Survey Overview This is a small and medium enterprise (SME) support policy research report (Report Number: 1000060) conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in FY2024. It analyzes comprehensive policy challenges toward sustainable growth and competitiveness improvement of SMEs.
Current Status and Challenges SME DX adoption rate is 28.3% (compared to 75.2% for large enterprises), and approximately 1.27 million companies face business closure risk due to lack of successors over the next 10 years. The business environment is severe due to serious labor shortages, delayed digitalization, and business succession issues.
Priority Support Measures IT implementation subsidies will continue on a scale of 80 billion yen annually, raising the DX promotion rate to 60% by 2027. For business succession support, smooth succession will be supported through promoting the use of M&A intermediary platforms and expanding succession tax systems. Human resource securing measures such as expanding foreign worker acceptance and promoting utilization of side job and concurrent job personnel will be promoted.
Expected Effects The goal is to strengthen competitiveness and achieve sustainable growth through quantitative targets such as 20% improvement in SME labor productivity, 30% increase in digitalization investment, and achieving 80% business succession success rate.