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 specialized form. Because of this, the situation seems like it will be that when humans’ jobs can be replaced with AI, it will be because those jobs are clearly the domain of a specialist.

　The materialization of general AI is something that still lies in the future. When this happens, all-purpose people will be in a strong position. People who can do anything. Generalists. People who can single-handedly handle planning, coordination, management, and implementation. People who can change the content of their work in response to changes in the environment. “Maids” might be in an unexpectedly strong position - they can handle childcare, cleaning, laundry, cooking, and any other tasks.

　I was originally a bureaucrat. Japanese bureaucrats are the epitome of generalists. Their assignment changes every one or two years, and the instant it changes, they have to thoroughly study the systems, industry affairs, and technologies in the field they’re now responsible for, and play the role of a specialist even if it’s only been a month. They may have to move to a different region or be transferred overseas. It’s a job where the ability to handle change is a prerequisite. This will also be a strong model in the era of AI.

　General AI will materialize sooner or later. There is a theory that the singularity, when AI exceeds the abilities of human beings, will come in 2045, and there is also a forecast that general AI will materialize in 2030. I cannot predict this, but I do anticipate seeing this moment during my lifetime. If general AI appears on the scene, many of the jobs held by human beings today will be taken away.

　The ultra-free society is arriving. Of course, even if people are now free, they will still do work to pass their free time. Even if they aren’t remunerated for their work, they will continue doing things that contribute to production. A lot of people will probably start doing things that they see as work, but that people around them will see as play.

　Then of course, true play will start to carry weight. Entertainment, sports, love, and dining. Artistic and creative activities. Study and learning will be like this too. We will start to put 90% of our energy into these things that weren’t previously jobs or the austerities we subjected ourselves to for a reward.

　The Japanese government is advocating “reforms in the way people work”. Allowing flexible ways of working is a “smart” arrangement that allows time or skills to be shared in a modular way. But if we’re focusing on the ultra-free society created by AI, more than reforming the way we work, we need to reform the way we play. How can we play seriously? How can we pass our free time creatively?

　The role of the ants who work and work and work to pass the winter can be played by AI. We must become the grasshoppers who devote ourselves to the arts, and who put the AI ants to work.

　This when I was in fourth grade. At the end of “The Ant and the Grasshopper” in our Japanese-language textbooks, the question was posed: “Why did this happen to the grasshopper?” The two options were: “1. Because there was no more food” and “2. Because it did nothing but play”. We discussed this question as a class.

　The class was divided right in half (I belonged to the second group), and it became an intense back-and-forth of opinions that gradually heated up and finally turned into a fistfight. The female teacher left the situation alone and said one thing at the end of the lesson: “Both answers are right.” What? Say that earlier on!

　That was almost half a century ago. Now that I think back on it, there weren’t enough options. “3. Because it didn’t have the ability to manage the ants” - that’s the correct answer.

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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 event that rivaled the technology that let books be distributed throughout humanity. 

　Now, the next wave - AI/IoT - is coming.

　This is a continuous wave that adjoins digitization and smart technology, i.e. IT. However, this is a fundamentally different thing. You could call it the difference between lateral and vertical shaking in an earthquake. They have different levels of destructiveness.

　Smart technology was about human-to-human communication. AI and IoT are about things corresponding with each other. Things become intelligent through AI. Machines start to exceed the abilities of humans. This leads us towards a horizon that humans have never reached before. This is sometimes called the fourth Industrial Revolution, but the term Society5.0 used by the Japanese government - in other words, the fifth form of civilization, after hunting, agriculture, industry, and information - better captures the true size of this quake.

　The digitization that opened up virtual space has been called Atom to Bit by Professor Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab. AI/IoT, which reflects that space back onto the real world, is the reverse - Bit to Atom.

　Digitization was controlled by Moore’s Law, which was preached 50 years ago. This law stated that “the integration density of a semiconductor doubles every 18 months” - in other words, this was a “foreseeable” half-century in which we could predict what would happen and by which time.

　However, the singularity in which AI repeats deep self-learning at an ultra-high speed and exceeds humans’ abilities can be faintly seen on the horizon. The abilities of machines are now determined by layers of intelligence rather than of semiconductors, for which there is no controlling law. We are plunging into an “unforeseeable” world. That is also a world in which change is inevitable.

