Cyber Civilization: Governance of the Contribution-Based Economy

2022/09/05

Ever since I became a faculty member at Keio University, I had the audacious thought that I wanted to write a treatise on civilization someday. I am nervous because what I have actually written could be read as finding fault with the modern Western industrial civilization that Yukichi Fukuzawa poured his heart and soul into introducing.

I believe he would surely laugh and forgive me because he was someone who saw through civilization not merely as a "form" like industry, but as a spirit born of independent energy. He was also quick to recognize the existence of intangible assets such as intellectual property rights and undertook efforts to turn information into a business model, as seen with the Jiji Shimpo. I like to think that if Yukichi Fukuzawa were to see today's digital society, he would have certainly sensed the emergence of a new civilization.

I have long felt that the characteristics of the digital economy are fundamentally different from those of the industrial economy. For details, I hope you will read the book, but characteristics of digital networks—such as network externalities, low marginal costs, high traceability, and complex systems—overturn the premises of the industrial economy. As a result, this has created a situation where we must re-examine governance structures, including legal systems and markets, which have been built around the concept of ownership. This task involves questioning modernity itself, going back as far as philosophy. It requires an effort on the same level as the introduction of Western philosophy and the enactment of the Constitution and Civil Code during the Meiji Restoration.

When considering the world of data, where value is created by contributing, I was apprehensive that my argument—that we should reconsider the recent individualistic tendency to treat even data as "property"—would clash head-on with Western views. However, prior to this book, I wrote a somewhat provocative paper suggesting that Eastern philosophies of altruism might be better suited for governing the digital economy than Western-style individualism, and I received more responses from people in Europe than in Japan. It seems that even in Europe, the birthplace of modern industrial civilization, there is a shared sense that a fundamental review of the current path is necessary.

And so, with a mix of excitement and trepidation, I have written this provocatively. I would welcome any critiques.

Cyber Civilization: Governance of the Contribution-Based Economy

Jiro Kokuryo

Nikkei Business Publications

248 pages, 2,200 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations, job titles, etc., are as of the time of publication.