HIKONE, SHIGA PREFECTURE ¨C 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.¡±
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