Today, I speak with two experts about Society 5.0: Mr. Naoki Ota, who worked as an aide to the former Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, is currently promoting Society 5.0 in the provinces; and Shun Yoshida is the head of the CEATEC Promotion Office in the20202018 organization that is hosting the CEATEC Exhibition, which offers a general showcase of Society 5.0. Let us use their knowledge to get a little preview of the future.<\/p>\n
INDEX<\/h2>\n
\u30fbWhat is Society 5.0 in the first place?<\/a> Naoki Ota Shun Yoshida The first thing I would like to ask is, what kind of concept is Society 5.0 in the first place? <\/strong><\/p>\n O<\/strong>ta: <\/strong>The core concept is \u201ca society where data are gathered from all places and things, and the analyzed data are returned to the real space in order to optimize the actions of industry and people.\u201d<\/p>\n We define societies 1.0 to 5.0 according to societal development. The first, 1.0, is a hunter-gatherer society, <\/strong>2.0 is an agricultural society, <\/strong>3.0 is an industrial society, <\/strong>4.0 is an information society, <\/strong>while 5.0 is a super-smart society.<\/strong> Changes have occurred, with stage each called \u201cthe __ revolution,\u201d and industrial structures and human activities have changed dramatically.<\/p>\n So, speaking of the differences between Society 4.0 and 5.0, Society 4.0 was fundamentally only about the virtual world. \u201cLet’s enjoy the online space through online shopping and web browsers\u201d is Society 4.0. By contrast, in Society 5.0, real things interact with data in cyberspace. Data is accumulated from real-world locations such as in healthcare, education, and agriculture, and feedback created based on that data is used to change the way we live and work.<\/p>\n Its pioneer is often said to be Mark Andreessen, the creator of Netscape, who said \u201csoftware is eating the world.\u201d Although he is seemingly a visionary of the online world, \u201ca society in which software (data and algorithms) influence various things in the real world,\u201d to borrow his words, can be said to describe Society 5.0.<\/p>\n – It may be limiting, but it might be easier to understand this society by describing it as \u201ca society which has further evolved through the spread of IoT.\u201d While societal change took a tremendous amount of time in Societies 1.0 to 3.0, the pace<\/strong> since 4.0 has been very fast. <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>Change is, of course, accelerating. I think the world will change greatly in the next 10 years or so. The look of New York before and after Society 3.0 is symbolic of social change. Before industrialization, horse and carts ran through the financial district, but, within 10 years, those carts disappeared, to be replaced by cars. In Society 4.0, audiences were raising their smartphones to take photos of the Pope as he made speeches.<\/p>\n I think what will be symbolic of a world in which Society 5.0 is achieved are situations in which people disappear from all sorts of places. In fact, they will not have disappeared, but remote-operated robots will work at factories and construction sites, and, at medical sites, patients\u2019 rooms will connect to clinics to receive telemedicine. I expect to see scenes where people disappear from symbolic places that could not previously have been established without people.<\/p>\n Yoshida:<\/strong> As Mr. Ota says, achieving Society 5.0 will change the world dramatically. I think all industries will be connected, not only those in fields linked to the \u201cICT\u201d information revolution, and the concept of \u201cindustry\u201d will disappear.<\/p>\n Society 5.0 is said to be a super-smart society, but I think the meaning of \u201csuper\u201d is to transcend fields. We will move from a time where each industry is optimized individually to one where industry as a whole is coordinated and optimized. Developments in technologies such as IoT, AI, and the Cloud will enable perfect collaboration across industries. That time is coming.<\/p>\n – What do you think are the impact factors in promoting the coming Society 5.0? <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>I think the most important thing is data. The real world is already in place, but the infrastructure needed to handle data, beginning with \u201c5G,\u201d will be created. For this reason, we must ask how to arrange the handling of data.<\/p>\n Technology has developed as a result of the progress toward Society 4.0. However, if you ask if this has made people happy, there are many people who do not think so. For example, privacy and the data being collected by service companies are being abused, and an increasing number of cases have caused anxiety to users and citizens both in Japan and overseas. In a survey asking \u201cAre technology companies a good thing for the future?\u201d more than half of the people responded \u201cno.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years ago, I was standing on the government side waving their flag, but there are many people who think \u201cthis is really bad.\u201d So what should we do? Might the key term not be \u201cto innovate openly\u201d? By the way, \u201copenly” means that users participate.<\/p>\n Data collection and analysis are necessary to advance Society 5.0. At this time, data usage will advance where users participate and have trust. \u201cPrivacy\u201d and the \u201cuse of data\u201d are contradictory terms. Lowering the privacy threshold will increase convenience, but then there is the question of \u201cwhat will you do with it?\u201d while increasing privacy thresholds will make data harder to use. So, a relationship of trust between users and service providers is required.<\/p>\n If you try using services today, you will be presented with an extremely long \u201cprivacy policy.\u201d This makes matters explicit because there is no relationship of trust between service providers and users. If users participate in innovation and a relationship of trust is formed with service providers, data usage should develop smoothly.