The market size of mindful business
Mindful Business Market Overview
By Kouji Miki
Note: This blog is based on material originally written in Japanese in 2015 and converted to English in 2018 and 2021 with some of the latest information added to the blog, so please note that figures may be from 2015 and 2018.
In relation to my previous blog, I discussed the market size of mindfulness.
What is the size of the mindfulness market? I’ve been searching for information about the market for mindfulness for a while now, but I couldn’t find anything that looked like it.
When I searched the overseas web, I found articles like this one from Fortune magazine and this one from
Market size of MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program) and other information compiled by NYC officials.
I was able to find the In the first place, the mindfulness market may not be up and running yet, and it is very difficult to predict a market that is not up and running yet.
In November 2018, a small conference called “TRANSTECH” was held in San Francisco, and the market size of transformational technology (which overlaps with the mindful business category) was estimated to be $3TN.
It is almost equal to our estimate of $3.1 TN, but we recognize that it is the same as our prediction of several TN dollars. First of all, the following is a summary of what market categories are available for the mindfulness business.
Market Category 1: IoT & Manufacturing
Consider the forecast for the mindfulness market in the IoT and manufacturing market. With the boom in mindfulness, more and more people are doing zazen and meditation at home.
For those who are fortunate enough to have a Zen temple near their home, they can go to the temple regularly for guidance.
In the IoT market, we can expect to see products that assist mindfulness meditation, such as MUSE. Vital sensors, such as mindfulness-specific sensors, are also expected to be included. This number is just a very rough calculation based on existing market data.
Note: On February 7, 2019, Venture Beat reported on Calm, a U.S. mindful app developer, as the first unicorn company in the mindful business (*unicorn is a company whose market value is considered to be over $1B). Calm. Calm is the first unicorn company in the mindful business space.
For more information on Calm, the first mindfulness-related company to exceed 100 billion yen in enterprise value and become a unicorn company, please click here. (Source: Venture Beat)
Market Category 2: Automobile automatic driving, AI, and robotics fields
Not only in IoT devices like Muse, but also in the future in the field of mobility such as automobiles, we can think of a system that, in addition to the driver’s “voice” data, obtains human body data such as heart rate, body temperature, and respiration rate from the driver’s steering wheel, predicts the driver’s mental state, and guides the driver’s mental state to the optimal one for driving.
For example, if the driver is in an agitated state of mind, we can provide music or smells to calm him down and put him in an optimal state of mind to reduce the accident rate.
Similarly, if we can infer the psychological state of a person by using vital sensors to read their biometric data and then sending the data to the cloud for calculation, we will be able to create various devices that can understand the human mind.
According to the Nikkei Shimbun dated December 3, 2019, the market for analyzing emotions from these human “voices” and “facial expressions” is expected to reach 410 billion yen in 2025, and reports that the large market that includes them is called “Transtech.
By the way, Apple’s latest IOS10 has also added mindfulness to the health data category in the data logger that works as an Apple Watch to acquire biometric data, which shows how the need for mindfulness is growing and this trend will accelerate in the future.
As another example, Kawasaki Heavy Industries recently announced the concept of an “AI bike” with a personality that uses the “emotion engine and natural language dialogue system” developed by Softbank Group’s cocoro SB. The “AI Bike with a Personality” concept was announced at the Tokyo Motor Show. The AI understands the rider’s intentions and emotions from what he or she says, and uses language to communicate with the rider. Utilizes the “emotion engine and natural language dialogue system” developed by Softbank Group’s cocoro SB. The AI understands intentions and emotions from the rider’s spoken words and communicates using language.” It is said that
The concept is to gradually change the bike’s settings based on the user’s emotions, but in the future, it will also be possible to calm the user’s mind through sounds, vibrations, and dialogue, and put the user in an optimal state of mind for driving.
In this way, the “emotion engine,” which reads human emotions from biometric information such as the user’s voice, body temperature, and heartbeat, will become an extremely important technology to be incorporated into various devices and robots. An OS that incorporates this emotion engine may become a fundamental technology for AI and robotics in the future.
Market Category 3: Education
The education sector is the most obvious mindfulness business sector. As a result of introducing mindfulness into educational programs, people’s mental abilities, such as concentration, resilience, and creativity, are said to improve.
