Innovation starts as a seed, planted in local communities. It grows by investing in people – from the small restaurant owner to the masses of women seeking a more welcoming work culture. By training businesses to use digital tools, encouraging companies to adopt workplace reforms, and partnering with local authorities to support small business growth, we aim to help homegrown Japanese innovation thrive.
As Japan faces the challenge of sustaining economic growth amid a declining population, businesses are looking to increase productivity and reach more customers with the help of technology.
Our research shows that companies using websites and social networking tools have a 50% higher per capita output than those that don’t use them. But only 40% of Japanese businesses with the potential to use digital actually do so. As a result, there’s a demand for education and resources to help more of them get online to grow their revenue and global reach despite labor shortages in Japan.
Google’s Womenwill initiative is helping Japanese businesses adopt reforms that create a more inclusive environment for women and a more balanced work culture for everyone, allowing both enterprises and employees to thrive.
Looking to capitalize on a rapidly evolving economy, Hiroshima government worked with Google to help promote small business growth in its prefecture. We teamed up with local authorities to host an innovation summit and create programs that introduced modern technologies in a way that still celebrated the prefecture’s rich business community.
We also welcomed startups to Camps Innovation Hub Hiroshima, an incubator space for promoting a new generation of entrepreneurs. The space doubled as the primary site of 14 digital marketing seminars presented to 1,200 local entrepreneurs from numerous industries, including traditional fishing and shipping businesses looking to attract more customers. Through these community-driven efforts, the prefecture was able to nurture innovation while still playing to its strengths and maintaining its identity.