The Service Productivity & Innovation for Growth* (“SPRING” chaired by Jiro Ushio) is launching the “Global Service Forum” as a collaborative platform between the government and the private sector designed to promote international expansion of Japan’s service industries.

The forum is aimed at supporting service industries that are contemplating branching out into or expanding business in the international market in order to capture overseas markets including fast-growing Asian markets, in the face of the domestic market being significantly affected by Japan’s aging population and falling birthrate.

Specific activities expected to be performed by the forum will include information sharing about work standardization, techniques for developing human resources, and consumer behavior in overseas markets, all of which are crucial for success in overseas business, and exchanges of opinions aimed for trade talks and dialog.

About 150 Japanese service industry companies and associations that are interested in international business expansion participate in the forum. SPRING will continue to invite more service-related companies to the forum. Today, the forum is meeting for the first time since its foundation.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will utilize the forum as a platform for collaboration between the government and the private sector and will make efforts to provide it with information on overseas markets in cooperation with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and some other agencies. Further, METI will organize and summarize opinions expressed by companies participating in the forum for use in trade talks and dialog, and develop to an appropriate size the foreign markets that Japanese service industries are making inroads into. Thus METI will work to support the international expansion of Japan’s service industries.

*An organization established in May 2007 as the mother body for developing a national movement toward innovation and productivity improvement in service industries, with wide-ranging participants from industry, academia, related government ministries and agencies, and so forth. METI participates in this organization as an observer together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications; Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation, and Tourism; and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. (http://www.service-js.jp)(in Japanese)

1. How things have developed to date

Japan’s service industries are now faced by the challenge of how to “expand their market overseas” to globalize their business and take in new growth dynamism in the face of the domestic market being significantly impacted by Japan’s aging population and the falling birthrate. METI hosted the “Global Service Study Group” where it discussed the significance of our service industries’ international expansion, the challenges they are faced with, and various ways of promoting their expansion. The discussions were compiled into a report in March 2009.

To see a copy of the “Summary of Global Service Study Group report” made public on March 6, 2009, please visit http://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/data/20090306_01.html

2. Launching the Global Service Forum

In the above referred-to report a recommendation was made on the necessity of setting up a cross-　industrial platform based on government-private sector collaboration designed to promote global expansion of Japan’s service industries. In response to the recommendation, SPRING is launching the Global Service Forum with the participation of wide-ranging parties from service industry companies and the public and private sectors that are interested in international business expansion. Through the forum’s activities SPRING will provide support to service industry companies that are contemplating moving into or expanding business in overseas markets.

3. Activities to be performed by SPRING

Specifically, SPRING will provide the following services:
- Collecting and providing information on “best practices” followed by companies that have been successful in overseas business regarding the standardization of work and management techniques, human resources development, forms of doing business overseas including joint ventures, etc.
- Providing on its website information collected on overseas markets in cooperation with JETRO and other agencies on consumer trends, culture and lifestyles, income levels, and kinds of services preferred in overseas markets.
- Providing, in cooperation with JETRO and other agencies, information useful for determining matching possibilities for business cooperation or tie-ups with local partners based on expectations held by local companies regarding cooperation with Japanese companies.
- Dispatching joint government-private sector missions to promote cooperation and tie-ups between Japanese companies and prospective local partners in a specific manner and working to obtain support from local governments.
- Getting information shared among, and organizing opinions collected from, government agencies and participating companies on how trade talks or dialog are being conducted out and what deregulation requests should be made to local governments.

4. Forum being held today

About 150 Japanese service industry companies and associations interested in expanding business overseas participate in the forum. SPRING will continue to invite more service-related companies to the forum.

Today, the forum is meeting for the first time since its foundation. SPRING expects to have the forum held a total of three times this fiscal year.

September 4, 2009

Service Affairs Policy Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau