Foreword
This report presents a dashboard to monitor progress in key areas crucial to realising the government’s vision for a “New Form of Capitalism”. Building on the OECD Framework for Policy Action on Inclusive Growth and other relevant OECD data and measurement frameworks, the metrics includes a set of relevant indicators to support concrete measures for the government to deliver on its vision as well as inform on best practices in other major advanced economies.
Taking into account Japan’s current socio-economic context, the framework outlines four dimensions where monitoring and policy action should focus: i) sustainable growth and an equitable distribution of its benefits; ii) equal opportunities and foundations for future prosperity; iii) inclusive and sustainable business dynamism and innovation; and iv) enhanced trust for responsive and inclusive governance. Moving beyond GDP metrics and statistical averages, the report puts people at its centre, focusing on a range of outcomes that matter to people’s well-being, across different groups of the Japanese population.
Underpinned by rigorous statistical analysis at a sufficiently disaggregated level, the report helps to better understand some of the main drivers of well-being and economic success in Japan. Promoting investment in people’s well-being and fostering innovation for a more inclusive and sustainable economy represent two important levers for reducing structural inequalities, which have been a long-standing challenge for Japan. Digitalisation can bring positive change with new forms of employment and technologies, albeit needs to be considered against a rather limited horizontal mobility in a segmented Japanese labour market. At the same time, Japan's "jobs for life" model and lacklustre business dynamism have limited cross-pollination of talent in the economy and widened wage gaps for different groups of population.
The statistical evidence presented in this report underscores the importance of considering growth and equity pillars as complementary in policy design, supported by a clearly defined set of indicators and recommendations for concrete policies to address structural inequalities in a co-ordinated and synergistic manner. The report was prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI). Žiga Žarnić supervised the project and co-authored the publication with Junya Ino and Guillaume Cohen, who contributed statistical and policy-related analyses. Martine Zaïda provided support and advice on communication aspects; Cassandra Morley edited and prepared the manuscript for publication. We are grateful to Romina Boarini for her guidance and valuable comments on the report. We gratefully acknowledge suggestions for improvement provided by the experts from the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, and the OECD Economics Department.
