The Social Brain Forum (SBF) of the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) held a symposium on the "Creation of a Smart Society – Solution Research in a Super-aging Society"on February 4 that aimed at the creation of a new society in Japan, which is currently entering a super-aging era.

The Social Brain Forum (SBF) was established by Tokyo Tech as an open forum for experts from various academic fields and industry, civic organizations (NPOs), and governmental and administrative organizations that enforce policies. The reason the SBF was established is the dramatic change in the relationship between science technology and society in the 21st century that has taken place due to the society growing more complicated.

Tokyo Tech is a science and engineering university that is involved in studying science technology. Because of this we allow ourselves a slight amount of pride that Tokyo Tech has been so devoted to the development of both Japanese and global science technology. However, since we are now being confronted by the fact that society is no longer simple as it was as science technology actually dramatically changed it has lead us to conclude that we need to plan an ideal society from a scientific perspective, and thus we have become positively devoted to the creation of that type of society, which is one of the major reasons SBF was established.

Or that is, a policy connects science technology with society: A method of utilizing science technology depends on the type of society we are aiming at. In other words engineers and researchers involved in science technology should no longer be as passive as they have previously been, such as in following the ways of thinking of: What technology will be a popular seller? or How does society actually utilize itself? Part of the SBF concept is that the adoption of an attitude where we submit the visions we have of an ideal society ourselves in the creation of our coexisting society with the related people is becoming more and more necessary.

SBF aims at realizing a spiritual and powerful society by creating social visions and being involved in policy collaborations, technology developments, and verification tests in cooperation with experts from various academic fields and industry, civic organizations (NPOs), and the governmental and administrative organizations that enforce policies.

At the symposium that was held the other day the following major thesis was discussed: How should Japan, which is currently entering super-aging era, promote social innovations in creating an ideal vision of society = a smart society through science technology? There are three essential points to this:

First, any social vision in the super-aging era should be based on devices that suit the type of society we are aiming at, and therefore making a vision that everybody can share of the utmost importance.

Second, science technology can play an important role in realizing this type of social vision.

Third, the creation of such a smart society can only be accomplished somewhere industry, government, academia, and private citizens can join together beyond the frame of industry, government, and academia, while also including NPOs and citizens.

Let me now also mention a new role for universities. Universities and industry have conventionally (and still now) collaborated in the name of industry-academia collaborations. However, this scheme was primarily based upon a market-oriented economy, or in other words the fiscal economy on which industry depends and roughly speaking the concept of "Money is everything"and whether it is profitable or not.

Nevertheless, in terms of society, money is not always everything.

Traditional Japanese households usually maintained relationships with their neighbors and had a spirit of mutual assistance, but we then superficially imitated the American market economy after World War II, thus resulting in the proliferation of a purely fiscal economy. Ironically enough the volunteer spirit is still pervasive in society in the U.S., which could be said to be the personification of monetarism.

According to "The World Happiness Map", a survey of the happiness of citizens in 178 countries throughout the world carried out by a social psychologist at the University of Leicester, namely professor Adrian White, Denmark was ranked the top, Finland sixth, the U.S.A. 23rd, and Japan as low as 90th. Is this the happiness of the world's second largest economy? I think that I am probably not the only one to have been rather shocked by that result.

The direction that Japan should take in the 21st century is a society that combines a fiscal economy with a voluntary economy as the two wheels of a cart, or that is incorporate sympathy, participation, and initiative.

Of course this is not just about feeling nostalgic about the good old days. The society at which we should aim at will need to incorporate the two different concepts of "returning to basics", or a society with the spirit of mutual assistance seen in the good old days, and "future evolution", or the creation of a new society led by complete coexistence with technology: Hence I refer to that 21st century society as a "smart society".

At the symposium hosted by SBF on February 4 we introduced two Tokyo Tech technologies: a "Hearing Support System"(created by Professor Kentaro Nakamura) that directly transmits the sounds that a hearing-impaired person wishes to hear and "Neuro-rehabilitation Technology"(created by Professor Yasuharu Koike) that assists the disabled by amplifying signals from the brain to the hands and arms.

Merely achieving the resolution of technical issues does not lead to the dissemination of technology throughout society because policies and a system then need to be introduced as a public infrastructure and services, or the support of industry and the understanding of users also become essential.

The nurturing of social businesses (provision and development of management technology, money, and human resources), and not by NPOs or leaving it to market principle, is in fact necessary.

At the symposium SBF stated they would establish a "Wa! Project"in addressing the creation of a smart society by gathering (輪 (wa)) people together with various points of view, talk (話 (wa)) things over with each other, and then collaborate in a fusion of their wisdom and power (和 (wa)).

We hope to address the creation of an ideal society by proposing ideal social visions, being sympathetic to each other, and utilizing science technology. We would appreciate it if readers would also participate in the new challenge for Japan as a scientific and technological powerhouse.

Chinese / French / Japanese