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>I have talked about a relationship of trust between service providers and users, but I also think that trust and acceptance are key factors. So I would like to ask Mr. Ota a question. The society that was once founded through acceptance based on kinship and home towns has changed greatly since Society 3.0. Since then, new forms of trust such as the sharing economy have come to be. So, why have these not been adopted to the extent that they have overseas?<\/p>\n Ota:<\/strong>We are probably at a turning point. I think that rule-making in Japan is not keeping up. I think it\u2019s easy to understand for holiday rentals, but the sharing economy and the existing system do not mesh. That’s why I think there is a need. The need for a sharing economy is something millennials feel regardless of country.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>I see. So how can we create a relationship of trust between service providers and users? The clue to that might be in the sharing economy. I think that, before legislation, users thought things such as \u201cwhat about unlicensed taxis?\u201d and \u2018I’m afraid to stay at a stranger\u2019s home.\u201d But the sharing economy has changed people\u2019s mindsets, the state has enacted legislation, various companies have begun to enter, and a new form of confidence has spread. As a result, I think it is becoming easier for users to use.<\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>In addition to legislation, I think it is a place that creates a relationship of trust. But I think there is also talk of \u201cplaces\u201d as \u201creal places,\u201d \u201cvirtual places,\u201d and a combination thereof.<\/p>\n If you can create a method whereby \u201cif there is this kind of place, we can build a trust relationship,\u201d I think it will be possible to collect and use data gathered at a fairly high level. To speak a little more technically, when we hear \u201cdata,\u201d we think of Big Data, but that is a dated way of thinking. In the future, we will ask about quality, not quantity. Even where the population is not one of hundreds or tens of millions, good-quality data can be obtained from samples in the tens of thousands.<\/p>\n This is only a single example, but a disaster-prevention project was carried out in Kobe in collaboration with LINE, the government, and citizens. During that time, residents were able to take videos and photographs during disasters and upload them to a platform; these were then used for evacuation planning after analysis. Besides this, residents in Shimane are collecting data to come up with countermeasures for damage caused by birds and animals.<\/p>\n If it is possible to gather a certain amount of high-quality data; it can be applied to populations of hundreds of thousands. Were a country to try to do this top\u2013down, people would say \u201care we in a surveillance state?\u201d and it would be costly, but, when companies do so, they are asked \u201cwhere are you sending the data?\u201d On this point, I think the number of issues would be reduced were citizens to work together with the government and companies. This is because the route of countries and companies is fast, but there are also side-effects due to that speed.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>Since the information-oriented society continues to develop and is moving away from an age of unconditional trust in companies and government, it is becoming difficult for countries and companies to collect data en masse in a top\u2013down manner. Rather than hoovering up data from the top down, it is easier to obtain understanding if you entwine it with the bottom\u2013up \u201clet’s solve problems\u201d approach. It seems that a style that says \u201clet’s do things naturally,\u201d rather than \u201call members please do this,\u201d proceeds smoothly.<\/p>\n – There is, however, the concern that, under a bottom\u2013up approach, the data population will inevitably decrease. <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>On the contrary, I think there are few concerns if the population is both small and good quality. The IT infrastructure is also reasonable, and AI algorithms can function even without gathering large quantities of data. The obstacle is thought to be that, if there are discrepancies in data definitions during analysis, it cannot be used well. It is also possible that the scales of the data gathered by cities A and B are vague and cannot be aggregated. This too won’t be an issue so long as discussion on how to handle and standardize the data is thorough.<\/p>\n Society 5.0 should be distributed. I think it would be good if distributed things worked together easily, and it would be good for a large enterprise or country to appear when optimizing the whole.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>The optimization required here is not equalization or homogenization, but perhaps rather \u201charmonization.\u201d I wonder whether the Society 5.0 way of thinking is that harmonization can be achieved even where there are differences.<\/p>\n JEITA has many standardization committees, and standardization will continue to be an important point. For this reason, I think it is necessary to make clearer the distinction between \u201ccompetitive spaces\u201d and \u201ccollaboration spaces.\u201d This is because there’s no use in competing over everything. It’s good to use what you can use, and to ride what you can ride, I think.<\/p>\n – To change the discussion, what kinds of human resource will be required in the Society 5.0 we will greet in the future? <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>Focusing on companies, it may be necessary to develop cross-border talent. When standardizing, you have to talk with different companies and sectors. Coordination between organizations and industries is not possible without training people who can speak outside of their comfort zone. Such people are characterized by being able to work in open innovation situations.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>Speaking of which, the crossing of borders is taking place in my work as well.