Following his party's overwhelming victory in the Upper House election, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration is now expected to go full-throttle in its national growth strategy. In the basic policy for economic and fiscal management endorsed by the Cabinet in June, Abe expressed his determination to pull Japan out of deflation and revive its economy. One of the targets in the policy was to double the outstanding amount of foreign direct investments in Japan to ¥35 trillion by 2020, based on the belief that FDIs would play a major role in making the Japanese economy stronger.

From the days when I was with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), I have strongly advocated promoting FDIs in Japan because that would help enhance competition, accelerate technological innovations, strengthen corporate management and create job opportunities. I launched the Forum of Global Corporations in Japan, a specified non-profit corporation, in July 2012 in order to encourage investments by foreign firms from private-sector viewpoints.

FDIs in Japan are tiny by international standards. In 2011, outstanding foreign direct investments in Japan accounted for a mere 3.9 percent of its gross domestic product. The ratio is much lower than 23.3 percent in the United States, 20.0 percent in Germany, 34.7 percent in France and 49.8 percent in Britain. It is also far below 10.1 percent in China and 11.8 percent in South Korea. There were 125 foreign firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1990, but the number dropped to 41 in 2000 and declined to eight today.