Tokyo, December 1, 2025: The Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute today launched the 5th series of its Global Future of Work Compass during FII Priority Asia 2025 in Tokyo. This edition focuses on Asia and aims to identify the key risks and opportunities of AI automation and youth skills through regional surveys and most recently across Asia.

The Global Future of Work is a research series that explores how employers and young people see the future of work across key regions.

For the Asia edition, FII Institute surveyed 200 companies and 100 young people in each of nine countries: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.

FII Institute also unveiled the Global Future of Work Navigator, a digital platform that brings together all regional findings in a single comparative interface. The Navigator offers a clear side-by-side view of how jobs, skills, and technology are evolving around the world, with the aim of supporting better policy making, education strategies, and investment planning.

Key findings from the Asia edition of the Global Future of Work report will include:

1. AI and innovation are highly concentrated: the region accounts for 25% of global R&D, 70% of patent filings, and 60% of high-tech manufacturing output. Within Asia, the so-called Shaper economies (China, Japan, Korea, Singapore) spend around 3% of GDP on R&D, file about 95% of regional patents, host most AI infrastructure, and include four of the world’s five most robotized manufacturing economies.
2. Business culture and finance shape adoption, as Advanced Asia’s large firms have resources but low risk appetite. In Japan, only 64% of executives expect to use AI within five years, the lowest in the region. Meanwhile, in Emerging Asia 86% of executives intend to adopt AI within five years but face small firm size, limited access to finance, and shortages of digital management talent.
3. Youth skills and education are decisive, with China’s graduates about 40% in STEM compared with 20% in Japan and 30% in South Korea. In Japan, 81% of employers report hiring difficulties, 69% say tech skills were underemphasized in the curriculum, and 52% see internships or part time jobs as the main way to close skills gaps.

The Asia edition builds on earlier MENA, Americas, Europe and Africa surveys and evidence-based reports. It focuses on major trends in technology and the risks and opportunities of automation for businesses worldwide, helping to create a unified global evidence base on the future of work. Together, the series tracks how leaders and young people see the impact of technology, which skills are most in demand, and where gaps in readiness remain.

The Global Future of Work Navigator and all currently available regional reports can be accessed at www.futureofworknavigator.com

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About FII Institute 

The FII Institute is a global nonprofit foundation with an investment arm and one agenda: Impact on Humanity. Through its THINK, XCHANGE, and ACT pillars, the Institute fosters great ideas, empowers innovators, and invests in scalable solutions across critical sectors, including AI and robotics, sustainability, healthcare, and education. 

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