In developed countries, the collapse of classrooms due to lack of concentration among children in public schools in poor areas has become a serious problem, and the introduction of mindfulness in such educational environments has been shown to improve the mental stability and concentration of the children, resulting in improved academic performance.
In particular, the introduction of mindfulness programs that focus on meditation is considered to be an effective means of raising the level of public education with inexpensive investment, since it does not require the purchase of any physical items and does not cost much to implement.
If the academic level of children in public educational institutions is raised, the children who graduate will become the productive population in 15 to 20 years, and the income level of the local residents, who are the productive population, will be raised, resulting in higher taxes for the residents.
In this field, mindfulness is expected not only in compulsory education but also in adult education.
For example, in the category of corporate training, there is the “Search Inside Yourself” leadership education program that has already been introduced by Google and SAP. It is expected to improve resilience to stress and creativity, and is expected to have great potential for development in the future.
In the case of compulsory education, a report entitled Mindful Nation UK, compiled by a volunteer member of the British Parliament, reports on the potential for introducing mindfulness in the UK, and advocates the introduction of mindfulness not only in public education, but also in prisons. In the U.K., the British Parliament is considering the possibility of introducing mindfulness in the U.K. In the U.K., there seems to be a bipartisan coalition in the U.K. Parliament that supports mindfulness, and a three-minute meditation session was held in the U.K. Parliament.
Report on “MINDFUL NATION UK” by volunteer members of the British Parliament
Market Category 4: Foods
In mindful business, we believe that food is very important in influencing the human mind.
We would like to describe mindful food production by referring to typical examples of agriculture.
In mindful business, agriculture plays a huge role. In the past, monolithic, mass-production agriculture used large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides to maintain a high level of production. Many experts have pointed out that the use of large amounts of pesticides can lead to serious health problems such as cancer.
Mindful business farming is not only about simple food production, but also about improving the global environment and solving mental health issues.
This method of cooperative farming is completely incompatible with large-scale farming with large farmlands, large equipment, pesticide specifications, and fertilizer specifications, but it is good news for family farmers who support much of the world’s agriculture. However, this is good news for family farmers, who are the backbone of much of the world’s agriculture, because they can greatly increase their yields without using any fertilizers or pesticides.
In fact, the “Synecoculture™” practiced since 2015 in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries located in West Africa, has produced significant results in a short period of time. In one year, the high quality of the harvested crops sold about 20 times more than the average national income in the country, providing a clue to solving the problems of desertification and poverty.
This Synecoculture™method was developed by Dr. Funabashi of Sony CSL, and is now being researched and promoted by SYNECOCULTURE, a non-profit organization.
Presentation on Synecoculture™by Dr. Funabashi of Sony CSL
It is our own judgment that the introduction of the “Synecocuture”, which is completely pesticide-free and fertilizer-free, will help protect the global environment, and will also help realize well-being through contact with the soil. The secretion of oxytocin increases during farming, which has a positive effect on depression, and I expect that this will have a great impact on the problem of post-coronary depression.
Market Category 5: Healthcare
Research conducted by the University of Massachusetts Medical School and others has shown that mindfulness can improve resilience to stress and increase immunity.
Even in major Japanese companies, there are many employees with mental problems these days, and mindfulness can be expected to help improve the mental health of these employees. In this field, mindfulness workshops for companies, especially in Europe and the U.S., are being actively introduced because the needs of the B2B market as well as B2C are very high.
In addition, mindfulness will advance in the medical field, especially in developed countries, as mindfulness has been introduced in some hospitals in the U.S. for patients in severe pain and is producing results.
In addition, with the development of artificial intelligence, AI will be introduced in the home as well, using voice recognition technology, which will be done on a cloud connected to the Internet, and feedback will be returned. The market for AI coaching and AI mentoring, which use various sensors to understand people’s psychological states to calm them down, is also expected to expand.
In the past, tourism was simply about visiting scenic spots and other tourist attractions. In the future, tourism will include visits to so-called power spots for healing purposes, as well as “retreats” in such places.
The number of “retreats” that include yoga and mindful meditation will increase.
Retreats will include visits to temples, shrines, and spiritual places in nature, where people can receive meditation instruction from a meditation leader, or enter a natural forest and reflect on themselves in the silence of the forest. In order to improve one’s mental capacity, it will be necessary to participate in “retreat tours” and to have hotels and inns equipped with yoga studios and meditation facilities for retreat participants.
