'About Japan' webinar series 237: Japan in 2025 - Market opportunities for EU companies

What fields represent the biggest opportunities for EU companies in Japan in 2025 and beyond?

Japan is an enormous and developed market, the 4^th largest economy in the world, and home to 124 million people. The country is also famous for its overall stability and strong connections with its traditional values. On the other hand, after Japan’s significant economic growth in the 1970s and 1980s, the past 30 years can be described with a sort of stagnation, leading to an unchanged economic status quo. It may have been seen as a promising market from an outsider’s point of view, though rather inaccessible to European companies.

However, 2025 is a year that could be considered as a turning point for Japanese society from many different perspectives. This year poses two major challenges for Japan, both called as the “2025 Problem”.

In a demographic sense, the “2025 Problem” refers to the Japanese “baby boomer” generation (danka no sedai) becoming over 75 years old; thus one-third of the country’s population will consist of people over the age of 65. Consequently, short-term issues of higher workforce shortage may arise, and elder company (especially SMEs) owners may start closing businesses.

The other issue called “Cliff of 2025” is about the obsolescence of IT systems used in Japan. The share of legacy systems – introduced in the 1990s or earlier – is high to this day and most companies still use them daily. Many of these systems will reach EOS (End of System) stage in 2025, increasing the costs of basic operation. If this problem remains unsolved, the economic loss could reach more than 12 trillion JPY (75 billion EUR).

On top of these problems, the topic of carbon neutrality also comes into the picture. Japan has set a goal of reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions and reach net zero by 2050. This includes a sub-goal of reducing emissions by 46% until 2030. In a 10-year span, this large-scale green transformation project makes up 150 trillion JPY (937.5 billion EUR) in investments.

The EU and Japan share many common issues and goals. Looking at the history of trade between Europe and Japan, there is a strong sense of partnership and trust towards each other’s initiatives and products. The question is: is it possible for EU companies to create business opportunities from the current state of Japanese affairs?

In this webinar, we propose business ideas for European companies related to the main issues Japan has to deal with in the near future, while also pointing out certain difficulties that may arise due to Japan-specific factors such as local competition or intercultural aspects. We argue that along with the fields of automatization, healthcare and digital transformation, European companies could also demonstrate their competitive solutions in green technology, making it one of the most promising business sectors in the country to discover. The event is designed to help you find Japanese market demand and give you ideas for possible market entry strategies.

The webinar is targeted to EU companies interested in entering the Japanese market with innovative products in the automatization, healthcare, digital transformation and green technology sectors.

In 40 minutes from your desk, you may discover:

• Macrotrends in Japan (labour shortage, aging society, digitalization, carbon neutrality)
  • Demographic “2025 Problem”
  • IT technology’s “Cliff of 2025”
• Possible business opportunities in the following fields:
  • Automatization and smart factories
  • Healthcare and elderly care
  • Digital transformation and legacy systems
  • Green technologies and carbon neutrality
• Regulatory & business obstacles and risks
• Possible ways to enter the Japanese market, important points to keep in mind

Programme:

• Introduction
• Expert’s presentation
• Q&A Session

Speaker: Daniel Vuleta / Business Consultant / Sudy & Co., Ltd.

Daniel Vuleta has 10+ years’ experience with Japan, including 3 years spent in the country for his university studies. For the last 5 years, he has been working as a Business Consultant at Sudy & Co., a Hungarian consulting company specializing in supporting business between Japanese and European companies. Daniel has taken part in many companies’ Japanese market entry processes, including food, IT, green tech, fashion and health tech sectors.

Moderator: Sofia Smerzi, Business Support Coordinator, EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation

Organiser: EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation - Brussels Office

Deliverables: