Linux Foundation Research Releases New Report: "The State of Open Source Japan 2025: Accelerating Business Value through Strategic Open Source Engagement"

TOKYO, Dec. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Open Source Summit Japan — The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the publication of its latest research report, "The State of Open Source Japan 2025: Accelerating Business Value through Strategic Open Source Engagement." The Japanese edition, "日本のオープンソースの現状 2025：戦略的なオープンソース活用によるビジネス価値の加速", is being released simultaneously with the English version.

Grounded in recent research conducted by Linux Foundation Research, the report examines how Japanese organizations increasingly rely on open source as foundational infrastructure, while simultaneously facing maturity gaps in governance and security practices. It further analyzes how strategic engagement with open source directly influences business value and competitive advantage.

"A major takeaway from the 2025 report is that open source in Japan has reached a pivotal turning point — evolving from a mere option to a strategic imperative that underpins competitiveness and innovation. The fact that 69% of organizations experienced increased business value from OSS over the past year is a testament to the tireless efforts of Japan's leaders and communities, and I am truly proud of this meaningful progress," said Noriaki Fukuyasu, VP of Japan Operations of the Linux Foundation. "At the same time, sustaining this momentum requires addressing the challenges that remain. Moving forward, it is essential to establish formal governance structures and shift from passive use to active ecosystem participation in order to strategically bridge this gap. The Linux Foundation remains fully committed to accelerating open source innovation and growth across Japan."

For more insights and the complete analysis, please refer to the full report:

• Original Edition (English): The State of Open Source Japan 2025: Accelerating Business Value through Strategic Open Source Engagement
• Japanese Edition: 日本のオープンソースの現状 2025：戦略的なオープンソース活用によるビジネス価値の加速

Authors:

• Marco Gerosa, Ph.D., Northern Arizona University
• Adrienn Lawson, Linux Foundation
• Foreword - Noriaki Fukuyasu, Linux Foundation

Executive summary

As we have done for the last three years, the Linux Foundation has engaged the open source community in its World of Open Source Survey. In this 2025 edition, we confirm that organizations depend on open source software as the backbone of their critical systems. However, most lack the governance and security frameworks to manage this dependency safely. While expecting enterprise-level reliability and support, organizations systematically underinvest in the security practices, formal governance structures, community engagement, and comprehensive strategies that production environments demand. This misalignment creates business risks and limits competitive advantages.

Despite open source's strategic importance, Japanese organizations face a governance maturity gap. While 69% report increased business value from open source over the past year, outpacing the global rate of 54%, operational implementation lags behind this recognition. Only 41% have implemented open source program offices (OSPOs), and just 39% have defined clear open source strategies. Even fewer (33%) have established public positions on open source, showing no growth from 2024.

Japanese organizations demonstrate an interesting adoption pattern. They lag significantly in foundational infrastructure, such as operating systems, DevOps, databases, and web development, yet excel in specialized applications. Japan leads globally in augmented/virtual reality and 3D simulation, blockchain, and manufacturing technologies.

The security posture reveals further complexities. While 40% of Japanese organizations use automated security testing tools, adoption of comprehensive evaluation practices remains limited. Only 35% evaluate direct dependencies, 33% manually review source code, and just 26% check community activity levels, which is lower than the global 47%. Common Criteria certification dominates the Japanese security framework evaluation at 52% adoption vs. only 13% globally, yet no single security framework achieves universal and global acceptance, creating fragmentation that undermines ecosystem-wide security.

These deficiencies drive Japanese organizations toward commercial support solutions. A striking 89% of Japanese organizations demand sub-12-hour response times (compared to 69% globally), reflecting even higher enterprise-grade expectations. Japanese organizations consider paid support essential for regulated industry environments (45% vs. 36% globally), systems handling sensitive data (43%), and mission-critical workloads (40%). This shift reflects open source's evolution in Japan from a cost-saving alternative to foundational business infrastructure requiring formal service level agreements.

Organizations seeking to capture full value from open source should consider establishing formal governance structures, implementing comprehensive security evaluation frameworks, and transitioning from passive consumption to active participation. Japanese organizations with very active open source engagement show 73% agreement that open source makes them more competitive, compared to just 56% for passive organizations. This is an advantage that demonstrates how competitive benefits scale with engagement intensity.

Systematic investment can help bridge the maturity gap. Japanese companies prioritize training developers (44%), contributing upstream (41%), and sponsoring critical dependencies (41%). Intellectual property concerns (52% for contributions, 44% for adoption) and the lack of clear policies (51%) remain the primary barriers requiring dedicated expertise and formal governance structures.

These findings suggest that Japanese organizations that successfully bridge the governance-adoption gap can capture competitive advantages in talent acquisition, operational excellence, and market positioning, especially in emerging areas. This should happen through active engagement, formal structures, and comprehensive security practices, while leveraging their existing strengths in specialized technologies.

Reading Japan's OSS Trends Through Key Insights from the Infographics

Japan Leads the World in OSS Value Perception

• 69% report increased business value from open source in the last year vs. 54% globally, with 74% considering it valuable for their future.

Governance and Security Maturity Gaps

• Only 26% check community activity levels when evaluating components, significantly below the 47% global rate for this practice.
• IP concerns block deeper participation: 52% cite IP fears for contributions, 44% for adoption, and 34% are uncertain about ROI.
• Japan lags in foundational infrastructure adoption (cloud technologies at 33% vs. 52% globally), but leads in the adoption of specialized technologies such as AR/VR and manufacturing technology.

High Support Expectations and Dependence on Commercial Support

• 89% expect sub-12-hour response times from support providers for critical open source issues, exceeding the 69% global rate.
  
  
• 45% expect long-term support guarantees, and 35% expect rapid security patching for production open source software.
  
  
• 45% consider paid support essential for industry regulated environments, 43% for sensitive data systems, and 40% for mission-critical workloads.

Strength in Specialized Domains and the Benefits of Active Participation

• Japan lags in foundational infrastructure adoption (cloud technologies at 33% vs. 52% globally), but leads in AR/VR and manufacturing-related technologies.
  
  
• AR/VR (39%), AI/ML & cloud equally (28% each) are the top trending open source technologies in Japan.
  
  
• Contributing organizations report improved security (78%), innovation (77%), staff knowledge (74%), and software quality (73%).
  
  
• Very active organizations in open source are more likely to gain competitive advantage (73%) than passive organizations (56%).
  
  
• 77% believe open source makes their organization a better workplace, with 68% citing talent attraction benefits.

Executive Awareness Gap

• The strategic value of OSS at the C-suite level is not yet sufficiently clear, with fewer executives (70%) recognizing its value than other employees (85%).

About the Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, LF Decentralized Trust, Node.js, ONAP, OpenChain, OpenSSF, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, Zephyr, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Media Contact
Noriko Otake
[email protected] 
the Linux Foundation

SOURCE The Linux Foundation