The need for promoting innovation is being emphasized as part of the Abe administration's growth strategy of encouraging private sector investments, which constitutes the "third arrow" of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic policy dubbed "Abenomics."
The term "innovation" dates back to 1912, when economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter stated in his book written in German that the driving force of economic development is an unprecedented "neue Kombination" (new combination) of such factors as the means of production, resources and labor. Subsequently, American economists started using the word "innovation" to express this new combination.
Innovation has been defined as "the act of starting something for the first time" and "introducing something new." In Japan, however, the same term has become synonymous with "technological innovation."