Abstract
In the information and communication technology (ICT)-dependent society/economy, ensuring and cultivating professional ICT human resources are critical for prosperity of organisations as well as society as a whole. What is required for the human resources is expertise of ICT and business, skills to successfully develop and operate ICT-based information systems and a professional outlook. They are expected to acquire such skills, knowledge and behaviour through well-designed educational programmes conducted in educational institutions and/or business organisations. However, there are several obstacles to cultivating professional ICT human resources in Japan, which should be candidly recognised and appropriately addressed as soon as possible. The most important challenge for constructing a prosperous information society in Japan is the rehabilitation of philosophy and ethics, which would enable us to make ethical discourses on development and use of ICT and ICT-based information systems.
