Director: Jiro Kokuryo (Professor, Faculty of Policy Management)
Main Campus: Shonan Fujisawa
Center Overview
The rapid expansion of the internet, which began in the 1990s, has brought many conveniences to humanity. However, this very expansion has also rapidly magnified some of its inherent problems. Issues such as harm caused by antisocial media use and the spread of negative influences on children from sources like online dating sites have become problems that even the general public can perceive. Among network specialists, there is serious concern that the network, having expanded rapidly in a patchwork manner, has resulted in a fragile system with a structure vulnerable to disasters and terrorism. The necessary social consensus regarding the online world, including issues like privacy and the protection of intellectual property rights, can hardly be said to have been established, and confusion is arising as usage expands without this consensus in place.
To solve these problems and ensure that technology contributes to the realization of a safe and secure society, a deep insight into humanity and society is necessary, in addition to knowledge of information technology and related information and communication systems. Based on this insight, we must establish and disseminate design and implementation methods for necessary information infrastructure systems, legal systems, school education systems, family relationships, and the formation of normative consciousness. This is why there is a strong demand for human resources who can systematically understand the mechanisms by which media and society interact and influence each other, and who can grasp technology and institutions in an integrated manner. However, until now, there have been almost no educational institutions that cultivate such human resources. At this center, drawing on our accumulated experience in education and research with a dual focus on technology and policy, we aim to build an educational and research hub that integrates society and technology to create a safe and secure society by cultivating such human resources through the participation of young researchers in research to establish highly reliable next-generation media.
Keywords and Main Research Themes
Media, Safety and Security, Information Technology