FOR scientists, the first week of October each year now features a must-attend event in Kyoto, Japan— the annual Science and Technology in Society (STS) Forum.
The science equivalent to the World Economic Forum was founded 15 years ago by a respected elder statesman of Japan, Koji Omi, a former minister of finance.
This year, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself, some 1,400 Nobel laureates, scholars, researchers, policymakers, business leaders and media practitioners from all over the world attended to discuss science and technology issues in the 21st century.
It is also a window for the outside world to see at close range how Japan uses science and technology to grapple with modern-day problems, such as burgeoning megacities and an ageing society.
Among Japan’s new initiatives is the creation of a super-smart, high-tech “Society 5.0”, defined as “a human-centred society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space”.
Explaining Society 5.0, first introduced by Abe in March last year, begins with the idea that humanity started as a hunting society (Society 1.0), followed by the agricultural society (Society 2.0), then the industrial society (Society 3.0), and the information society (Society 4.0).
Today, we find ourselves in a world with growing economies that have become increasingly globalised, characterised by severe competition, and progressively concentrated wealth and regional inequality. Nevertheless, in many places life is becoming prosperous, convenient and longer. In 30 years, it is estimated that more than one fifth of the world’s people will be 60 years old or more. This ageing population, coupled with higher standards of living, has led to surging demands for energy, food and other resources.
The goal behind a Society 5.0 is to address many of these and other issues by going beyond just digitalisation of the economy to the digitalisation of all levels of society using the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, AI, big data analysis and more.
In the information society (Society 4.0), cross-sectoral sharing and analysis of knowledge and information were limited largely to what people can do. For humans to find and distill information from cascading waterfalls of data, however, is a daunting challenge.
In this new society, people, things, and systems are all connected in cyberspace and a huge amount of information from sensors in physical space is accumulated and analysed by artificial intelligence (AI). The results are fed back to humans in various forms, with the potential to help us balance economic development, environmental conservation and solving social issues. The comprehensive analysis of needs, coupled with robots that support us as agents and creating new value, frees humans from cumbersome everyday work and tasks.
Shortcomings in our economic, and organisational systems result in gaps and shortfalls in the products and services individuals receive.
In Society 5.0, the various needs of society are finely differentiated and met by providing the necessary products and services in the required amounts to the people who need them when they need them, thereby optimising the entire social and organisational system, as well as resources. This is a society centred on each and every person.
According to its proponents, Society 5.0 will be a forward-looking one that breaks down barriers, one in which members share a mutual respect transcending the generations, and every person can lead an active and enjoyable life.
Society 5.0 envisions a tight convergence between the virtual cyberspace world and the physical world, an environment in which new technologies are incorporated throughout our industries and social activities to achieve economic development, environmental conservation and solutions to social problems in parallel.
As one Japanese observer said of Society 5.0: “Traditionally, innovation driven by technology has been responsible for social development, but in the future, we will reverse our way of thinking, focusing on how to build a society that makes us happy and provides a sense of worth. That is why we focus on the word ‘society’ as the foundation for human life.”
Achieving Society 5.0 would realise economic development and reduce environmental degradation while addressing key social problems, a major contribution towards meeting the United Nations’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Japan aims to become the first country in the world to create this human-centred society. As we reorientate our sights to “Looking East” again under the stewardship of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia might wish to closely examine the ideas of Society 5.0 and how they might fit into our own national plans, programmes and strategies.
Our reaction would also be timely, as the country braces itself for the possible onslaught of the socalled Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), a concept championed by another industrialised country, Germany.
Before we get carried away by both, it would be wise to heed the advice of Tan Sri Dzulkifli Razak:
“We need to have a deeper discourse on such critical issues before crowing 4IR as the panacea of the future.” And, if I may add, “Society 5.0.”
Zakri Abdul Hamid along-time resident of Japan, is a senior fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia and a council member of the Kyoto-based STS forum