Super-Filtering as an Online Safety Measure for the Youth!?

 ■Super-Filtering as an Online Safety Measure for the Youth!?

I will serve as the chief investigator for the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts, and Telecommunications Task Force for Preparing an Environment for Safe and Secure Internet Use by the Youth.

According to a study by the Cabinet Office, internet usage by the youth is 93%, which is almost all of them. Smartphone usage is 63%.

In the group of youth aged 9 and under, internet usage is 57%, and smartphone usage is 33%.

99% of high school students have their own smartphone. 36% of elementary school students have their own smartphone, and 57% share a smartphone with their parents.

For the youth aged 11-12, smartphone ownership jumped by 25%, with smartphone ownership now exceeding shared usage.

98% of guardians of youth aged 9 and under manage their children’s internet usage.

93% allow for smartphone usage only in places where an adult can see. 58% have designated a time and place for usage.

On the other hand, only 9% use filtering.

Safety and security measures are progressing.

The logo is the same for filtering provided by each communication company. “High School Plus,” which allows usage of social networking services, was added. Settings can be customized easily. The operating system features of iOS and Android can be used now. Measures are stacking on top of each other.

Since filtering is also effective as an antipiracy measure, public needs for dissemination are growing.

Relevant parties continue to put in touching effort. However, dissemination of filtering has dropped below 40% and is trending down. This is the issue.

The following measures have been put in place to support the activity of all relevant parties.

・Publication of actual data regarding filtering usage by mobile phone businesses and solicitation to distributors

・Promotion of efforts by OS businesses (Apple, Google), MVNO, and social networking service providers

・Educational promotion, dissemination of services that are easy to use, and information transmission

Important data was presented by the Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association (JISPA).

While “smartphone dependency” is a concern for over 80% of guardians regarding their children’s smartphone use, illicit access to harmful information, which is the main purpose of filtering, is only a concern for over 30%.

The top 3 concerns of smartphone dependency, the effect on education and grades, and the effect on the body and health are by far the most commonly recognized by guardians as risks of smartphone usage. They see “use for long periods of time” as an issue.

Perhaps filtering is not spreading well because the thoughts of the providers do not line up with the concerns of the users.

Since filtering has features that restrict and control usage time, the promotion of filtering matches the needs of users (parents).

However, it is possible that both providers and users are hesitant because filtering of inappropriate information prohibits use of apps and social networking services, resulting in inconvenience.

Since filtering has various roles, JISPA proposes a different term for filtering that blocks harmful information.

That is “super-filtering!”

Filtering provides good health and makes people smarter.

There may be a need to switch over to a positive route.

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Takeoff of the Artist Commons for Numbering Artist IDs!

 ■Takeoff of the Artist Commons for Numbering Artist IDs!

Artist Commons Corporation was started up.

It will assign a unique ID for each artist for smooth linkage between media and content services.

This project that was being advanced based on the CiP Council is becoming independent and turning into a company.

Artist Commons (AC) was formed jointly by 8 organizations and 2 companies in music and entertainment, including the Japan Association of Music Enterprises, the Federation of Music Producers Japan, and the All Japan Concert & Live Entertainment Promoters Conference (ACPC).

In the media environment focused on smartphones, users tend to fall into a small world called the filter bubble, decreasing the number of opportunities for them to encounter various content produced by artists.

Insufficient linkage between services, such as online transmission, tickets, news, ranking, and broadcasting, and the difficulty of obtaining authorization for rights are considered to be the causes.

Under these circumstances, music and entertainment organizations and academic research institutes have repeated research and experiments since 2016 in an attempt to jointly develop and produce the “AC-ID” common artist ID and the “AC-API” linkage program in order to build out information infrastructure to increase added value of artists by making it easier to link services.

In addition to linkage with services such as for tracks on the air on the radio and for concert tickets, the “AC-ID” artist ID is expected to be useful in various scenarios, such as simultaneous transmission of TV, accurately grasping usage situations in catch-up options, and the improvement of user convenience.

Numbering has already begun, with musical artists coming first, and subjects will be expanded to celebrities, actors, athletes, intellectual and others moving forward.

Users can jump to songs and videos from artist names.

Users can also easily access concerts, tickets, social networking accounts, and merchandise.

