Technological Innovation in Japan and 'Society 5.0'

The Japanese government has an ambitious plan to create what they call Society 5.0, "a supersmart world in which digital innovation leads the way." In particular, Tokyo is aiming to resolve economic and social problems by incorporating new digital technologies, like artificial intelligence and robotics in a wide array of fields like industrial output and social care. The article discusses whether Japanese companies and executives leading those companies are capable and willing to take the required steps. The article says it may be challenging to make the jump on full-on investments and rebase their businesses on large-scale use of AI. It also brings up another problem that Japan specifically has with its aging population: a shortage in their workforce. It states that because of this, Japan must go first using tech to support its economy and its people.

The real challenge that faces Japan according to this article is not with innovation, but rather with implementation. It is pretty clear that Japanese companies have been innovating new digital solutions to fields like healthcare, social work, and education. However, it faces problems of implementation. For example, they are lagging behind in adoption of cashless systems, with only 18.4 percent adoption while China was already at 60 percent and South Korea was 89.1 percent. The article says the technology is there, but the 'real challenge' is moving from proofs of concepts to wide-scale implementation of digital solutions in industry and infrastructure.

As a Stanford student surrounded by all the innovation in Silicon Valley, I hear a lot of these kind of discussions. There is huge economic incentive in implementing new digital solutions in different aspects of people's lives. AI systems have huge potential for improving different aspects of people's lives, but more importantly, when implemented in industry, can eliminate the need for human workers, which would certainly help in Japan's case. However, there is also the concern of unemployment rising and wealth being more concentrated with the development of smarter automated systems. The Japanese government would have to make sure to regulate companies to keep employment up or take some other action to ensure that people without work are taken care of, like through universal basic income.

As a side note, this article may be biased as the author is the CEO of a company that specializes in digital technologies. Of course, they would want for Japanese society to rapidly adopt new digital technologies. One thing that went to mind as I was reading this was about how exactly these technologies would help Japanese society improve--does Japan have to implement all these new AI technologies on a widespread scale? Sure, innovative humanoid robots have so much potential in social work, and medical robotics are vastly improving healthcare for the direct benefit of people. However, it seems a bit bold to say that AI systems need to penetrate every area of people's lives.