This proposal recommends the promotion of research and development to create a new mechanism to improve and solve the situation and problem of trusts not working well in various aspects of society as digitalization progresses, namely, "new trust formation in the digital society".

Trust is the state of being able to believe that the other party will not disappoint you. If you can trust the other party, even if there is risk, you can act and make decisions quickly and with peace of mind. Trust has the effect of reducing the cost of cooperation and transactions, expanding people's activities, developing business, and being a factor in whether a business lives or dies.

However, as digitization has progressed, relationships have expanded into virtual spaces, reliance on complex technological systems has increased, and deception techniques have become more sophisticated. As a result, in today's digital society, cases that cannot be covered only by the "old trust" supported by face-to-face relationships and rules among people are expanding, and the function of trust in society is no longer working well. This issue affects the social acceptance of new technologies and services such as autonomous cars, AI agents, communication robots, and metaverse, and raises concerns about fraud and crime through faking, disguising, and spoofing.

To address this issue, promotion of research and development of "new trust formation in the digital society" is strongly urged. The goal of this initiative is a society where a wide range of cooperation, transactions, and relationships can be created without excessive distrust or caution, and where the various possibilities and benefits of digitalization can be expanded. To realize this, it is necessary to conduct research and development based on "convergence of knowledge" that considers not only technological development but also institutional design and social acceptance.

In the situation where trust does not work well due to the problems caused by digitalization, it is very dangerous to believe something based on only fragmented information or one aspect of the subject matter. Trust in the digital society should be supported by multifaceted and composite verification, and a mechanism is desirable to ensure that such verification can be performed appropriately and easily.

This proposal introduces the "three aspects of trust" as a concept that will assist in embodying this idea of multifaceted and composite verification. The three aspects of trust are (a) "object certification", whether the trustee is the real person or the real item, (b) "content authenticity", whether the content is a fact or the truth, and (c) "behavior expectation and acceptance", whether it is possible to expect or accept to the behavior of the trustee. The above-mentioned goal of this proposal will be achieved through the establishment of a system that provides "social bases" for each of these three aspects through technology and institutions, and through the establishment of a multifaceted and composite verification process that is widely utilized in society.

As research and development based on the "convergence of knowledge" necessary for this purpose, this proposal recommends that the following four-tiered approach to research and development targets be promoted in a coordinated manner.

• (1) Rebuilding the social bases of trust: Research and development on what to set as the social basis in terms of the three aspects of trust (object certification/content authenticity/behavior expectation and acceptance) and what technologies and institutions should be used to ensure this social basis.
• (2) Social trust formation framework: Research and development to make it easier for people to use the social bases of trust and expand the range of trustable objects, as well as to ensure that social trust anchors are maintained in a fair and healthy manner.
• (3) Addressing specific trust problem cases: Research and development to demonstrate solutions or situation improvements using (1) and (2) for trust problem cases caused by the digitization. Here, not only solution design for specific problem cases but also feedbacks from analysis of specific cases to the research of (1) and (2) are included.
• (0) Basic research on trust: Basic research and development for the realization of (1), (2) and (3) and its social acceptance, for example, research on understanding of trust in society and its impact and change due to digitalization

Trust-related research and development has been tackled in a variety of fields. However, there is little knowledge sharing or collaboration among them, and each is limited to addressing individual cases or improving the situation piecemeal. This proposal encourages a change in approach from this current situation. In other words, we should draw and share an overall vision of a new trust mechanism in the digital society and solutions for actual trust problems, and work together on the research and development agenda consisting of four layers to address both actual trust problems and common foundations. As a result, social contribution scenarios of those efforts will also be strengthened.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned change, we believe it is effective to combine the following measures: (i) setting opportunities for sharing knowledge and promoting collaboration among disciplines, (ii) continuous activity formation for interdisciplinary trust research and human resource development, and (iii) promotion and acceleration through funding programs. In the promotion of research and development based on "convergence of knowledge," in addition to cross-disciplinary efforts between the information science field and the humanities and social sciences, participation from industry which needs a new trust mechanism and plays a major role in the practice is also important.