　AI has the reputation of having problems with creativity. However, when it comes to creativity, there are creations that turn 1 into 10, and there are creations that turn 10 into 100. Surely there are some things AI can do.

　AI that can compose songs or produce films has already appeared. The intellectual property headquarters of the government have been conducting specialized discussions for two years about how to handle rights relating to material created by AI; it has become understood that AI is creative.

　。Nonetheless, things that are difficult to learn or turn into models, and that need to closely follow human psychology - things like discovering problems, meaningfully daydreaming, or painting visions that people can understand - will probably be difficult for AI.

　What are the abilities suitable for an era like this that we should learn and acquire?

　Children can be prepared by learning programming. The expansion of programming education is something I have been involved in for 15 years, and I will continue to take measures to help the government and society work together on this issue.

　On the other hand, adults and working people in society must prepare themselves with re-education and relearning - with recurrent education - in this unforeseeable society and in this world where change is inevitable. This is learning to change oneself. I am creating iU in order to handle recurrent education in IT. Both programming and recurrence are my job.

　As this is a society that will continue to change, the ability to respond to change will become important. It seems that experiences handling change will become valuable - for instance, how many jobs have you done? How many ups and downs have you experienced? How many changeovers have you gone through? How much have you moved? How many times have you laughed and cried?

　Those who reach retirement age in government offices or in large businesses say they have had a “stable career life” and receive a bouquet of flowers. That will not work anymore. An “unstable” life is being recommended. Having gone through many ups and downs and dealt with change after change is the bouquet.

　Being prepared to enjoy change is the most important - being ready to say “come!” to unforeseen change.

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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 in order in front of me and to have to follow that order gives me a cramped feeling.

　When things are like this, there’s always the izakaya (Japanese pub). Edamame (green soybeans), gyoza (Japanese dumplings), rolled Japanese-style omelets, potato salad, grilled chicken, cold tofu, and grilled fish. A mix of Japanese and Western food. You order the appetizers and the main dishes at the same time. You can order your food bit by bit at the timing you like. You are freed from a schedule.

　Each person can be considerate and order things that other people might want to eat. The initiative isn’t with the shop, but with the customer. The hierarchy crumbles, and there’s a state of disorder.

　Basically, it’s about sharing. It’s communication by a community.

　It’s based on the Asian style where everyone pecks at the pot. The izakaya gives maneuverability to various small items like this.

　Sharing is rare in the world. If you ask an Italian, they’ll say that whether it’s pizza or pasta, although there is distribution, there’s a clear demarcation of responsibility that your portion is your own.

　The izakaya is social media. Many different pieces of content are put in front of you without you choosing them, but each person can choose by themselves which items to peck at and pile the food up the way they like it. A Western meal is like packet transfer communication, and like a broadcast. Each item is presented one by one according to the rules and delivered to people.

　The setting of a Western meal has everyone drinking the same wine. The host chooses it, and everyone tastes it. In an izakaya, there’s beer, sake, gin and tonic, shochu with soda, and oolong tea - it’s up to you to choose.

　The idea of an all-you-can-drink business is shocking to the world. Foreigners say that this won’t work as a business, and that although all-you-can-eat exists, all-you-can-drink doesn’t.

　But it’s known that the Japanese have drunk heavily since the olden days. It’s been said that they’ve been drinking about the same amount they do now since the Edo period, and even since the morning. It seems that a business model was constructed around that.

　By the way, I only drink shochu, which is a spirit, together with food, but in Western meals, there aren’t spirits that you drink during the meal. For whiskey, cognac, calvados, or grappa, you have to wait until the meal is over. What suffers during Western meals are the drinks during the meal.

　Recently, there have been people who walk around with their own personal chopsticks. They share the platters, but the chopsticks are their own. Because at home, it’s settled which chopsticks are yours. In my home, our names were written on the bags that the chopsticks go into during New Year. The chopsticks are labelled with names.

　But forks and knives have no names written on them. Cutlery used for Western meals is shared. Then people subdivide the food and label it with their names. It’s symmetrical.

　I’ve heard that izakayas are flourishing in the U.S, and shared eating is spreading too. After the 2008 financial crisis, the sharing economy became widespread. After rooms, cars, and bags, it seems that sharing is coming to food too.

　Izakaya culture, please spread to the world.

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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 can be easily accepted overseas, but each country should focus on training its own power.

