Japan’s draft growth strategy forgoes far-reaching reform

Japan’s new strategy to stoke growth in key industries includes case-by-case regulatory exemptions to spur innovation, but the government’s piecemeal proposals lack the fundamental changes needed to re-energize the overall economy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government debuted the draft of its 2017 strategic growth plan Tuesday at a meeting of the Council on Investments for the Future. Japan “will put new technologies to work in a variety of industrial fields, as well as in everyday life,” Abe said, in an attempt to address society’s problems on the personal level, responding to “each individual’s needs.”