Global Leadership Monitor - Japan H1 2026

Japan’s leadership agenda for a more complex operating environment

Japan’s leadership agenda is being reset by a convergence of forces: rapid technological change, talent scarcity, workforce transformation, and rising external volatility. What threats do Japan leaders believe pose the greatest risks to organizational health? And how prepared do they feel to respond?

Our bi-annual Global Leadership Monitor captures how leaders in Japan perceive the risks ahead, where they feel confident, and where capability shortfalls could hinder organizational progress.

Technology becomes Japan’s top organizational threat

In H1 2026, technological change has emerged as the top threat to organizational health in Japan, with 63% of leaders selecting it as a top five issue. This highlights the importance of technology-led disruption and reflects the growing pressure on Japanese organizations to modernize, digitize, and adapt more quickly.

Availability of key talent and skills remains a major concern, ranking second. While talent scarcity continues to be a defining structural challenge for Japan, its ranking has eased compared with prior cycles, suggesting that leaders are now balancing labor-market constraints with a broader set of transformation and external-risk priorities.

The top five threats in H1 2026 are:

Talent and workforce transformation remain Japan’s sharpest readiness gaps

Although technology ranks as the top threat, Japan’s most acute preparedness gaps sit around people and workforce change.

Only 27% of leaders feel prepared to address the availability of key talent and skills, despite it ranking as the second-largest threat. Preparedness is even lower for workforce transformation, at 24%, highlighting the scale of the challenge as organizations adapt to demographic pressure, new workforce expectations, and evolving operating models.

Japan’s leadership challenge is not only about attracting scarce talent, but also about redesigning how organizations develop, deploy, and engage their workforces.

Building leadership resilience for Japan’s next era

Japan’s future will be shaped by leaders who can turn structural constraints into sources of renewal, resilience, and long-term growth. Organizations will need leadership teams with the foresight to anticipate disruption, the agility to modernize workforce and operating models, and the judgment to align talent, culture, and strategy in a rapidly changing environment.

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Global Leadership Monitor H1 2026 - Key global findings

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