<\/p>\n CEATEC, where I lead the promotion office, used to be a trade show with a strong emphasis on home electronics, smartphones, and electrical components, but, in recent years, it has undergone a concept shift. For example, booths focused on \u201cfuture living\u201d using technologies such as unmanned convenience stores and smart cities have now appeared. Accompanying this change, there has been an increase in the need for collaboration and business matching between exhibitors who \u201cwant to consider what can be done together.\u201d<\/p>\n As organizers, we also created a new project exhibition called \u201cSociety 5.0 TOWN.\u201d Leaping beyond the framework of an exhibition that simply features booths, we have created an environment aiming for exchanges between participating companies and the creation of businesses; companies meet face-to-face from the kick-off and engage in teambuilding and workshops, and people wishing to push beyond boundaries can network.<\/p>\n I think this type of development will become even more interesting if it leaps from the exhibition hall into a city, or if it partners with accelerator projects being carried out in various cities.<\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>Is that really happening? CEATEC has evolved considerably. In a similar example, the \u201cLiving Lab,\u201d which focuses on Europe, is conducting user-participatory social experiments in the fields in which people actually live. Talent and human resources, companies, and money are brought together, and I think this is very attractive in the context of using data. I think it would be interesting to carry out various social experiments in areas like Marunouchi, and then to expand their footprint to entire cities.<\/p>\n – Are there any towns that you are focusing on as \u201cplaces pushing boundaries,\u201d Mr. Ota? <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>The place I\u2019m paying attention to, and which is also related to my work, is Aizuwakamatsu. Hackathons are being held there every week, and it is very lively. What is interesting is not that there are charismatic leaders, but that various people are taking up leadership roles. This is called \u201ccivic tech\u201d and is a good example of how citizens can use technology to solve issues with administrative services and societal issues. A place where users can participate and can conduct proof-of-concept experiments using data is attractive to foreign capital, so I think this field will develop.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>Unlike Society 4.0, in which cyberspace was the main field, this is a period in which real assets are valuable. How do we create things, and how do people act? There are many fields in Japan that have yet to be made use of, and so I would like to pay attention to these in the future.<\/p>\n – In which among the Society 5.0 trends I have just spoken about will Japan win? Western companies were able to gain a lot of ground during Society 4.0, but can Japan make a comeback? <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>When I think about this question, I think there are several ways to win and lose. If you divide into these kinds of units, I don’t think these can be applied uniformly to any big company or country. Personally, I think it would be good for communities to extend beyond national borders and for companies to work together, and it would be good to have this kind of world.<\/p>\n What is important in Society 5.0 is not only cyberspace, but also linkages to the real world, so data collection originating from locations in the real world is required, and there are various methods of developing this.<\/p>\n As I said a little while before, local communities are gathering data about damage from birds and animals and natural disasters, and data is being standardized in order to connect communities. It would be good for sister cities to collaborate and forge strong links, as in city states. I think it would also be good for states and companies to collaborate. Of course, there may also be entirely different relationships, such as those between individuals and communities, or communities and countries.<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>Society 3.0 and 4.0 were led by states and companies. In that sense, Society 5.0 is an opportunity to make many small attempts in a form that is close to users.<\/p>\n For this reason, methods that begin where users themselves make individual contributions should be successful. I think this is in line with the Japanese philosophy of \u201cmaking what we would like to have ourselves.\u201d There are many derivative works in Japan, and isn’t hardware and software hacking our forte? A culture has been developed that enables the independent development of things \u201cit would be good to have.\u201d<\/p>\n Society 5.0 brings us close to a society where we can more independently decide “what we should do to live our own lives.\u201d Because technology is supporting this, if we can steadily tackle our own and surrounding issues, there should ultimately be a great blossoming of society.<\/p>\n – Further to that, Society 5.0 is not a tale of industry or the economy, but rather an image of the future bound to our own lives, isn’t it? <\/strong><\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>That’s exactly it, and it’s often said that \u201cSociety 5.0 doesn\u2019t smell like money!\u201d [laughs]. Since it is not uniform, it is not a mechanism that cannot be achieved en masse; technology is integrated into individual lives and forms a foundation for solving individual problems. Society 5.0 does not carry a sense of \u201cbeing given\u201d but is rather a concept closer to our lives because it is a society where everyone is told that \u201cit’s okay to think for yourself.\u201d If everyone asks \u201cwhat kind of world do I want to live in?\u201d companies will invest more money accordingly.<\/p>\n I think \u201chow do I want to live?\u201d is a very important question in such a society. For example, there is a tendency to think it\u2019s great that different ways of working are being taken up in turn, but, if you ask \u2018do you really want to try living in that way?\u201d I notice that many people reply \u201cugh.\u201d At the same time, I think there also extremely difficult aspects of thinking about how we want to live. Our day-to-day lives are busy with work, children, and the home, and it is difficult to make time to meaningfully ask the question \u201chow do I want to live?