Comments from Jiro Kokuryo, supervisor, on project adoption

Jiro Kokuryo (Professor, Faculty of Policy Management, Keio University)

Human-IT Ecosystem started in 2016 and is now into its fourth year. Perception grew during that time, that it is critically important to build a society that embraces a harmonious relationship between information technology and humanity. To this end, we have been promoting projects that assess information technology and/or propose new social systems that allow human and information technologies to co-evolve. Simultaneously, there has been a growing awareness of the need for international research that cuts across cultural boundaries. Such is the reason that JST decided to collaborate with UKRI to fund joint research between Japanese and the UK research institutions. 31 projects were applied for, and 6 were selected.

Japan and the UK have similarities in that they are democracies valuing human right and freedom. At the same time, they are heterogeneous in its historical and cultural backgrounds. We are hoping that some notions in Japan such as "najimi (familiarity, or natural fit)," will help convey our inclination to consider the relationship between technology and humans in conviviality, rather than in hostility. We believe such alternative views from Asia will help stimulate the discussions for a better understanding of the world and the creation of better governance structure of technology.