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Economist

Co-creation gives rise to new value paradigms

Shared freight transport may seem simple, but its impact is significant—improving logistics efficiency, working conditions and labour security as Japan's population ages and its birth rate declines. With nearly 22m people aged 75 and over in 2025, up from 17m a decade ago, the country must adopt creative solutions to its demographic shift. For Mr Nagase, innovation should solve logistics challenges for competitive advantage and support the communities they serve. At Yamato Transport, his team developed HelloLight, an IoT lightbulb monitoring service for elderly residents that alerts family members if the bulb stays on or off for 24 hours—a potential warning sign—and can dispatch couriers to carry out welfare checks. The service won a Good Design Award in 2023. What do a shared freight platform and community-focused services have in common? Both leverage existing infrastructure to maximise value for communities, the environment and logistics providers with minimal investment. 'We're always mindful of balancing social and economic value,' says Mr Nagase. 'Being Net Positive is essential to realising a better society. Beyond addressing workforce and environmental challenges, it strengthens supply chains through logistics efficiency and ultimately revitalises Japan's economy.' 'Co-creation', in which individuals and organisations across industries offer resources and insights to solve problems, will shape the future of the global economy. This idea underpins SST's efforts to dismantle logistics silos and create more streamlined, sustainable supply chains—a model of shared freight transport that transcends company boundaries. SST is putting this into practice by building a system that enables goods to move seamlessly through shared delivery networks that overcome traditional corporate and industry divisions. It exemplifies what is known as the 'physical internet', moving goods across networks as efficiently as data flows online. 'In an era of labour shortages, no single company can do everything on its own,' Mr Nagase adds. 'Optimising the use of available resources is essential.' For SST and its partners, the open platform represents a framework for resilient logistics, allowing firms to pool strengths and share data to face collective challenges.