\u201d without having intent and setting aside time to do so.<\/p>\n – What should I begin with in order to clarify \u201chow do I want to live\u201d in preparation for the coming Society 5.0? <\/strong><\/p>\n Ota: <\/strong>It is understood that you must choose on the basis of the lifestyles we individually seek, but I also think \u201chow do I want to live\u201d becomes visible when we push beyond boundaries. For example, try living in various places, or try going to Aizu, which I introduced earlier. Our sense of values changes when we change where we live and come into contact with communities we wouldn’t normally interact with. As a result, what we wish to do should become clear.<\/p>\n This remains unclear even to me, but I think that people who participate on their own saying \u201clet\u2019s do something\u201d have a high degree of curiosity and the ability to ask questions. I think it will become a world where people can, in a sense, enjoy chaotic situations and act rather than ask \u201cIs this useful?\u201d or \u201cwill I benefit?\u201d<\/p>\n Yoshida: <\/strong>In other words, people will be honest about \u201cI wish it would be more like this.\u201d This is something of self-promotion, but I would really like you to come to CEATEC. By coming into contact with new technologies and visions, you should be able to understand the atmosphere of Society 5.0 and also come up with ideas about how to act next.<\/p>\n If you are a company employee, you may be asked \u201cwhy are you going to this exhibition?\u201d CEATEC is a comprehensive exhibition, so I hope you can come up with a good excuse to attend. You don’t need to be a player at first, and you don’t need to create a community yourself. It’s fine to be a follower. Something should change by coming into contact with people who push beyond boundaries. The gates to Society 5.0 are already open.<\/p>\n \u30fbSociety 5.0 is a \u201csociety where data is gathered from all places and things, and the analyzed is returned to the real space in order to optimize the actions of industry and people.\u201d Planning\uff1aYohei Azakami The world never stop…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"1403","footnotes":""},"categories":[367],"class_list":["post-1782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","tags-ceatec","tags-society5-0","tags-sharingeconomy","tags-cocreatingfuture","features-recommend","en-US"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1782"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5212,"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1782\/revisions\/5212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xtech.mec.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u30fbThe keywords for promoting Society 5.0 are “trust,\u201d \u201cdata,\u201d and \u201cstandardization\u201d<\/a>
\n\u30fbThe \u201cplace\u201d to which both interviewees are paying attention, where crossing borders will change society<\/a>
\n\u30fbThe essential question of \u201cWhat do you want to do?\u201d and what is required in Society 5.0<\/a>
\n\u30fbTakeaway<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160900\/IMG_5944-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nRepresentative of NEW STORIES Ltd.
\n<\/small>He worked for the Boston Consulting Group for 18 years, and served as the Asia leader for Telecoms, Media, and Technology. He was involved in regional regeneration and ICT\/IoT policy planning and implementation as an aide to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for around three years from 2015. Following his retirement, he established New Stories, planning and managing regional business creation across sectors. <\/small><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160908\/IMG_5952-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nGeneral Manager, CEATEC Promotion Office, Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA).
\nHe has been involved in planning and public relations since he was a student. He joined Keyence upon graduation. After that, he moved to Inoue Public Relations and jumped into the PR field. He has been responsible for PR at CES, the world\u2019s largest innovation trade fair hosted by the National Consumer Technology Association, since 2014. Since 2015, he has also been involved in transforming CEATEC, and he joined JEITA in 2017. Currently managing the CEATEC Promotion Office, he is responsible for promoting Society 5.0. <\/small><\/p>\nWhat is Society 5.0 in the first place?<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160916\/IMG_5971-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe keywords for promoting Society 5.0 are “trust,\u201d \u201cdata,\u201d and \u201cstandardization\u201d<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160923\/IMG_5985-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160944\/IMG_5955-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160939\/IMG_5994-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe \u201cplace\u201d both interviewees note whether borders will change society<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160931\/IMG_5992-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe essential question of \u201cwhat do you want to do?\u201d and what is required in Society 5.0<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/d1ro80vdse4hgc.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/09160843\/IMG_5928-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nOne of these is \u201cwinning and losing companies,\u201d another is \u201cwinning and losing countries,\u201d and within this there are \u201cwinning and losing communities.\u201d<\/p>\nTakeaway<\/h2>\n
\n\u30fb If Society 5.0 arrives, the world will change dramatically within 10 years.
\n\u30fb The keywords for promotion are \u201ctrust,\u201d \u201cdata,\u201d and \u201cstandardization.\u201d
\n\u30fbHuman resources that push boundaries will play an active role in the future.
\n\u30fbYou will be asked \u201cwhat do you want to do?\u201d more than ever before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nEditing\uff1aBrightLogg,inc.
\nWriting\uff1aGaku Suzuki
\nPhotography\uff1aNobuhiro Toya<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"