The Journal of Science Policy and Research Management
Online ISSN : 2432-7123
Print ISSN : 0914-7020
Volume 32, Issue 1
Displaying 1-8 of 8 articles from this issue
Editorial
  • Yuko HARAYAMA
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 2-3
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    At the OECD, "Data-driven innovation" has been considered as a key science, technology and innovation (STI) policy issue in these last years, and it has been decided to initiate an OECD-wide project "Sizing the Benefits of Digitalisation for Growth and Well-being".

    Meanwhile, a concespt called "Society 5.0" has been proposed in the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan launched April 2016.

    Recognizing that the forthcoming 5 years will be a period of drastic changes fuelled by the advancement of STI, such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, regenerative medicine and brain sciences, this concept represents an idea of the society, placing humans at the heart. To transform the concept into reality, we need to invest in STI, while adapting social institutions to take advantage of the full potential of new technologies.

    This special issue "Forward Movements to Work and Income in Society 5.0" will explore this last point, and hopefully to contribute to better shape "Society 5.0".

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Special Report
  • —Summary of this special report—
    Kumi OKUWADA
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 4-6
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Many people in the world have started discussions on that we are at the beginning of the fourth industrial revolution. The industrial revolution fundamentally changes the way we live. Japanese government has suggested a new concept of "Society5.0" as discontinuity in society's shift. In order to concretely think of Society5.0, these special reports focused on work and income that are directly involved with our life and social structure. Authors commonly recognized that revolutionary changes derived from ICT developments and their further transformation in society would be inevitable, which seriously influence people\'s work style and their income. But the changes would not be caused only by some functional technologies. New social structure would be formed through their total effects. The authors also think that influences from progress of globalization would be inevitable, even if some endemic resistances temporarily occurred.

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  • Akira MATSUNAGA
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 7-20
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    It is widely recognized that new information technologies such as IoT (Internet of Things), Big Data and Artificial Intelligence will play decisive role in competitiveness of each company and industry itself. In this paper, I describe how Japanese government recognized the importance of these technologies. In 2016, the control tower for realizing Industrial Revolution 4.0 headed by the Prime Minister was established and started coordination among each ministry's policy measures.

    New rules and regulations will be necessary in order to control and promote new information technologies. In the latter half of this paper, I examine rule making process of small-scale pilotless planes (including drones) as a test case of controling and promoting these technologies. In this process, Japanese government invited multi-stakeholders in the very early-stage of the discussion and reached common understanding of rulemaking through drafting technology development road map of pilotless planes together.

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  • How it has reshaped the global economy
    Akihiko SHINOZAKI
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 21-38
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    In this paper, we discuss how innovations in information technology have transformed the global economy over the last quarter-century. We then illustrate, from an economic perspective, the manner in which new technology and subsequent innovation will reshape the workplace in the 21st century. Our study yielded three observations. First, innovation revitalizes even sluggish economies of developed countries when the innovations involve drastic changes in business processes and human resource management. Second, global information networks provide a new growth trajectory, which enables "leapfrogging" development of lower-income countries. Third, "economies of alliance" in the gig-economy are reshaping the workplace so that individuals with diverse skills are able to do multiple jobs. To benefit fully from innovation, we need to work together with technology, not compete against it. For this to happen, it is critical that we invest intensively in education to foster knowledge in the humanities and the social sciences as well as in the natural sciences and technology.

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  • The potential impact of ICT on business performance and employment
    Keisuke TAKACHI
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 39-50
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    This chapter will introduce some of the outcome of research activities on ICT-driven economy in which the author was participated, as a principal economist of Japan Center for Economic Research.

    If advanced ICT is able to be adopted, productivity is expected to improve dramatically. Results based on provisional calculation show that investments in ICT may boost Japan's GDP by approximately 70 trillion Yen by 2030. However, if ICT investments are regarded only as a means of reducing operating costs, it is not possible to expect positive effects. Quantitative research shows that the group of companies that use ICT for interacting with customers has higher productivity than the group of companies that do not. It is also necessary to pay certain attention to risks such as employment shifting. There are concerns that the mismatching of employment will take place. Reviewing education and the methods of vocational training will be useful.

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  • Koichi KUME
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 51-63
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    The progresses of technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analysis and smart robot are very remarkable, and people have no doubt that technology will have significant effects on our future work style. The next question is what kind of effects we will be faced with and how we can cope with the changes. In this paper, we forecast demographic changes under two difference scenarios and show one possibility that technological changes can increase our future labor supply. We also review recent researches on technology and work force, and propose a new work model called Work Model 2030 which is complementarily driven by new technologies. Finally, we provide results of our qualitative research on startups in the U.S. and discuss what kind of mentality we should have in order to accelerate our society with the new technologies.

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  • The effects of general artficial intelligence on economic growth, employment, and income distribution
    Tomohiro INOUE
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 64-73
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    I discuss how the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI) affects economic growth, employment, and income distribution. If AGI substitutes perfectly for human labor, the AK-type economy will occur. In the economy, the rate of economic growth gets higher over the years, the employment rate and the labor share approach 0%, and the capital share approaches 100%. I propose that basic income can contribute to the well-being of the laborer who have no capital.

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  • Kayo NISHISHITA, Kumi OKUWADA
    2017 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 74-91
    Published: February 28, 2017
    Released on J-STAGE: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

    Sharing economy and on-demand economy are based on peer to peer (P2P) system, where people flatly communicate in fully-spread internet environment. They have already begun to influence our behaviors and values. Under these backgrounds, crowd sourcing and crowd working styles have recently developed. Appearances of on-demand jobs and sharing of labors and knowledges show some paradigm shift in work and income. Through our study on a pioneer company of these fields, we found some local hindrances in social psychology and in business custom of Japan. However, the gradual transformation of people's behaviors and values would lead diversity and alternatives in our future work styles. Such observations would give us a symptom when we prepare next society.

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