Swedish and Japanese companies joining forces to speed up the green transition in Japan.

Why are we doing this – and why now?

The green transition and the quest for sustainability is at a critical juncture in Sweden and Japan, with goals to reach net-zero by 2045 and 2050 respectively. This unprecedented and complex challenge cannot be solved by a single organization - or a single country - alone. Achieving our goals quickly requires collaboration at all levels – between companies, governments, startups, and academics, and also between nations.

Together, we need to innovate new technologies, build new value chains, find new business models, and change how we all live, work, consume, and recycle. This calls for stakeholders across disciplines to combine strengths and solve shared challenges. We need to connect with a diversity of partners to identify and grow the best new ideas.

With this aim in mind, the Pioneer the possible platform was created in 2021 by Business Sweden and the Swedish Embassy in Japan, alongside forward-thinking Swedish companies present in Japan and their Japanese partners. The key idea of the platform is for our two countries to join forces and to amplify our collective reach and transformative power, and to tackle salient sustainability challenges in Japan through a collaborative and barrier-breaking approach.

Each year, Pioneer the possible Japan focuses on a selected set of salient sustainability challenges. And each year, we call on Japanese and Swedish stakeholders relevant to each challenge to come together to share their ideas and visions for the future, and to create joint initiatives and strategies to drive real change. In years past, through working with the platform, companies have created partnerships to accelerate the EV infrastructure rollout in Japan, changed recycling guidelines to allow for increased resource re-use, and come together to jointly procure green electricity at scale, to give a few examples.

By working together, Swedish and Japanese organizations can take leadership positions, strengthen their competitiveness and reduce their climate footprint. We are calling on all partners who want to join the fight against global warming. Together, let us Pioneer the possible!