Let's Build a Model Society That Captures the World's Attention | Jiro Kokuryo (Director, Keio Research Institute at SFC; Professor, Faculty of Policy Management)
2006.04.13
Back in the 1980s, when Japan was riding high, there was a time when the world flattered us, saying "the 21st century will be Japan's century," and we got carried away. However, with the onset of the 1990s and a prolonged period of financial turmoil, the world came to see Japan as just an inferior nation, and Japan itself lost confidence and turned inward. Now, the world's attention is focused on China and India, and (almost) no one thinks the 21st century will be Japan's century anymore. It's not that we need to own the 21st century, but it's frustrating, so I can't help but wonder how we can make them say, "After all, the 21st century is Japan's century."
I think the strategy we should take is relatively clear. Instead of the 20th-century American-style prosperity achieved by expanding material production and military power, Japan should present a model that leads the world in a 21st-century form of prosperity. Just as developing countries around the world once looked to Japan as a model for escaping economic hardship, we should make countries around the world, struggling with the contradictions of the 20th-century model, look to Japan for an example.
For example, building a universal social system that doesn't lose its vitality even as the population ages would be a development goal. I'm not an expert, so I can't speak carelessly, but aging seems to be a common phenomenon in societies that have developed economically and become affluent. As the first to reach this stage, Japan can take the lead in promoting the universal design of tools and social systems, creating a model where even the elderly can utilize their abilities. To put it in more worldly terms, if we prepare technologies and products adapted to an aging society, we will be able to meet the future needs of China and India. By showing a clear path to solving the problem of an aging society—an issue that makes Japan's future seem precarious—it would surely feel good to be able to deliver hope to the world and lead to our own prosperity. The broadband network we have developed will be a great asset in building that solution.
There are many other areas we could aim for, but such an optimistic scenario is meaningless if we only predict or discuss it without taking action to make it a reality. To send a message to the world, we must first, with our own hands, build around SFC a model society that is friendly to the environment and its residents, one that will attract visitors from all over the world. With Policy Management, Environment and Information Studies, and Nursing and Medical Care, SFC has an accumulation of research resources with the power to generate the essential knowledge for building a 21st-century society. By applying this concretely to the local community, I want to create a society that makes people think, "Indeed, this is the future."
(Date of publication: 2006/04/13)