The Japan Association of New Economy (JANE; Location: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Mickey Mikitani) hereby releases a statement by its Representative Director in response to the Cabinet Decision of the Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2026, the Japan Growth Strategy, and related documents.

 

July 21, 2026
Japan Association of New Economy
Representative Director
Mickey Mikitani

By reducing Japan’s exceptionally high tax rates, including corporate tax, income tax, and inheritance tax, Japan can revitalize its economy, increase tax revenues through economic growth, and channel those revenues back into domestic investment, thereby realizing a “virtuous cycle of taxation and growth”. From this perspective, the so-called minimum tax, a measure intended to ensure an appropriate tax burden on extremely high levels of income, acts as a barrier to attracting “people, knowledge and capital” to Japan and runs counter to the promotion of startups. It should therefore be abolished.

Japan should move away from uniform working-hour regulations and introduce selective flexibility in working-hour legislation, including the elimination of eligibility requirements for the Highly Professional System and the establishment of new Growth-Supportive Labor Systems for workers with a strong desire to grow. Furthermore, in order to raise overall labor productivity across society, Japan should implement labor market reforms, including the relaxation of dismissal regulations, to facilitate smooth labor mobility.

While clarifying the government’s accountability for achieving startup investment targets, Japan should urgently pursue the abolition of the minimum tax, which impedes M&A activity, and the non-amortization of goodwill, in order to diversify exit strategies for startups and promote the supply of risk capital.

From the perspective of preventing Japan from becoming an “AI colony”, Japan should promote the development and adoption of domestically produced AI. At the same time, Japan should establish a framework for rapid regulatory and institutional reform suited to the AI era, and implement fundamental regulatory reform to support the development of next-generation industries, including the promotion of autonomous driving implementation, the development and utilization of physical AI, and the facilitation of the use of medical data.

In response to population decline and the increasingly serious labor shortage, the government should formulate medium- to long-term strategies for accepting foreign talent and strengthen the necessary institutional frameworks. Alongside the promotion of appropriate residence management, further measures should also be implemented to advance social integration and inclusion.

In order to overcome the risks associated with excessive dependence on overseas providers for indispensable industrial infrastructure in the digital economy, such as cloud services, AI, and operating systems (the risk of becoming “digital tenant farmers”), Japan should ensure fair, impartial, and rigorous enforcement of laws against foreign companies, while taking measures such as establishing rules governing data and investment focused on high-risk countries. At the same time, in introducing regulatory measures and institutional frameworks aimed at protecting sensitive data, including personal information, and strengthening supply chain resilience, Japan should ensure that such measures are limited to what is genuinely necessary and do not adversely affect free economic activity or innovation.