Q The fourth Industrial Revolution is causing chaos and disparities. What do you think?

A The fourth Industrial Revolution is linking objects with other objects and exceeding human communication. When it reaches the point where it even exceeds humans’ abilities, it will divide human history into two parts. A societal transition will be needed into the post-revolution period. There will probably be chaos too.

　But just like the economic system stabilized and grew after the Industrial Revolution, I believe that this time will also lead to the growth of the economic system in the long run.

　For this purpose, we need to mobilize not just technology but our knowledge about the world related to economics, society, ethics, religion, politics, etc., and establish mutual relations between humans and the new technology.

Q What are the issues?

A With the development of AI and IoT, the retention and usage of data is the most important issue.

　If this is controlled by specific countries or businesses, it is likely to turn into the sprouts of new conflict.

　A policy conference on data is becoming necessary.

Q What are the roles of each country’s government?

A The Japanese government has been supporting the growth of R&D and of the culture industry; beyond that, the education that nurtures the creativity and communication abilities needed to make good use of this technology is important.

　Externally, it’s important to set a place where exchange can happen about these diverse values.

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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 was led by Korea’s Goodwill Ambassador Park, and included researchers from India, Indonesia, and Korea.

I made the following remarks.

1)The Japanese government has realized the political value of soft power and particularly culture, and began adopting the Cool Japan strategy 10 years ago.

　The style of this strategy is that the government supports overseas expansion that is mainly driven by private actors. This is different from South Korea and France where the government takes the lead, or the U.S. where Hollywood spearheads the expansion.

2)Japan was defeated in war, abandoned militarism, and moved forward to become an industrial nation. However, as economic growth has stalled over the last 20 years, the popularity of our pop culture overseas has been increasing, and our cultural power has attracted attention.

　Japan’s former image was that of Toyota and Sony, but today it’s Pikachu, Dragon Ball, and Sailor Moon.

3) Although the domestic market is shrinking because of the falling birth rate, global adoption of IT has moved forward during these 20 years, and it has become easier to export our culture to the overseas market.

　Although Japanese businesses compete with other Asian businesses in the overseas market, I think it is possible for them to work together and expand the Asian market in the world.

4)Although our transmission of our culture overseas through IT is finally showing results, the setting is changing because of the fourth Industrial Revolution.

　The Japanese government recognizes that handling the fourth Industrial Revolution is the most important issue it has to deal with, and is putting effort into developing technology as well as promoting its use.

5)Japan’s strategy is to integrate new technology with pop culture.

　We will combine technology, such as AI and robots, with culture, such as anime and games, in order to create new value.

　We will move forward with our project to create a production and transmission base in Tokyo.

　I would like to use the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a showcase for this new technology and pop culture.

6) The fourth Industrial Revolution is a crisis for the countries of Asia, but it is also a chance.

　Even as we compete with one another, it would be desirable to collaborate to create a strategy to increase each country’s soft power through new technology.

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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 particular, the overseas sales of anime have increased 2.4 times during the four years between 2012 and 2015.

However, the scale of the global media-content market in 2014 was 555.2 billion dollars, while the sales of Japanese content were at US$14.1 billion, stopping at 2.5% of the entire overseas market.

There is still room for growth; however, there are issues such as capital support for the risks of overseas expansion; collaboration with different types of businesses; ensuring rights can be processed smoothly; nurturing talented personnel; and dealing with piracy.

What view can we have of this “strong” content, namely manga, anime, and anime songs?

How can initiatives like the CiP Pop & Tech Special Zone be useful?

Attack on Titan has sold over 66 million volumes (!), and although four years passed between seasons 1 and 2 of the anime, merchandise and tie-ups of the series have continued to be popular. It has been reported that have been given to over 5,000 products.

Some have believed that the overseas market for manga will not grow particularly large, as paper is “too expensive”.

The frontal attack here would be when anime and videos are created based on the original manga, and this drives various products to be sold as a result, wouldn’t it?

A transmission service for anime songs run by syndicates has been introduced.

In the music market - where live performances are doing well, packages are declining, and transmission is showing a slight upward tendency - anime songs make up 10% of total sales, or 28.5 billion out of 290 billion yen.

As anime songs are linked to the anime, they make listeners easily think of images from the anime and create a strong sense of empathy. They are content that fits well into the era of social media.