Businesses can grasp performers in video transmission and the usage of music easily.

It provides a foundation that easily links various services, such as for concerts, subscriptions, news, charts, social networking sites, broadcasting, and video transmission.

We have run tests with radiko, Ticket PIA, E Plus, Lawson Tickets, and others to make it possible to jump directly to ticket agency websites from tracks on the air and purchase tickets.

We have become a company to finally complete implementation and begin our services.

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Stepping Down as Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters Committee - Part 2

 ■Stepping Down as Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters Committee - Part 2

From 2015, entering the second half of my 10 years, the stage following the internet and smartphones became an important theme.

Distribution has transitioned to 5G and the cloud, and there are varied environments in terms of devices and usage, such as IoT and VR.

AI- and data-driven advertising and sales strategies became mainstream in the content business.

AI + data became the central theme.

The Next-Generation Intellectual Property System Evaluation Committee was established in 2016, and the New Information Goods Committee was established in 2017. I served as Chairperson for both committees.

This involved AI, 3D printing, and databases. Then, the topic of discussions changed from AI intellectual property to data. I was proud that this was a discussion that led the world.

However, the world actually took the lead, as major companies like GAFA and BAT, as well as powerful nations like the United States, the EU, and China, fought each other over hegemony. Japan is making an effort, such as by pointing to the G20 as a place to work on this issue, but its presence is weak.

On the policy side, there is data utilization based on the Basic Act to Promote the Utilization of Public and Private Data and the promotion of open data.

There is also the preparation of PDS (personal data stores), information banks, and data exchange markets.

The IT headquarters are the main force behind these agenda points, and the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters is taking a support role.

This is a link between intellectual property policy and IT policy.

In 2018, antipiracy measures attracted attention. This is also a field that brings intellectual property and IT together.

Discussions regarding the government policy for blocking heated up in April, and a countermeasure council was established. Although I served as a Joint Chairperson, talks became complicated. The countermeasure council was postponed indefinitely in October, as a law for blocking could not be established.

In terms of pirated versions, there is a clash between intellectual property strategy (copyrights) and IT strategy (secrecy of communication), which are both rights that are guaranteed by the Law of Japan, and adjustments on both ends are a major issue.

This was an issue that spanned multiple government agencies, such as the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters; the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts, and Telecommunications; and the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

At the same time, it is expected for the number of policies related to intellectual property, content, IT, and technology to increase.

In 2019, I formulated the 2nd Intellectual Property Strategy Vision, following from the ’13 edition.

The previous version faced the transition from digital to smart, but the principal objective for this version was Society 5.0, AI, and IoT. Social issues, such as SDGs, the declining birth rate and aging population, and environmental energy, also exist in the background.

After 10 years in charge, we are advancing into another stage.

The reason I began to wear Japanese clothes was also the Intellectual Property Headquarters.

On the topic of “Cool Japan,” the discussion involved bringing together different genres, such as fashion, food, and sightseeing, into content. The words “but everybody here is wearing Western clothes” slipped out of my mouth.

Multiple members of the committee said, “Then you should lead us in Japanese clothes.” 10 years have passed since then.

I will continue to wear Japanese clothes as I participate as a member of the committee.

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Stepping Down as Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters Committee - Part 1

 ■Stepping Down as Chairperson of the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters Committee - Part 1

The Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters Committee underwent a renewal. I will continue to serve as a member of the committee, but I am stepping down as Chairperson. This comes after serving as the Chairperson for 10 years.

10 years ago, I wrote, “Although the cultural abilities (expressive abilities) that Japan excels in, along with technical abilities, are recognized around the world as “Cool Japan,” our latent potential on the industrial side are not being fully expressed, resulting in us not making the most of our soft power. I will form intellectual property strategies that will comprehensively utilize the combination of technical abilities (manufacturing abilities) and cultural abilities (expressive abilities).”

My principal objective was to transition the domestic emphasis and industrial development of the past into global emphasis and infrastructure preparation.

The 2 main pillars were 1. the Cool Japan Policy (overseas development) and 2. digital internet support (foundation preparation).

At the same time, this was also a strategy to shift the axis of content policies from digitalization to smartization.

