Kishida vows to lead world with “New Capitalism” at Davos Forum

Jiji Press

12:05 JST, January 19, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in a speech at an online Davos forum meeting on Tuesday, voiced his eagerness to lead the world with his “new capitalism” initiative.

Kishida stressed the need for Japan to shift away from the Abenomics economic policy of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Abenomics is “clearly insufficient to transform Japan’s economy into a sustainable and inclusive one,” Kishida said at the World Economic Forum meeting.

Kishida also said digital technology is “essential to solving Japan’s social problems.” He explained his administration’s policy of promoting the development of telecommunications infrastructure such as submarine cables and optical fiber networks.

In a bid to help create new services, “We’ll review a total of some 40,000 regulations and systems in light of digital principles,” the prime minister said.

To encourage companies to raise wages, Kishida reiterated his plan to facilitate the disclosure of nonfinancial information, such as investment in human resources.

Elsewhere at the online meeting, Kishida called for understanding for Japan’s strict border measures amid the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

“There are strong calls from the (Japanese) people for strict border controls,” he said.