The SDGs adopted by the U.N. in September 2015 are intended to be achieved by 2030. The 17 goals and 169 associated targets are for both developing and advanced economies to pursue to realize a society that will “leave no one behind.”

Click here to find details of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s SDG initiatives.

There are many companies that provide students with online learning programs, but SuRaLa Net’s focus is on helping students with low academic ability.

“There is a correlation between academic ability and the income levels of households with students, in any part of the world,” SuRaLa Net Co. founder and Chief Executive Officer Takahiko Yunokawa said, explaining the company’s focus.

“But many educational companies, including those providing e-learning services, target students with high academic ability, and tend to leave behind children with low academic ability or from low-income households,” he continued. “We aim to eliminate a negative spiral of income gaps and educational gaps by providing educational materials online aimed at helping raise the academic ability of students with low academic skills,” he said. “And we see a business opportunity there.”

“In the corner of my mind, there was a vague idea that we may be able to contribute to solving social issues by, for example, promoting literacy in emerging countries,” Yunokawa said, explaining the company’s motive for targeting both domestic and overseas markets. “In my previous job (at Venture Link Inc.), I had an opportunity to travel to an emerging country and was shocked to find out that the local literacy rate then was lower than I had expected. That experience was the starting point,” he said. “I was especially shocked to learn that over 10% of Chinese and over 30% of Indians could not read. Levels of education were noticeably low especially among people in poor and low-income classes.

“Our company’s strength is in addressing low-achievement students, and so our curriculums proceed in gradual steps and provide careful explanation. That means they don’t require much tweaking to be used in emerging countries. We began offering the service in Sri Lanka in 2016 and we now operate also in Indonesia, India and the Philippines,” he said.

“Operating a business overseas can lead to creating social value in the region, and the size of the market is many times that of the Japanese market, so it was obvious to us that overseas expansion was essential for the company’s growth over the medium to long term,” he said. “The problem was, we were at the time preparing for listing our shares, partly because of the exit strategy of the fund. Expanding operations overseas would require a lot of funding. Luckily, we were able to receive assistance from JICA’s Feasibility Survey for SDGs Business (formerly the Preparatory Survey on BOP Business),” he said, referring to the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

“After we launched business overseas, we were again fortunate to receive support from the programs of public organizations, such as JETRO (the Japan External Trade Organization),” he said.

At a symposium in early May titled, “TICAD 7 Preview: New Strategy for African Business,” held in Tokyo and hosted by Nikkei Inc., remarks by panelists presented a new environment in Africa. (TICAD stands for Tokyo International Conference on African Development that is led by the Japanese government. TICAD 7 will be held in Yokohama from Aug. 28 to 30.)

“It is essential to prepare a new model for overseas development to acquire business opportunities in Africa that is set to realize an economic development that is different from any other region in the world,” said Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko at the symposium.

Touching on the ongoing changes in Africa, Seko suggested he would support private-sector businesses with new policies.

African businesses under Japanese companies are thought to experience a momentum boost every three years when TICAD is held. But this year, it seems the prospects are different.

The difference is the ongoing digital revolution in Africa. The power of technology has created new services to overcome the region’s unique challenges such as the lack of electricity and fragile infrastructure, which is good news that could contribute to an improvement in the business environment for companies.

Additionally, development potential can be seen in other areas.

In Africa, the demographic that accounted for the majority of the population was that of the so-called informal sector; namely those who did not have their own addresses or bank accounts. For companies adopting business models in developing countries, it was considered difficult to establish such a demographic as their customers. However, thanks to a major revolution that has seen the spread of mobile digital technology across this demographic, those people suddenly emerged as possible customers, believed to number about 1 billion.

For example, emerging services in Kenya, such as cash transfers utilizing text messages through mobile phones or provision of “virtual” addresses, have provided potential consumers who previously had no means to prove their credibility opportunities to go mainstream.

Through technology, private sector companies have increasingly provided alternative services in fields where governments are incapable of facilitating sufficient social infrastructure. One example of this is a service to supply electricity to areas that have no access to conventional power grids. Most of the main players who provide these innovative businesses are startups with a short history.