"What is DX? From Mindset Reform to the New Normal"

2021/07/12

Since 1984, I have been leading the TRON project to realize a world where numerous computers are embedded in our living environment and work together via networks to assist humans—what we now call IoT. As part of this project, I have been researching and developing real-time OS standards and making them open-source to improve the efficiency of developing various embedded devices and to accelerate innovation.

I take pride in the fact that the results of the TRON project supported the development of Japanese home appliances, automobiles, and mobile phones, contributing to their competitive advantage. However, in the process of advancing these activities, TRON also became involved in corporate business models and even national industrial policies. It was caught up in Japan-U.S. trade friction and was once considered a candidate for Super 301 sanctions. The lesson I learned from these experiences, which went beyond the university laboratory, is that in the field of ICT, it is not just pure technology that matters; institutional design and business models—fields typically associated with the humanities—are just as important as, if not more important than, technical design.

Japan was once arrogant enough to call itself an "electronics nation," but it has declined because it could not respond to the wave of open innovation brought about by the emergence of the internet, the very heart of the matter. What I felt during that process was Japan's structural problem: an inability to design the future using the "two wheels of technology and institutions," and a resistance to "openness" due to a strong desire for zero risk and a guarantee-oriented mindset. The recent establishment of the "Digital Agency" and the realization of the need for various uses of "National IDs" due to the COVID-19 pandemic are typical examples of this.

"DX" is a structural reform that fundamentally changes organizations and methods to adapt to the open innovation made possible by digital technology and the internet. DX is impossible without this understanding. How to carry out structural reform, and as a prerequisite, how to change the mindset—this book discusses the philosophical aspects of DX based on the problems in Japan that I have found frustrating over the many years of the TRON project. I would be happy if this book is read by those who are interested not so much in the technology of DX, but rather in why DX cannot be achieved even with technology alone, and how to move beyond that.

"What is DX? From Mindset Reform to the New Normal"

Ken Sakamura

Kadokawa Shinsho

248 pages, 990 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.