in human capital, within the year. until now, it has been difficult to link hr strategies to management strategies because there have been no benchmarks for comparison with other firms, and management has not been equipped to set key performance indicators ( kpis ). by making human capital investment more transparent, the new government measure is expected to make it easier for management to set concrete targets and formulate strategies to realize them. furthermore, the measure has the potential to accelerate corporate growth, as both investors and employees can use the information to evaluate firms in terms of growth potential, among other factors. c. toward a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution as such efforts gain momentum, i think that they will lead to sustainable economic growth and accelerate the shift to an era in which employees are better equipped to choose which firm they wish to work for. regarding distribution, average income per household decreased from 6. 17 million yen in 2000 to 5. 52 million yen in 2018, but this includes the effect of population aging ( chart 18 ). looking at households other than the elderly, while average income fell from 6. 78 million yen in 2000 to 6. 10 million yen in 2012, it subsequently rose to 6. 59 million yen in 2018, prior to the outbreak of covid - 19. to bring prosperity to japan's super - aging society as a whole, it will be crucial to further raise the income level of workers. one of the unintended consequences of structural labor shortages is that employees will have greater power to choose which firm they wish to work for. consequently, managers are expected to implement growth strategies that enhance the appeal and growth potential of their firms and adopt more dynamic hr policies, including greater investment in human capital to foster employee development, higher compensation levels, the use of stock options, and putting in place more robust pension plans. individuals, too, will be expected to enhance their skills to increase their added value. they will need to expand their sources of stable income and build a post - retirement nest egg by investing in financial assets focusing on the long term, on diversification, and on regular contributions. household financial assets in japan amounted to approximately 2, 000 trillion yen as of the end of september 2021. however, cash and deposits accounted for by far the highest proportion of the total, at 54 percent, with stocks and investment trusts representing a mere 15 percent. the situation in the united states is quite the opposite, with cash and deposits accounting for 13 percent and stocks and investment trusts

percent for the services sector. this is considerably lower than the 18. 8 percent in manufacturing and 9. 0 percent in services in germany and the 12. 7 percent and 7. 6 percent in the united states. 6 japan has historically excelled at process innovation, but with advances in digitalization, the country now lags far behind in this area as well. among u. s. firms, digitization ( converting analog or paper - based data into digital format ) and digitalization ( digitalizing individual business operations and manufacturing processes ) have streamlined and made more efficient the workforces of existing businesses while creating new employment opportunities in growth businesses. it seems to have been difficult for these mechanisms to gain traction among japanese firms, and this has led to delays in digitalization. however, advanced economies are pursuing digital transformation ( dx ) not chiefly to reform the cost structure but rather to move toward a business model in which data creates value. meanwhile, the expansion of cloud - based services has lowered hurdles to digitalization, for instance, by enabling lower - cost and faster implementation. this, i believe, provides firms with the opportunity to step up the pace of transformation of their business models and make significant headway into new stages of growth. furthermore, for japan to take the lead in areas such as digitalization and climate change response, the growth of startups that can carry forward such initiatives will be critical. the number of japanese startups has been on the rise in recent years. however, japan's entry and exit rates remain low compared to other advanced economies ( chart 14 ). a survey of japanese oecd, oecd science, technology and industry scoreboard 2017, november 2017. entrepreneurs reported " fear of failure " as the biggest reason for the low number of business start - ups in japan. 7 it is important to foster an environment that is supportive of second chances, by for example expanding the safety net, and thereby promote a positive approach to taking on challenges. few startups experience significant growth in japan - - the country has only six unicorns, that is, unlisted startups valued at over 1 billion u. s. dollars. by comparison, there are 488 unicorns in the united states, 170 in china, 37 in the united kingdom, and 25 in germany. 8 in addition to talent and a customer base, funding is essential to promote the growth of startups. yet the volume of venture capital investment in startups in japan remains tiny compared to the