The CiP Manifest has been released.

 ■The CiP Manifest has been released.

The CIP Council, which forms the Pop & Tech Special Zone, has released the CIP Manifesto.

Following the opening of an industry-academia collaboration center in a smart building in Takeshiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, it summarizes the activities of the past 5 years and seeks to launch priority projects going forward.

Initially, CiP set up a 10-article CiP Vision, and pursued various activities based around those tenets.

These included items such as "a fusion of the Japanese version of Silicon Valley and Hollywood," "a base where cosplayers congregate and robots fly around," "Dejima for the 21st century," and "a platform for industry, academia, and government."

http://takeshiba.org/vision/

The key theme for 2015-2017 was a "Hop," and 2018-19 was a "Step," with projects being carried out in the four quadrants of research and development, business support, hubs, and human resource development.

Starting in 2020, the theme is "Jump." That is the crux of this new manifesto.

Drawing on our activities so far, we will organize the four quadrants into content, business support, human resource development, and technology, and champion a new movement towards dramatic change.

The content and technology on the right, that is, the part corresponding to pop and tech, will proceed using Takeshiba as a base of operations.

Business support and human resource development, shown on the left side, would be laterally rolled out, so to speak. This is a group of projects focusing on activities nationwide and overseas, including at the incubation facility Station Ai in Nagoya.

The manifest items are as follows.

1. Content: Change Tommorrow

Together with communities around the world, Change Tommorrow, a festival of cutting-edge technology that seeks to change and put a new spin on the rapidly emerging pop cultures and lifestyles, from e-sports to anime, comedy, live music, and more will be held.

〇SYNC NETWORK JAPAN

In order to promote the global expansion of content, we will consolidate networks with overseas events, media, and promoters, and expand Japanese content globally.

〇Cool Japan core organization

We will form a core organization for the Cool Japan initiative that creates networks around diverse content with the aim of global expansion, and develop inbound and outbound measures that transcend industry frameworks and cross over into other verticals.

〇Artist commons

Widely promote the abilities and appeal of artists, and create a system of artist IDs for distribution geared at maximizing their added value, with various organic content integrations and tie-ins around telecommunications and broadcasting, regardless of industry.

〇World Otaku Institute

We will create a place for researchers, creators, and the content industries in Japan and abroad to share research results and information about content that is intended for otaku and enthusiasts, or relating to the content industries supporting those demographics. By establishing an international research institute for otaku culture and connecting enthusiasts and communities around the world, we will bring new developments to otaku culture.

〇Superhuman Sports

Acquire powers that exceed human physical abilities to "surpass human ability," or "transcend barriers between people" which may occur due to physical differences like age or disability. We will create a new sport of "human-machine integration" where these superhumans can freely utilize technology and compete against each other.

2. Business support: super entrepreneurship

Through collaboration with stakeholders such as venture capital firms and mentors, we promote activities like the creation of joint curricula and hold pitch events, forming a school community that is keen on entrepreneurship education, and promoting the development of entrepreneurs.

〇CiP fund

Through venture capital, we aim to build up digital and content industries around human resource development and entrepreneurship support.

〇Station AI

　In order to promote the digital transformation of the economy and society, we will create and nurture startups together with Station Ai, and proceed with the development of a base to attract leading startups from around the world.

〇Craftsmanship x digital

We will form research and development sites that contribute to the creation of new mobility and robotics solutions, and create test bets that contribute to the implementation of XR.

3. Human resource development: super education

In order to take on initiatives around both catching up and leading the world, we will promote IT education infrastructure development and the creation of cutting-edge AI/IoT education, achieving a "super education" system, a place of learning that breaks down the boundaries of conventional schools.

〇KMD

In addition to nurturing "media innovators," who are creative leaders equipped to play an active role globally, we will develop various activities together with KMD to lead a creative society.

〇iU

Together with iU, we will partner with industry players to develop a new learning platform that fosters human resources poised to spark innovation around the world, allowing for the creation of services that solve social issues and businesses that anticipate the needs of the world.

〇CANVAS

Children from all over the world can connect, create new forms of expression, foster deeper communication, and build a new world. To that end, we aim to connect passionate adults to create a context in which all children in Japan can achieve their full potential.

〇Workshop collection

Disparate workshops for children will be brought together in one place, and expo events will be held all over Japan to introduce them to a wider audience.

〇Online workshop collection

Online workshops in various genres such as modeling and design, physical expression, science, digital, and more will be brought together under one place with the aim of developing and disseminating rich creative expression activities online as a form of future learning and play, creating a new site for children to create and express themselves.

〇 Super E-Sports School

We will form a community of universities, vocational schools, technical colleges, high schools, junior high schools, and elementary schools interested in introducing these e-sports into education, with the aim of providing educational opportunities through e-sports, creating communities and collaborating to carry out various activities like creating and providing curricula, certification of program completion, etc.

4. Technology "City & Tech"

　We will implement advanced technologies such as robots, AI, IoT, 5G, and 8K, and create integrated smart cities and present them to the world. Implementation, not experimentation. Concentration, not diffusion. We will proceed with activities with a view to expanding that sort of urban model in Japan and overseas.

〇 Super City Hub

This will become a hub linking smart cities from various countries, such as Woven City, Barcelona, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, and form smart city communities around the world.

〇IPDC

Together with the IPDC Forum, we will create a foundation for IoT broadcasting that utilizes the broadcast airwaves and simultaneously streams data using the IP protocol, and aim to make this system mainstream.

〇Digital signage

In order to solve the issues faced by the digital signage industry and create new markets, we work together with the Digital Signage Consortium with the goal of improving the value of signage experiences in everyday life contexts.

