Technological innovation and building a ‘super smart’ society: Japan’s vision of society 5.0

ABSTRACT

The Government of Japan is pursuing an ambitious policy programme, Society 5.0, designed to respond to the formidable economic and social challenges facing Japan and the world, capitalize on Japanese technological sophistication and commercialization abilities, and provide a coordinated, forward-looking strategy that could ensure Japan’s leadership in the technological revolution. Society 5.0 is the label attached to a vision of ‘whole of government, business and academia’ plan to integrate new technological systems across various fields to the benefit of humanity. This paper explores the conceptual background, rationale, policies and programmes Japan has enacted in pursuit of this vision.

KEYWORDS:

• Japan
• society 5.0
• innovation policy
• ‘super-smart society
• ’ Science and Technology Basic Plan

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to acknowledge with much thanks the support of the Japan Foundation through its short-term research fellowship and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Foundation, Tokyo; Social Science and Humanities Research Council, Canada.

Notes on contributors

Carin Holroyd

Carin Holroyd is Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan and President of the Japan Studies Association of Canada. She has published widely on Japan and East Asia.  He more recent work is Green Japan: Environmental Technologies, Innovation Policy and the Pursuit of GreennGrowth (University of Toronto Press, 2019).