Happy new year to you all.
Last year, the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) vigorously worked towards its goals and took further steps for growth under the slogan of “Hello, Future!”.

At our fourth annual New Economy Summit held in April, global innovators such as Taavi Roivas (the then Prime Minister of Estonia), Andy Rubin (Founder and CEO, Playground Global), and Chris Anderson (CEO, 3D Robotics; Founder, DIY Drones) gathered in Tokyo to discuss and showcase to the world exciting visions of the future shaped by cutting-edge ideas.
We also made our first mark in the Kansai region through the Kansai Summit held in September and a number of other events, and created a stepping stone from which to expand our activities outside of the metropolitan Tokyo area.

This year will be an important year for JANE to build on our previous activities and to further strengthen our work in order to boost Japan’s competitiveness on a global stage.
The world around us witnessed a series of events last year that defied our conventional wisdom, which heralded a paradigm shift in the way people think and how the international community is organized.
We embrace the fact that our society constantly keeps changing. However, we need to resist that change with all our might if it means more insularity, exclusion and uniformity. We strongly believe that the values of diversity, openness and flexibility constitute the very foundations on which our societies can grow.

From artificial intelligence and robotics to the Internet of things and blockchain – the daily advances of technology are transforming business and people’s everyday lives. But underneath all these changes, the fundamental principles that form the basis of human society have to remain unchanged.
We aim to create new values by bringing together people with different backgrounds and opinions in an environment where everyone is given equal opportunities to try and take risks while inspiring each other. Now is the time when JANE’s threefold vision of promoting innovation, entrepreneurship and globalization is needed more than ever.
JANE intends to continue playing the role of a navigator of the future in close collaboration with all the stakeholders and partners.

We look forward to your continued support this year.

January 1st, 2017

Hiroshi Mikitani
Representative Director
Japan Association of New Economy