According to investigations by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, although fans of Japanese content extend across a broad variety of categories, including a group of manic fans, overseas works are popular among children, and Japanese anime is not capturing the market.

Is this because strong works like Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon and Pokémon no longer exist?

It has also become clear that anime overseas is mostly being watched through online transmission rather than on TV or DVD. To aim content at children, one has to fill the TV space.

The idea of establishing a “World Otaku Research Institute” in autumn was also discussed. Organizers of events being held around the world and researchers in universities and research institutions could be brought together to form a network, and the headquarters could be in Tokyo.

I would like to assist the overseas expansion of media content by researching trends in global users and markets.

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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 (TCA) has standardized the name and icon of its filtering services, and has created a new “High-Schooler Plus” mode that can be used on social media.

 2. The Telecommunications Services Association handles MVNO.

It will create a common site to explain filtering. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, an obligation to provide filtering also exists with MVNO, but only 24 of 54 companies currently provide it.

 3. In the National Association of Mobile-Phone Distributors, 5,400 shops (64% of its 8,400 shops nationwide) have become “Anshin Shops” (“Peace-of-Mind Shops”), and the operation of filtering is carried out thoroughly.

 4. The Conference on Promoting the Creation of a Safe Internet is formulating educational materials for guardians on Internet overuse, as well as measures against inappropriate information.

 In response to these initiatives in society, criticisms were made that schools and the Board of Education were not participating adequately, as well as that guidelines were necessary.

I made this proposal: “as the computerization of education continues, although literacy education and safety measures are separate movements, it is important to move the light and the shadow together as a single movement. Let’s deepen our cooperation with the sectors pushing the computerization of education forward.”

 The amendment to the Act on Development of an Environment that Provides Safe and Secure Internet Use for Young People was approved in the National Diet.

It included obligatory measures such as requiring device manufacturers to preinstall filtering, as well as requiring OS developers such as Apple to put in effort to make filtering easy.

The implementation of the revised law has moved Internet policy for youth one level higher.

Effort from concerned parties is needed more than ever.

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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; the Fire and Disaster Management Agency; the Agency for Cultural Affairs; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; the Japan Tourism Agency; and Tokyo Metropolis.

 The Film Commission (FC) comprises 307 organizations from throughout the country. 282 location shootings happened in 2000, a figure that doubled to 581 in 2015.

However, the issue has been reported that the procedures to obtain permits and licenses are complicated, and the points of contact around the country are scattered.

 In response to this, it was said that the government is moving forward to aim for flexible and smooth usage. The police will issue licenses based on the meaning that the shooting contributes to the stimulation of the region. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism will simplify the procedures for road-occupancy permits, and will flexibly enter discussions regarding the use of the sea and sky (through drones).

 However, the point in question is what kind of “public benefit” has to be recognized before a permit for a location shooting is given.

The question is: the government does not emphasize the content of the film but the perspectives of local residents, and treats requests from local governments, etc., as the yardstick, but would it not be possible to rely only on the FC?

 Formulating guidelines on obtaining permits for location shooting will be the output of the meeting.

What kind of “public benefit” must there be and what kind of conditions must be present before permits can be given smoothly?

These are topics that stretch over different government offices and laws, and it is first important to share the current situation and knowledge.

 For instance, large-scale examples are the filming of Shin Godzilla in Kamata, or the filming of videos for the Rio Olympics closing ceremony at the Shibuya scramble intersection.

In the city of Kitakyushu, which has a track record of large-scale location shootings as attractions, a shooting of “Aibou” (“Partners”) included 3,000 extras, and involved six traffic lanes being shut down in the middle of the urban area throughout a Sunday.

However, some also pointed that people would not make their way to Kitakyushu for a shooting that was not of that scale.

 Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hagiuda (currently Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) made the comment that we had to be prepared. If we insisted that a shooting in a government office couldn’t deal with corruption, for instance, no progress would be made. He said it was important to recognize that this was “culture”.

 In these scenarios, it becomes important to prepare concerned parties for the fact that making movies itself is a “public benefit”.

The mission of this conference became to increase awareness of this in the government as well as in society, and to spread this message down to the regional level.

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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 intellectual property can flourish together.

 By the way, it was pointed out in the countermeasure conference that although Europe places the emphasis on protecting privacy while the U.S. places the emphasis on freedom of expression, Japan places this weight on the “privacy of communications”. Even some within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications have said that this Galapagos syndrome is restricting policymaking.

The ability to broadly discuss the “privacy of communications” head-on was meaningful. A point was also made that this issue was too heavy to be handled in the intellectual-property headquarters.

Yes. It would be good to have a place to handle the “privacy of communications” in the IT age in its entirety, wouldn’t it?

 Yes, this issue also raises questions about the system that handles policies dealing with IT and intellectual-property issues.

IP issues are mainly handled by the IP headquarters and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, while IT issues are mainly handled by the IT headquarters and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The limits of this system are being exposed.

This issue is one I have been raising since the reorganization of the ministries 20 years ago, when I left the Japanese government’s departments.

 14 years ago, when equipment manufacturers and copyright holders confronted each other over compensation payments for recording and filming, I personally felt the worsening of relations between IT and IP, which had been in a honeymoon period until then. The power of copies and of spread created by digitization was an advantage as well as a wonder. I participated in the discussions of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Council for Cultural Affairs then, but a solution was not reached, and this issue has had lasting effects to this day.

 And 10 years ago, another confrontation occurred over the introduction of “dubbing 10” along with preparations for terrestrial digital broadcasting. This time, it was a three-cornered fight among right holders (the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), broadcasters (the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications), and manufacturers (the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). The setting was the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Telecommunications Council. Although a press conference was held by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology over the expansion of compensation payments, society could not accept this and a split happened.

 At this time, the roles of chief and deputy examiners were occupied by Professor Jun Murai of Keio University and me, closely resembling the setup in the current piracy issue. It was history repeating itself - specifically, of government offices supporting cases where parts of society are confronting each other being unable to make a judgment.

Through this case, I felt that we had not learned from our past failure, and the difficulty of solving the issue had increased.

Interest in IT and IP has risen compared to the past, and both sides’ opinions are subject to strong criticism, making the situation intractable.

So, what actions must we take in order to aim for a horizon where IT and IP can coexist and flourish together?

I’ll continue wondering to myself.

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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 uproar was created for and against the government’s “emergency evacuation” explanation regarding the old topic of blocking. Perhaps because of this, the issue of piracy subsided for a while, and the government set up a task force that has held nine sessions of focused discussion.

 The general situation regarding blocking has been that publishers and right holders have been in favor of it, while telecommunications companies and ISPs have been against it. Still, complexities have existed within each industry, and opinions have been divided. There are also industry affairs that cannot be discussed at this table, and no industry is one-dimensional.

 The government and the secretariat also had the suspicion that declaring the creation of a legal system would be overbearing. The facts were that opinions were divided among stakeholders in the government, such as the Prime Minister’s residence, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the internal adjustments sometimes exceeded the adjustments in society in their intensity.

 The situation was that neither the sides for and against the issue were fully happy. All that had happened was that the points of disagreement as well as the main issues had become clear.

As this conference was not a place to decide on the legislation of blocking, but rather a place to focus on questions at hand, I believe that it fulfilled its role.

 I took a neutral stance. As I was the chairman of the intellectual-property headquarters, some also labeled me as someone on the side of copyright. However, I have been proud of my work in telecommunications policy before this, and attach equal importance to both sides.

 Although I had a lot of content-related work this time, working on the formulation of systems regarding the Telecommunications Business Act at the time of the liberalization of telecommunications was my start as a working adult in society, and this is where I have my origins. That both sides could aim to solve the problem without breaking apart - I racked my brains for this one goal.

 Moreover, I think an important result of this meeting was that we were able to almost reach a consensus on 10 issues apart from blocking.

I’ve made a special note of three of them at the start.

1. The long-term measure is education. If literacy is not maintained among users, regulations will be placed on the Internet.

2. The medium-term is legitimate versions. We need legitimate versions that are as attractive as Mangamura.

3. The short-term measure is creating a system through coordination between government and the people.

 The question now is whether this coordinated system will be possible. If a scheme can be created to carry out measures through coordination between publishers and right holders on one hand and telecommunications companies and ISPs on the other, the first step is to carry out and review this scheme. If this is not possible, this will be a pretext to move towards the legislation of blocking.

I think that the fact that the conference on countermeasures ran aground and was postponed was also because the ball had been thrown to the people.

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