Realizing Our Digital Future and Shaping Its Impact on Law and Policy

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze how changes of the social structure associated with the digitalization of industries affect laws and policies, and to develop Digital Industry Policy Studies which is adapted with cyber-physical integrated society, socalled the age of Society 5.0. 　A driving force for the digitalization of industries is the business model of trading information and data in return for goods through the Digital Platform (DPF). Massive DPFs provided by so-called “GAFA”, companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, have built an indispensable economic and social infrastructure in our country and by which various services have been supplied in consumers’ life. Currently, ecosystems (economic zones) have been formed across the borders by the DPFs as “service infrastructure”. 　DPF businesses have some characteristics in common. Companies that own and manage the DPFs (1) provide a common standard in the DPFs, (2) analyze a large amount of consumers’ data accumulated in the DPFs by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and with these data as the driving force, (3) reveal a potential demand of DPF users with different interests by matching up their supply and demand. 　In this study, first I got an overview of the recent legislative policies and research trends, and clarify the significance and issues of the governance model which was recently proposed as “Redesign of Law and Architecture in the Age of Society 5.0”. 　Secondly, I analyzed the DPF business and further-advanced “Smart business” and identified the changes of industrial structure where the cyber and physical spaces are integrated, by focusing on the following two basic elements of DPF business, which are “network coordination” and “data intelligence” 　Thirdly, it is necessary to visualize fundamental rules to design the architecture in the digital society. In the process of designing the components of DPF business and Smart business, which is an advanced form of DPF business, it is required to visualize expectations, needs and concerns of society for new technology and create a legal mechanism to examine comprehensively ethical, legal and social issues (ELSI) . 　In Society 5.0, it is important to set common rules to be shared by the society, such as new rules for “property” concerning data and information, rules for “contracts” organizing digital market, rules for “responsibility” of system developer for digitalization and network providers, rules for “natural person” in digital market where personalities are actively integrated, and to create in advance ethical standards for core technologies such as AI in the digital society 　Furthermore, it is necessary to set a framework for both domestic and international discipline in the cyber-physical integrated society in terms of appropriate approaches to regulate the rules. 　Based on the above findings, for the first time, we can propose a new governance model, trusted by members of society.