Nikkei is the largest financial newspaper in the world and a daily information source for many of Japan’s business leaders and government officials. Since 1950, the newspaper has been calculating and publishing Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 Stock Exchange index, which measures the performance of the largest publicly owned companies in Japan. Both platforms have helped propel Japan’s economy to become the third largest in the world by GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

But as a company at the pulse of a nation’s economy, Nikkei witnessed up-close the increasing imbalance between Japan’s economic growth and the well-being of its citizens, many of which are overworked and feel little hope for the future.

Nikkei understood that basing a country’s development solely on financial metrics leads to the destruction of planet and people, and recognized the role it had played in perpetuating this unsustainable model.

Just like when the company founded the Nikkei index in 1950, it felt it had to act as a true pioneer once again, to put Japan back on track towards success.

In December of 2020, Nikkei started by setting up a special team within the company to investigate this issue, which led them to the concept of GDW (Gross Domestic Well-being). A recent academic model to measure well-being that has been explored by institutions and economists across the world, but was never fully put into practice.

By partnering with a group of data researchers and experts in Economics, Social Progress, Human Development and Public Policy from Harvard, Oxford and Tokyo University, the team optimized the GDW survey method and algorithm to reflect Japan’s cultural norms and societal structure.

The next step was to take the concept from theory to practice, by setting up a system to continuously gather data from 4000 Japanese families, analyze and distribute it. This was done with the help of consulting and research partner Gallup, who first started collecting data as from April 2021.

The GDW data was then plotted on a graph to visualize fluctuations over time, which makes up the official Nikkei Well-being Index.

Now it was time to get companies and policymakers to pay attention to this new index and help them understand the importance to act on it.

As the largest financial newspaper in the world and calculator of Japan’s most influential stock exchange Index, Nikkei possesses the legitimacy as the force behind this initiative. It also holds strong relationships with policy-makers and company leaders, and has mass reach (6.7 million weekly readers) through its media assets to familiarize the nation with this new indicator.

We started with the most logical first step: publishing The Well-Being Index in the Nikkei newspaper next to Japan’s GDP and other key economic data. Newspaper ads and articles provided the necessary context to support this.

To introduce the Well-being Index to Japan’s policy-makers and leaders of the top companies, Nikkei organized 4 well-being symposiums, 7 corporate manager meetings, and 14 workshops.

Behind the scenes, a dedicated team leveraged Nikkei’s close government relations to lobby Japan’s Parliament in order to establish the GDW as an official metric.

After introduction of The Well-being Index, Japan’s government created a special well-being committee. The new index was adopted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of the Environment and the Cabinet Office.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida recognized the GDW as an official metric to inform new policies, followed by an ¥8 billion investment towards government-backed well-being initiatives.

To date, 23 companies, like Nestlé, Fujitsu, Kirin, and Deloitte, started making internal changes for employees and investors or launched public well-being initiatives, with more efforts to raise GDW following.

The Well-Being Index is the beginning of a systemic change that will take decades to play out. We’ll see a decrease in pollution, burnout and poverty, and an increase in education levels, healthcare access, and average life standard.

It’s setting Japan up to become a balanced nation that’s both more sustainable and more prosperous. Happier employees deliver better work. Healthier citizens cost the government less. And better-managed natural resources guarantee long-term stability.

It shows the world that a country’s economy and the well-being of its people can grow together, while positioning Nikkei as an economic pioneer, once again.

While the disconnect between the economic success of a country and the well-being of its citizens is a global issue, it’s particularly noticeable in Japan. While Japan is the third largest in the world by GDP, it also deals with one of the world’s highest suicide rates (17.5 suicides per 100,000 inhabitants).

There’s an imbalance between the social and working purpose of life in modern Japan. This dissatisfaction exposes the problems of overwork, wealth inequality and social fragmentation. Men are working too hard at the expense of family time. Birth rates are extremely low, and loneliness and social anxiety compound the problem for many.

While the Japanese government has launched initiatives to counter this, there’s clearly more effort needed, especially from the companies that make up the beating heart of Japan’s economy.