Interim Report of the Study Group on Issues for Strengthening the Earning Power of Small Businesses Released

1. Background and objectives

The Basic Plan for Small Enterprise Promotion (Third Version) (Cabinet decision in March 2025) aims to enhance support for the 2.85 million small businesses nationwide. This includes improving their management capabilities, boosting their earning power more than ever, and strengthening the support system to achieve a virtuous cycle of wage increases.

Based on this basic plan, and with the theme of strengthening the earning power of small businesses, the Study Group on Issues for Strengthening the Earning Power of Small Businesses was established to understand the current situation of small businesses, while taking into account the direction of their management, and deepen each measure outlined in the plan. The group held four meetings from February 2026 and compiled the results of its discussions.

2. Interim Report

The study group's interim report summarizes the current situation and challenges faced by small businesses, and outlines the direction of specific measures.

The direction of the measures

Up until now, METI has been working on providing accompanying support to small businesses as part of its management development support programs based on the Act on Supporting Small Business by Commerce and Industry Association and Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Small Business Support Act).

In order to provide even more detailed support in the future, METI will consider initiatives aimed at creating mechanisms for generating growth-oriented businesses and supporting businesses that provide essential services, in addition to support for businesses that support local communities and aim for sustainable development and wage increases, and will proceed with restructuring the policy framework for management development support programs.

Furthermore, in order to support these initiatives, it is necessary to strengthen the support functions of business advisors and other staff at commerce and industry associations and chambers of commerce and industry. Therefore, in addition to regional cooperation and cooperation among support organizations, METI will promote the evaluation of support achievements, the promotion of best practices, and efforts to encourage prefectures to enhance support. In addition, METI will promote measures such as enhancing training to improve the capabilities of business advisors, streamlining operations, strengthening support from experts, and verifying mechanisms for sharing know-how and knowledge using AI.

The direction of each measure is organized and outlined in the following items.

1. Building mechanisms to create growth-oriented small businesses
2. Strengthening support for small businesses (including essential service providers) aiming for sustainable development and wage increases, in order to enhance their management capabilities
3. Strengthening the support functions of commerce and industry associations and chambers of commerce and industry that support small businesses
4. Clarification of the institutional positioning of the policy for the measures listed in 1 through 3 and assessment of their support effects.

Based on the interim report of the study group, METI will proceed with concretizing the necessary measures and policies.

Related Materials (in Japanese)

• Outline of the Interim Report of the Study Group on Issues for Strengthening the Earning Power of Small Businesses(PDF:1,342KB)
• Interim Report of the Study Group on Issues for Strengthening the Earning Power of Small Businesses(PDF:3,709KB)
• Reference materials for the Interim Report of the Study Group on Issues for Strengthening the Earning Power of Small Businesses(PDF:5,926KB)

Related Link (in Japanese)

• The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency's support measures for small enterprises

Division in Charge

Small Enterprise Division, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency