Recommendations for an ultra-free society 2: letting the grasshopper manage the AI ants

■Recommendations for an ultra-free society 2: letting the grasshopper manage the AI ants 　I’ve heard that SoftBank is using AI to evaluate students’ application forms. The day when AI takes over the positions of job interviewers seems near too. AI doesn’t get tired, is fair, and doesn’t have variations in its decisions. 　There is specialized as well as general AI. AI research in the 1970s and 80s focused on specialized AI and the development of expert systems. AI has recently experienced a boom due to deep learning, but all existing AI is this...

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Recommendations for an ultra-free society: an unstable life

■Recommendations for an ultra-free society: an unstable life   　We’ve had 20 years of digitization, and 10 years of transition to smart technology. 　This revitalized light and heavy industry and then the information industry as well, and formed the third Industrial Revolution. Actually, that wave went far belong the domain of industry, gave everyone the fruits of information sharing and transmission, and led to a revolution in culture and the democratization of information. 560 years after the Gutenberg press, this was a once-in-a-millennium...

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The sharing izakaya economy

■The sharing izakaya economy       　White wine with a flounder carpaccio. The main dish is duck, with red wine. Cheese, dessert, coffee, cognac. Thank you for the meal. It was delicious. I’m satisfied. 　But Western meals are hard for me. The fixed schedule and the systematic order are tough. 　A kaiseki course meal. A hors d’oeuvre, boiled food, flame-broiled food, rice, miso soup, sweets. Delicious. 　But Japan’s orderly traditional restaurants are hard for me too. To have small dishes just for me lined up...

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The fourth Industrial Revolution and Asia’s soft power, 2

■The fourth Industrial Revolution and Asia’s soft power, 2       I will pick up the questions I answered during the discussion. Q There are many factors that go into soft power. Which should Asia focus on? A Traditional culture, popular culture, religion, values, lifestyles - there are many different factors. 　Even more than that, Asia is diverse. Apart from the lineup here, there is China as well as North Korea. 　Making everyone focus on one thing is unrealistic. 　Japan has focused on its pop culture, which...

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The fourth Industrial Revolution and Asia’s soft power, 1

■The fourth Industrial Revolution and Asia’s soft power, 1       I took part in the Jeju Forum. This is an international conference held on Jeju Island in South Korea, and this was the 12th edition of the conference. Over 5,000 politicians, entrepreneurs, researchers, and journalists from 70 countries gather here. It’s Korea’s version of the Davos Summit. The theme was “a shared vision of Asia’s future”. I took part on the session on “the fourth Industrial Revolution and Asia’s soft power”. The discussion...

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The expansion of anime overseas has started to make progress.

■The expansion of anime overseas has started to make progress.        I held a symposium with a forum for anime business partners. We discussed the overseas expansion of anime and anime songs. The overseas expansion of content is one pillar of the government’s intellectual-property plans. In the past five years, 500 new operators have begun participating in the overseas expansion of video content, and the overseas sales of corporations supported by the government has increased by almost 200 billion yen. In...

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The measures now for an Internet with safety and peace of mind

■ The measures now for an Internet with safety and peace of mind        The task force on a safe Internet environment with peace of mind for youth is happening at Kasumigaseki. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and concerned civil parties are involved. I am serving as chief examiner. This time, we received updates on the situations of four stakeholders.  1. The Telecommunications Carriers Association...

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The conference on location shooting has started.

■The conference on location shooting has started.     The Public-Private Conference on Improving the Environment of Location Shooting has started. The Parliamentary Vice-Minister of the Cabinet Office is the chairman, while I am serving as the facilitator.  Fuji Television, Kadokawa Daiei Studio, NHK, Shochiku, TMS Entertainment, the Japan Film Commission, ATP, Unijapan, etc. all participated. Represented at the table are the Cabinet Office; the National Police Agency; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications;...

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“Ending” the anti-piracy conference -2

■ “Ending” the anti-piracy conference -2  This matter is an opposition between two values protected by the constitution, namely the privacy of communications and property rights (copyright); it is also an opposition between IT policy and intellectual-property policy. I viewed this topic as being about adjusting the two. However, this opposition was an incorrect one. I realized this through our discussions - that the question we set for ourselves should have been how to create a place where the two can coexist, and a region where IT and...

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“Ending” the anti-piracy conference -1

“Ending” the anti-piracy conference -1           The anti-piracy conference has been indefinitely postponed. My tasks as chairman are over for the time being. The current “situation” is that: ・We will coordinate to review the results of the actions we were able to take up to this point, such as measures regarding legitimate versions as well as creating a legal framework regarding leech sites. ・The issue of legislating blocking is “unresolved”.  As the harm caused by piracy worsened, an...

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