🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Demographic pressures are the driving force behind Japan’s new growth strategy

• The targets respond to demographic strain, since Japan has the world’s highest share of people aged 65 and older at 29.1% 1.
• Labor gaps are already biting, with a projected shortfall of 36,000 bus drivers by 2030 that is forcing service cuts in cities and rural areas 1.
• Freight faces a similar squeeze, as a 36% shortage of truck drivers is expected by 2031 and could reduce national transport capacity by about a third by 2030 2.
• Corporate bankruptcies have climbed to a 13-year high and household consumption is falling, so the government is tying its push into self-driving vehicles and AI to keeping growth going despite worker shortages 3.

Japan’s new strategy is steering rival automakers toward alliances

• To reach its goals for self-driving cars, the government is supporting frameworks that nudge long-time rivals such as Toyota and Honda to work together on AI-powered self-driving technology 4.
• Nissan and Honda have also teamed up, saying they have fallen behind foreign rivals and cannot catch up while trying to do everything on their own 5.
• Companies are also looking overseas for know-how to speed up work on self-driving technology.
• Honda is co-developing AI chips with U.S. startup Mythic, a semiconductor company, under a joint development agreement, while Toyota has a preliminary agreement with Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving technology company, to explore collaboration on autonomous driving technologies 67.