftBank invested about 67.7 billion yen in Snapdeal, a large Indian online retailer, becoming Snapdeal's largest shareholder. SoftBank also invested in Ola, an operator of a taxi-dispatching platform. SoftBank is looking to strengthen its business in India, where the EC market is forecast to expand.

(Source) "Study Report on a Structural Analysis of the ICT Industry in the IoT Era and Verification of ICT's Multifaceted Contributions to Economic Growth," MIC (2016)