The
Stanford Trans-Asian Dialogue was held in Kyoto. Professor Masahiko Aoki and
Stanford researchers were joined by attendees from China, India, Singapore, and
Malaysia to discuss digital media and the influence that it will have on the
global society. I was at the table as well. Both at the round-table and in the
public symposium I was bathed in questions.
Q.
How has IT policy changed recently?
A. When I oversaw the deregulation of communications over 30
years ago, IT policy was focused on those who “offered” services and revolved around market competition and airwave
distribution. It was domestic policy with makers and telecommunications/broadcasters
as the administrative objects.
However, with the digital infrastructure
in place, policy has now shifted to the “use” of digital communications and
broadcasting. Security, privacy, online sales, copyright law, education, health,
and administration must all be dealt with, and the problems are borderless.
There is a
fundamental shift.
Q. How is the anxiety about the personal
number system in Japan?
A. Japan will
finally introduce a personal number system in 2016.
The Social Security Number is already in
place in the U.S., and in Northern Europe even personal income is a matter of
public record. In Germany the system is strictly controlled by the government.
There are many models.
Japan’s system will be similar to that of Germany’s in the beginning, but it’s not clear what
it will become over time. There isn’t an international
norm. As for where the line will be drawn, this should be led by the users, not
by the government.
Q.
Whose side is the net on?
A. It’s on the side of
statesmen and on the side of terrorists. Like a knife, it can be both useful
and used as a weapon. After Gutenberg’s invention of
the printing press it took three centuries for the citizen revolution and
industrial revolution to play out, and he’d never imagined the future that his
invention would bring.
It would be best for us to try to imagine the future. However,
it won’t take three centuries in the case of IT. Maybe one generation,
30 years, will be enough for things to settle into place. The Net was
introduced 20 years ago, so we’ll see where things are
in another 10 years.
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