The Future of Economy in Japanese Innovation of Pre- and Post-COVID-19: A Systematic Review

The colossal spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the whole world’s economic performance unavoidably. This qualitative research employs a systematic review roofed the literature search, covering pre- and post-COVID-19, from years 1986–2022. In primarily 423 articles were explored, and later 370 articles were examined. Thence, 32 articles were investigated to note the context of Japanese innovation using the quantitative tool—KH-Coder. The results show that, prior to COVID-19, Japan performed well in the past. However, substantial drops were observed during the late 1990s, even before COVID-19, due to having a challenging time with the Galapagos Syndrome. Regarding correspondence analysis and the cluster analysis on Japan’s sophisticated organisational strategy, the research demonstrates that Japan handles well with technology, development, research, and even the environment when compared to its counterpart—China. This enlightens us in perceiving about future of the economy in Asia comprehension. Nevertheless, when discussing success in COVID-19 prevention, China tends to perform better than Japan. For future research, the author highly recommends applying the meta-analysis method, to gain even more meaningful, profound, and precise results. It is also interesting to investigate whether different organisational culture also affects the innovative way of COVID-19 prevention in the Asian region.