We knew that social life, which began with hunting, had evolved through agriculture and industry and, most recently, into the information society. While we had barely noticed, let alone digested, that we were “connecting people”, the “Super Smart Society”, on which the Japanese have been working since 2016 under the heading Society 5.0, has razed the agenda of the coronavirus to the ground.
“The idea of Society 5.0 presents a new way of life, a model of society, in which the impact of digitalisation and artificial intelligence is assessed in every respect, through people’s relationship with machines and robots, that is, through the linking of all objects, living and non-living, to the internet as the internet of things. The model in question aims at a human-centred society living in prosperity.”
Without recalling the stages of development of societies up to the period before Society 5.0, we cannot understand this sharp paradigm shift we are living through.
As is well known, human memory is afflicted with forgetfulness.
What was the life cut out for us before Society 5.0? The Historical Development of the Industrial Revolution: the term “Industrial Revolution” denotes the change in the technological, economic and social systems of industry. This term focuses in particular on working conditions, changes in living conditions and economic wealth. Developments in the field of industry began in the middle of the 18th century and, down to our day, it is still resisting, using all its firearms and other weapons in order to survive. These developments, which have also affected the world, went through four phases from Industry 1.0 to 4.0, could not find a single change to its liking among all the changes, and in the end found itself a Smart virus and wanted to put a radical end to the whole business.
While the world was still struggling to understand what Industry 4.0, pioneered by Germany, actually is, Japan, which ranks at the very top in digital technology, has long since finished its debates on Society 5.0, together with its philosophy, its ethical and moral values. Work on 6.0, which has not yet found time to reach our ears, has perhaps already entered the top five of the curriculum in Japan’s schools.
When, where, how and from whom had we first heard the term Society 5.0? In January 2016 it was used by the Cabinet in the Japanese government’s Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, in the “Fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan”. When Society 5.0 was defined as a “super smart society” in which cyberspace and physical space (real society) are integrated at a high level, we had been able to understand it only as far as the smartphones in our hands allowed.
And when we heard that the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, attending the information technology fair CeeBIT 2017, had said at the Fair that they had developed the philosophy of Society 5.0 on the belief that “Technology should be perceived by societies not as a threat but as a helper”, and that on his return from the fair he had launched in Tokyo, under the name Society 5.0, the new era following the Industry 4.0 revolution, we said, “Let them get started, let us see, and afterwards perhaps we will understand what it is. Even if we do not understand, we will copy it, and learn by stumbling along as we live”, and we have been waiting ever since that day.
And now our country, which has been spared nothing and which has used up, in the dust of the coronavirus, its hope that we would be reborn from our ashes, received the news of the “Smart society” through the most official channel as of yesterday. It received it, and what came of it?
It is known that the concept of Society 5.0 emerged in Japan in 2015 in a strategic national political initiative.
Society 5.0 follows Industry 4.0 to a certain degree. The most important point here, however, is that while Industry 4.0 focuses on production in technology, Society 5.0 focuses on raising people’s level of prosperity by drawing more benefit from the results and the technology created by Industry 4.0 in improving quality of life, social responsibility and sustainability. Hayashi, Sasajima, Takayanagi and Kanamaru have stated that with Society 5.0 it is planned for Japan to create new values by cooperating with several different systems, to move towards standardisation in certain matters such as data formats, models and system architecture, and to develop the necessary human resources. They state that the development of intellectual property, international standardisation, and the development of the internet of things system together with construction technologies, big data analysis technologies, artificial intelligence technologies and the like are expected to promote Japan’s competitiveness in the super smart society.
The Japan Business Federation sets out the goals of Society 5.0 as follows:
• Increasing the Power of Individuals by Carrying Out Individual Reform: every individual, including elderly people and women, being able to live a comfortable and healthy life in safety and to realise his or her own way of life.
• Providing New Values through the Reform of Companies: promoting increased productivity through digitisation and the reform of business models, and realising the new economy and society by supporting innovation and globalisation.
• Building a Better Future by Solving Social Problems: making efforts towards the realisation of a rich and strong future in order to solve many problems such as the declining population in countries, a rapidly ageing society and natural disasters. Contributing to the solution of problems on a global scale through the overseas expansion of new businesses and services.
On the other hand, there are also some difficulties that must be overcome in realising the goals of Society 5.0. These difficulties include software integration and upgrading, the mutual interoperability of business networks, synchronisation in the light of real-time processes and applications and, more importantly, security.
• The formation of national strategies and the integration of the government promotion system,
• The development of laws for the application of advanced techniques,
• The formation of the knowledge base,
• Ensuring the dynamic participation of all citizens in the new economy and society,
• Achieving the integration of society with advanced technologies is of great importance. In conclusion, the ultimate aim of Society 5.0 is to raise people’s quality of life by mobilising the productive and technological potential of Industry 4.0.
Society 5.0 will make a very important contribution to humanity in terms of its philosophical approach and what it aims at. So far, no problem. Indeed, it is the dream of every child who comes into life with hope! However, global collaborations and global solutions have been worked on as a national initiative of the Japanese. This is exactly where the biggest part of the problem lies: since the local values and conditions of each society are not in the slightest similar to those of another, the Society 5.0 project must not be seen as a ready-made, applicable package. In short, to speak of moving on to 5G–6G when a society crushed under smart apartment blocks has given up its soul in the transition to society 2.0… We can take Society 5.0 as a package and copy it, but will we be able to find a society to paste it into?
Keywords: Super Smart Society Shinzo Abe Japan
Translated from the Turkish original.