Market Category 6: Arts
There will be more and more works of art and music inspired by the images that emerge during meditation and Zen practice.
In fact, many creators in Japan and abroad have been inspired by Zen and meditation at Zen dojos, and this trend is expected to accelerate in the future. The number of artists, novelists, and other creative people who practice Zen and meditation will continue to increase.
Market Category 7: Content Industry
This category also overlaps with entertainment, and will include music, movies, anime, novels, manga, and other content that “gives people awareness.
In the field of books, a category of books called “self-help books” has already been established in Japan and overseas. In some cases, the sales of these books have become such that they are frequently among the best sellers.
In the field of movies, the same category of “self-help” and “awareness” movies will spread to documentaries as well as fiction.
In addition, there is a growing, almost frenzied, interest in audio content distributed on Youtube and other media that includes ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response), content that stimulates the sense organs, such as the sense of hearing, to produce pleasurable and frightening sensations.
The creative work of the “ASMR artists” who create this content has become a profession, and now has an audience of several thousand people.
These audio contents are not only distributed on Youtube, but also on Calm, which I mentioned earlier as one of the most popular contents. In the future, it is expected that the number of video and audio contents that give a kind of “pleasure” and relaxation to the brain will increase.
Market Category 8: Finance
Although the terms “finance” and “mindfulness” may conjure up different images, the long-term funds of Kamakura Investment Trust and Sawakami Investment Trust that allow people to see the faces of others, as well as social lending and microfinance, such as project empathy crowdfunding and P2P loans, are part of mindful business. Social lending and microfinance are also included in the estimation as part of mindful business because they require lending and investment based on mindful thinking together with lenders and borrowers.
Market Category 9: Tourism
In the past, the main focus of tourism was simply to visit scenic spots. In the future, more and more tourists will visit power spots for healing purposes, or go on “retreats” where they can experience yoga or mindful meditation.
Retreats will include visits to temples, shrines, and spiritual places in nature, where people can receive meditation instruction from a meditation leader, or enter a natural forest and reflect on themselves in the silence of the forest. In order to increase the capacity of people’s minds, it will be necessary to participate in “retreat tours” and to have hotels and inns equipped with yoga studios and meditation facilities for retreat participants.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by Agoda, an online travel agency, in 2019 in seven countries (Japan, Australia, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates), self-care retreats ranked second among all age groups in a survey on what people want to experience in their travel destinations in 2019. Self-care retreats ranked second across all age groups in a survey on what people want to experience in their travel destinations in 2019. It seems that a major trend of mindful tourism is indeed coming. To read the full article, please click here.
Market Category 10: Entertainment (games, amusement, outdoor activities, leisure, sports)
There will be more online games, APPs, amusement parks, sports, etc., that will improve people’s mental abilities and awareness.
The biggest change will be in the outdoor and sports fields, where more and more sports will combine mindfulness meditation with various existing sports, such as yoga with mindfulness meditation, or trail running with mindfulness meditation.
As the number of “existing sports” x “mindfulness” increases, gear such as clothing, yoga mats, or sitting cloths that are suitable for outdoor meditation will need to be developed.
Also, classes and workshops will be created to teach the newly created mindful sports.
The following is an image of a new sport category that will be created rapidly, such as mindful running, which is a combination of mindfulness and running.
In the future, sports will not only be about physical training, but also a new category of “mindfulness sports” that aim to improve the level of consciousness and train the brain and spirit.
The mindful business market in 2025 will outstrip UK’s GDP($2.7TN-2020)
The method of calculating this figure is very “rough”, as it is based on a rough estimation of how much of the existing industrial market size is likely to shift to “mindful business”.
If you just look at these numbers, you might think, “Wow, the age of mindfulness business is coming tomorrow! But
In fact, I don’t see mindfulness business as a completely new business, but rather as a market that will gradually grow over the next nine years, with the inclusion of mindfulness elements in an already existing market.
Many of you may think that these figures are quite large, but this is the image that we feel now, and we have tried to put it into numbers.
Thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog. We would like to publish “True Innovation”, a book about Zen innovation theory written in Japanese, in English and other languages. If you are a publisher and would like to help us, please contact us.
A book “True Innovation”
