Attractive Sectors to Invest in Japan

Renewable Energy/Secondary Battery

As a measure against global warming, various actions have been taken to promote renewable energy on a global scale. Since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11, 2011, energy issues have become more and more prominent in Japan

because of earthquake-stricken thermal power plants and unprecedentedly large-scale and long-term damage to the nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power in Fukushima. In order to solve those issues, renewable energy is drawing further attention in Japan.

As a measure against global warming, various actions have been taken to promote renewable energy on a global scale. Since the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami occurred on March 11, 2011, energy issues have become more and more prominent in Japan

because of earthquake-stricken thermal power plants and unprecedentedly large-scale and long-term damage to the nuclear power plant of Tokyo Electric Power in Fukushima. In order to solve those issues, renewable energy is drawing further attention in Japan.

The government estimates that the market size of renewable energy in Japan will greatly expand by 2020. The market size of solar power generation devices is expected to grow up to 1,287,600 million yen, which is 8 times larger than the 2008 figure. The market size of wind power generation plants is expected to grow up to 249,000 million yen, which is 4 times larger than the 2008 figure, and the growth expectation of lithium-ion batteries is up to 600,600 million yen, which is 14 times larger than the 2008 figure. With regards to charging stations and geothermal power generation plants, their market sizes were small in 2008 but they are predicted to grow up to 148,000 million yen and 78,400 million yen, respectively, by 2020. New energy business is expected to grow up to 2,431,100 million yen, which is 32 times larger than in 2008.

Life Sciences

Japan is the second-largest market in the world after the United States, occupying about 10% of the market in each of the global drug and medical device markets. Many foreign-affiliated companies have entered the Japanese market and are now active as major players now in various fields.

An aging society with fewer children is growing in Japan today. The percentage of the population aged 65 and older is higher compared to other developed countries. In addition, medical expenses are on the increase every year due to “an increase in the number of elderly aged 75 years and older with characteristics of high consultation rate for chronic diseases, high disease rate, and high nursing care utilization rate,” “an increase in the number of elderly who live alone and cannot expect support within the family,” and “an increase in medical cost per person due to the upgrading of the service in medical care and nursing care.” To solve these problems the government, in the “Japan Revitalization Strategy,” set the goal of the “realization of a society where people are able to live a healthy life and grow old by enhancing effective preventive care services and health management”, and at the same time worked out a policy of aiming to improve international competitiveness of medicine-related industries. In the “Regulatory Reform Implementation Plan” decided by the cabinet in June 2013, the government specified four priority action items for the realization of a “healthy life expectancy society” to build an environment for the medicine-related market.

ICT – The Information and Communications Industry — Japan’s Largest Industry

The market size (real GDP) of Japan’s information and communications (ICT) industry in 2010 was 98.8 trillion yen. The ICT industry accounted for 10.7% of 922.7 trillion yen for the total of all industries, representing the largest. The ICT industry also displayed a steady increase in growth rate. The average annual growth rate between 1995 and 2010 was 3.0%, higher than the 0.3% for all industries. Even when compared with other industries—2.8% for the electrical machinery industry and 1.4% for the transport machinery industry—the ICT industry showed the highest growth rate of all industries.

Source:http://www.jetro.go.jp/en/invest/attract/