That sums up the manifest.

Moreover, CiP is seeking to remaster its original vision.

Specifically, item 10, "Window to the sea and sky," is being replaced with "Creation of a super-leisure society."

A wide range of technologies, typified by things like AI and robots, are rushing in. The super leisure society will be a dazzling entertainment-oriented one. Super pop, super sports, super education, and super cities to make use of them. CiP is creating a super-free, leisurely society.

That is our stated mission.

The real-world location is finished, with CiP 2.0 starting up. I hope you'll stay tuned for more.

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Learning of Tomorrow issues the Post-COVID Education Promotion Statement

■Learning of Tomorrow issues the Post-COVID Education Promotion Statement

Learning of Tomorrow, of which I am the managing director, issued the Post-COVID Education Promotion Statement.

Learning of Tomorrow has continued to make recommendations for education IT for 10 years, if we count the length of time the Association of Digital Textbook and Teaching, the body it absorbed, was in operation.

I was an early advocate for the institutionalization of digital textbooks and the creation of a "one person, one computer" system, and lobbied the government and stakeholders to take action.

The creation of a system for digital textbooks was realized through legal amendments, with the Education IT Promotion Act being enacted through the efforts of a bi-partisan league of parliamentarians, and this, along with school closures under COVID-19, has led to an outlook where the "one person, one computer" system is likely to be put into place this year.

First we need measures to get this system established and into place. Furthermore, we need to create a context where students can learn--not only at school, but also at home.

However, that amounts to a developing country in terms of education IT finally catching up to standard countries, so in order to really come to the forefront as a developed nation, we need to venture into AI and data-driven approaches.

Furthermore, we need to design post-COVID education that provides unbroken opportunities for learning as COVID-19 continues, or even in the event of another pandemic, large-scale disaster, or emergency.

The statement consists of the following three items.

1. Development of an online learning environment for schools and homes

2. Implementing hybrid education that combines online and face-to-face approaches

3. Making inroads towards future-oriented education

Specifically, the process is as follows.

-------

Under the supplementary budget and the COVID-19 emergency economic countermeasures budget, the outlook is that a context in which all elementary and junior high school students have one information device allocated to them will be put into place this year.

We must create a context enabling anyone to learn by connecting to the Internet from school or home.

Furthermore, we need to design post-COVID education that provides unbroken opportunities for learning as COVID-19 continues, or even in the event of another pandemic, large-scale disaster, or emergency.

I advocate the following measures.

1. Development of an online learning environment for schools and homes

1) Digital textbooks provided free of charge to all students at the compulsory education level. In addition, regulations that reduce the use of digital textbooks to less than one-half of the number of class hours for each subject will be abolished.

2) Implement policies to reduce cost burdens so that all students can learn through the Internet at home.

2. Implement hybrid education that combines online and face-to-face approaches

1) Relax requirements for distance education (the presence of a teacher on the receiving end, simultaneous interaction, etc.) and make it permanent.

2) Promptly carry out permanent relaxation of enforcement regulations for the School Education Act, University Establishment Standards, and related ministerial ordinances and notices, such as the abolition of the 60-credit limit for media classes at universities.

3. Making inroads towards future-oriented education

By introducing advanced technologies such as AI, IoT, big data, VR/AR, and blockchain into education, we aim to break away from the standardized class hour principle and shift to a learning-acquisition model. This allows for learning beyond one's academic grade, as well as individually-optimized learning where no child is left behind.

Post-Covid Education Promotion Statement

https://lot.or.jp/wp/report/2366/

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Commentary: Information and Telecommunications White Paper

■Commentary: Information and Telecommunications White Paper

The following is my commentary on the Information and Telecommunications White Paper.

This follows up on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Information and Telecommunications White Paper advisors meeting.

I made three comments on this year's white paper.

1. First, two positives.

It suggested a positive interpretation, namely that the social changes due to COVID-19 are creating new value.

- It emphasized Japan's need to promote employment and quality of life improvements through ICT utilization (with telecommunications policy shifting from telecommunications industry expansion policy to one around telecommunications use itself).

2. Two areas we have not fully delved into:

- Informatization of government processes. This falls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

- Informatization of education. Since policy issues are transitioning from school to household informatization, it becomes perforce an issue of concern to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

COVID-19 and the Digital Agency are major topics that will likely continue to be talked about for some time, and these are future issues. In both cases, they are things the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Information and Telecommunications White Paper will have to treat as things in which they have a vested interest.

3. Details on 5G.

5G is not yet realistic from a usage perspective, and is still at the stage of industry players sharing specific use cases.

So in that sense, the white paper's focus on that was good.

With 5G, IoT tends to be given pride of place, while businesses and lifestyles that make use of data are not talked about in a context that has the sense of reality people need. One issue is indicating to users the benefits of data utilization.

How will next year's Information and Telecommunications White Paper be formulated?

That's still a secret. I'll jot some notes down about it once it's out.

But the issue first on the table is COVID.

Moreover, how that has brought into sharper relief Japan's failure in the digital realm.

Just why did we fail to go digital? Did DX not go to plan?

I believe it's owed to the past successes of the Showa period.

Both education and the administration have lagged to take action since 2018.

Areas that experienced success in the past rested on their laurels and fell behind.

I hope the next white paper will provide a framework to debate that.

Will DX really go to plan post-COVID?

Recently, I saw some data stating that telecommuting dropped to 24% from 35% in April.

If we get through the pandemic successfully, I worry that we might feel a sense of security and go back to the days when we continued to be losers in the digital realm.

My thinking is that the next topics are going to be increasing digitalization and the hybrid approach taking root.

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