The Two-Sword Style | Jun Murai (Dean, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)

2010.09.09

Building a global society is also a mission of SFC. However, surprisingly many people do not have a real sense of what the term "global society" means. One antonym for the word "global" is "local." When thinking in terms of society, this means the world and the region. An example of a regional community is the unit of a nation. The relationship between the world, nations, and society signifies the international community—in other words, "international." Thus, another antonym for "global" is "international." I became conscious of a global society when I was involved in discussions about the system for determining internet domain names. For example, a domain name like jal.com can only be registered once in the entire world. According to the system, a registration was successful if no one else was using the name at the time of registration. This particular domain name was registered for his own business by a man named John A. Lettelleir (whose initials are J.A.L.). At that time, the internet was not yet widely known. Japan Airlines also did not expect to be taking reservations over the internet. Later, as the internet began to be understood, these kinds of conflicts started to arise. The initial discussions on how to mediate these issues were held between WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and internet experts (including myself). This was in 1995. That year, the internet was bundled with Windows 95, marking the first year of the internet as a social phenomenon. WIPO is a specialized agency of the United Nations. In other words, it is an international organization responsible for global intellectual property, coordinating between nations. I recall a WIPO expert at the time exclaiming in surprise, "This is a truly global intellectual property issue!" In essence, the internet made the very concept of a single "global" space tangible. Before that, even esteemed international organizations had only a faint sense of it as a reality. Then, in cooperation with WIPO, we created the first mediation mechanism for domain names in this global space. (Incidentally, although the mediation result affirmed that John had the rights to jal.com, it is now used by Japan Airlines.) In the fifteen years since then, the internet has grown alongside SFC as the foundation of a "global society." As "local" regions and "nations" have become more closely intertwined in areas like the environment, culture, language, elections, and media, the relationship between the internet and the global space is also changing daily. In this context, SFC is becoming ever more interesting.

At SFC today, there are many people who can professionally discuss the "Galapagosization" of Japan. This is an important discussion for understanding people, understanding Japan, and creating a global society. The term "Gara-kei" also refers to the feature phone culture considered the original "Galapagos," and it is now becoming a common noun. One antonym for Gara-kei is smartphone. When smartphones first appeared, it was fashionable for people who wanted to try a smartphone but couldn't give up their Gara-kei to carry both. How indecisive. Some people called this "nichokenju" (two-gun style). The term "nichokenju" was popular in movie titles and the like during the Showa era, but when you think about it, it's not a very rational weapon. It's hard to imagine being able to attack effectively with a pistol in each hand. I wonder if it was an expression thought out to that extent for Gara-kei and smartphones. But the Japanese way of the sword is different. "Nitoryu" (the two-sword style) means skillfully using weapons with different purposes, such as the long sword and the short sword, or the tachi and the kodachi. Language and culture are treasures for building a global society. Recently, I've seen people carrying both an iPad and a smartphone. Perhaps this is "Nitoryu."

(Published: 2010/09/09)