Japan’s “Lost 30 Years” is usually discussed as an economic issue. However, the deeper crisis may be the gradual decline of the country’s culture of learning itself.
In many Japanese organizations today, leaders no longer actively pursue learning, and younger generations are rarely encouraged to develop intellectual curiosity, independent thinking, or continuous growth. While the world rapidly transforms through AI, digitalization, demographic change, and global competition, Japan continues to invest remarkably little in education and human development compared with other OECD countries.

At the same time, many corporate cultures remain heavily dependent on traditional relationship-building practices centered around excessive meetings, drinking culture, and hierarchical management structures, rather than knowledge creation, innovation, and learning. This cultural stagnation is becoming a serious strategic risk for Japan’s future.
The issue is no longer simply economic competitiveness. It is the weakening of society’s capacity to learn, adapt, and transform itself.

In this lecture, Mr. Hiroshi Nishino will introduce the concept of “Smart Small Nations” (SSN), a research framework he developed through activities at the Digital Business Innovation Center (DBIC). The framework examines why highly competitive nations with populations under 10 million — including Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and Singapore — consistently outperform larger economies in global competitiveness rankings such as the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking.

Despite limited natural resources and small domestic markets, these countries have built strong international competitiveness by prioritizing learning, trust, human development, innovation, and social adaptability. Their most important national resource is not physical assets, but people and their continuous ability to learn and evolve.

Drawing on decades of experience across business transformation, digital innovation, cybersecurity, higher education, and public policy, Mr. Nishino will introduce the concept of Learning Transformation (LX) — a framework that redefines learning as a strategic foundation for innovation, resilience, inclusion, and societal renewal in the AI era.

The lecture will also explore the origins of the Digital Business Innovation Center (DBIC), which was established in response to growing concerns about the stagnation of large Japanese corporations and their inability to adapt to rapid technological and societal change. Through this work, Nishino came to believe that digital transformation alone was insufficient, and that the more fundamental challenge was the decline of leadership, intellectual curiosity, and learning culture itself.

This realization ultimately led to the development of LX Hub, an experimental ecosystem designed to connect business leaders, educators, researchers, startups, creators, and citizens in order to explore new forms of learning, collaboration, and human connection. The session will examine why rebuilding the joy, habit, and social value of learning may become one of the most important strategic challenges not only for Japan, but also for many advanced societies in the coming decades.