Program
Asia
Innovative Japan, Global Japan
Japan is more innovative than commonly understood, and more global than often given credit for. Too often the narrative for Japan is that it lacks the capability to innovate effectively in its several “lost decades,” and that it is still fundamentally closed. While this captures some of Japan’s reality, there are also substantial areas where Japan is both innovative and global, and where Japan can serve as a model for elsewhere. Both Japan and other countries will be better off with a more accurate framing and narrative about how Japan is evolving and how it can partner with other countries in mutually beneficial ways. Kenji Kushida’s research under the “Innovative Japan, Global Japan” umbrella focuses primarily on technology and political economy-related topics.
Featured Projects
Featured Projects
Featured Content
Featured Content
Project
Startup Japan
Japan’s startup ecosystem has developed rapidly over the past decade, with the potential to inject much-needed flexibility and dynamism into its economy dominated by large firms. Japan’s startup ecosystem will influence the technological and strategic trajectories that large firms and much of the economy pursue. This series features data, company cases, policy analyses, and individual stories to illustrate this transformative force within Japan that took decades to mature but is now ready to take off.
Project
Demographic Change as Technological Opportunity
Japan’s extreme aging and shrinking population are economic and societal challenges, but they also provide technological opportunities for global leadership. Technological trajectories of worker automation and worker skill augmentation within Japan are already being shaped by market forces, acute labor shortages, and favorable political and regulatory dynamics. This project engages in deep dives of specific issue areas and sectors (such as agriculture, construction, transportation, healthcare, eldercare, land, housing ownership, disaster prevention, and more) to provide a deeper understanding and make policy recommendations for Japan and to build areas of international cooperation based on issues.
Project
Silicon Valley Revisited
This series offers a deep dive into the Silicon Valley ecosystem, its continuing evolution, and its connections to the world amid new waves of technological innovation and geopolitical disruption.
Even as recent U.S. popular discourse has shifted from celebrating the region’s economic ecosystem to urging caution toward it and sometimes outright condemning it, international interest in Silicon Valley is still strong.
International talent continues to flow into the region, building companies that influence technological trajectories and transform industries worldwide. As a result, political leaders, government officials, businesspeople, and researchers from around the globe keep visiting. The motivations of these international audiences have remained much the same: they aim to better understand Silicon Valley’s startup and tech ecosystem with an eye toward building their own startup ecosystems that will drive economic dynamism and innovation, as well as to understand the latest technological trajectories that may disrupt their economies and firms.
Project
Japan - Silicon Valley Innovation Initiative @ Carnegie (J-SV)
J-SV builds bridges between Silicon Valley and Japan, helping Japanese firms harness the Silicon Valley ecosystem while elevating the visibility of Japanese firms in Silicon Valley for mutual benefit. Monthly “deep dive” study sessions (in Japanese) are led primarily by Kenji Kushida on topics related to innovation, Silicon Valley, political economy, and knowledge and experiences accumulated by Japanese firms. Study sessions are in Japanese, and either in Zoom or hybrid formats to allow participation from both Silicon Valley and Japan. Occasional informal in-person gatherings in Silicon Valley, and approximately once a year in Japan, provide venues for exchanging ideas, experiences, and accumulated pre-competitive know-how across companies. J-SV relies on corporate support.
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J-SV gatherings at the Carnegie California office and New Japan Summit in Tokyo
