The globalized world is confronted by a growing number of issues across such fields as the environment, health care, food, energy and technology.Business leaders have begun placing strategic emphasis on high aspirations and leading innovation in social systems to offer solutions to these problems, while creating market opportunities at the same time. For Japanese companies, which have traditionally pursued innovation with a disproportionate focus on technological excellence, this demands a new mindset. To succeed in innovating social systems, companies need to proactively drive “rule-making strategies” in addition to developing innovative products and technologies. “Rule-making strategies” can be understood as strategies that create a new social order whereby the spread of products or technologies will help create new markets and produce innovative solutions to social issues. Yet, Japanese companies have traditionally considered rules as a “given condition” that they must adapt to, and have paid little attention to rule-making as a part of their business strategies. This could explain why Japan has been the source of truly path-breaking innovations in recent years. Rule-making has long been a theme of strategic importance for leading global businesses. Many of them are committed to building closer relationships with governments, international organizations, think-tanks, non-profit organizations, etc. to accumulate expertise and human networks by proactively employing talented individuals. There have been growing awareness of the necessity of rule-making strategies in Japan over the last few years.