”That is all for today.” The column has come to an end.

■ ”That is all for today.” The column has come to an end.

The Digital Agency has been established. Physical name stamps and faxes have been done away with. Digitization of government. Digitization of education. Digitization of medicine. Promoting cashless payments.

Digital-first is the government's number one challenge. It is now about priorities more than anything.

I was even more deeply impressed.

After all, that is what I had been lobbying for all this time.

I ended the "That is all for today" column on Yahoo!, which I had run for 8 years.

The date was September 2012 when I started. I began serializing this column around the time the administration shifted from DPJ control to Abe's LDP.

I broadly proposed digital policies to the Abe administration, and the column ended as that administration did.

"I'm a policy maker!" September 2012

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/blog-post.html

This is what I was saying at the beginning.

February 2013 "7 Digital Plans I'd like Abe Administration to Implement"

Digital textbooks, open data, digital copyrights, digital IP, digital infrastructure, smart cities.

Huh, it’s just like what I'm still saying now.

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2020/11/blog-post_4.html

Since then, I have been continuously making appeals about raising the priority of digital policy.

I do it every year. For instance...

2013: "IP vision: three trajectories"

"Improving our priorities. It is important to raise the position that content policy and intellectual property strategy occupy in Japan's policy."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/blog-post_5.html

2014 "Miscellaneous thoughts on copyright issues, part 2"

"We need to establish priorities for intellectual property. However, for the sake of the future, we should avoid situations where intellectual property is sold for agricultural purposes. Considering the circumstances, appeals from the IP rights holder side have been minimal."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2020/11/2.html

2015 "Points of concern while evaluating the TPP agreement."

"My concern comes down to what is a priority in terms of the national interest."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2020/11/tpp.html

2016 Digital Textbook Promotion Q&A

"What is the cause of the disparity in dissemination? It's the motivation of municipal heads. The education digitization budget has been secured, but has instead been allocated to roads and other public works at the discretion of local governments. The problem is what priority digitization of education is given relative to other administrative projects."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/q.html

2017 "Sharing Economy Interim Report"

"I hope that this report gives the government leverage to increase the importance of these policies."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/blog-post_95.html

2018 "Intellectual Property Plan 2018, Full Discussion."

"I have always insisted on two points: the first thing to do is to raise the priority of intellectual property policy within Japan."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/2018.html

2019 "The Education Digitization Promotion Act was enacted."

"I want to further raise the priority of digital education policies."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/blog-post_61.html

2020 "Miscellaneous thoughts on COVID-19, Part 1: An Opportunity to Overturn Japan’s Failure Over the Last 30 Years."

"We will overcome the COVID-19 predicament. At the same time, we should leverage it to achieve a digital-first approach, which was not possible in the thirty-year Heisei period, and make it a future legacy."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/30.html

This was followed by the "5 DX articles we hope to see from the Suga administration."

"The work cut out for the new cabinet is clear: DX. This and this alone."

https://ichiyanakamura-thatisallfortoday.blogspot.com/2021/01/dx.html

I said the same thing insistently, and the long-term administration came to an end.

Digital policy has secured the highest importance and a new cabinet was inaugurated.

As a column written by a single citizen, I hope it made a dent, maybe 1/100 millionth, in the conversation.

It's now time for me to step down.

That is all for today. Shop’s all closed up and empty now.