The shift was from computers + the internet + content to smartphones + the cloud + social media (platforms).

I exerted myself toward these policies for the first half of my 10 years. In 2013, I decided on the “Intellectual Property Policy Vision” as the strategy for the next 10 years.

1. A promotion council was set up for the Cool Japan Policy to formulate foreign strategies.

I also served as the Chairperson of the “Pop Culture Subcommittee.”

In my proposal, I wrote “Everybody should ‘participate’ in transmitting information. This should not be led by the government and should involve everybody instead.” I denied the government taking a lead in a government council.

The Cool Japan Fund was established in 2013, and policy tools for funding were enhanced.

The overseas market grew by 26% over the last 5 years, 500 businesses working with video content made efforts to expand globally in 5 years, and overseas sales of companies supported by the government increased by nearly 200 billion yen.

Looking at the 5 years since 2011, anime has grown by a factor of 2.9 times, and games have grown by a factor of 3.6 times

Movies have grown by a factor of 2.8 times, although their scale is not large. TV and broadcasting have grown by a factor of 4.4 times.

Overseas sales have increased.

This is a significant change, and it can be said that the policies have had an impact.

2. Online support is not succeeding.

Japan as a whole lost to the United States in IT support. The same holds true for content.

There are wide discrepancies in network transmission rates across genres, as the rates are 40% for manga, 15% for anime, 8% for music, and 4% for videos. Businesses running pirated versions and online giants from overseas are becoming a threat.

Pirated versions are a headache for manga.

Netflix is trying to corner the global market in anime.

Even in games, Google is working on transitioning to the cloud on 5G, presenting the possibility of a structural change.

CDs account for 70% of music in Japan, while the structure is completely different in the rest of the world, where subscription services already make up near 50% of revenue.

During this time, results were made in systematic preparation of a foundation, as the Intellectual Property Promotion Plan was used for systemization in many aspects, such as the revision of the Copyright Act to correspond to the online age and systemization of digital textbooks.

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National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan Online Digital Strategy 2019

 ■National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan Online Digital Strategy 2019

I will serve as the chairperson for the Online Digital Research Society for the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan.

The report for this fiscal year has been put together, and I wrote the foreword.

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For last year’s foreword, I wrote, “The fishy wind of politics is blowing.” This was to cast doubt on the principles of the administration to review broadcasting regulations and the radio wave system. The discussions subsequently normalized, and once things had settled down, a revision was enacted to the Broadcast Act that would clear the path for regular simultaneous online transmission by NHK. A new chapter begins.

Although there was some concern directed toward NHK, there have been 12 years of solid experience with digital online support outside of Japan, as simultaneous transmission for the BBC began in 2008. During this time, a legal system to bring together communication and broadcasting was prepared in Japan, and preparations for terrestrial digital broadcasting were completed, but communication has led digital online elements.

While smartphone-first is becoming the norm, Netflix and Amazon are taking video transmission seriously, following in the footsteps of the efforts of Google and Apple toward smart-TV. As soon as the curtains open, the next wind blows in. The report by committee member Takashi Uchiyama drills down on this situation and the business of advertising and VoD.

What should be done? The members of this project decided to research the United Kingdom. What we saw was the BBC and commercial broadcasting cooperating to fend off the United States. They created BritBox, the common platform, and formed a community so that broadcast stations can use viewer data.

Furthermore, the BBC and commercial broadcasting have both outsourced hardware (transmission through radio waves and cables) to Red Bee Media, which manages the content from all broadcast stations on an IP based system, which involves the use of software on a cloud environment. This was shocking.

Content is sent to the cloud and then delivered to TVs, smartphones, computers, and various other devices through radio waves, cables, and various other devices. This is likely the future state of the fusion of communication and broadcasting. There was also a rumor that the BBC will give up ground waves in 17 years.

Having been invited to the Diet as a witness regarding the revised Broadcast Act, I tried raising a question with these conditions in mind.

Could Japan be like the United Kingdom and institute a strategy involving the preparation of a foundation that connects the NHK and commercial broadcasting? A simultaneous transmission platform, like radiko for TV, should be created. A connected foundation to promote IP cloud support and the use of data should be build out.

By forming a shared platform across broadcast stations, promotion can be improved. By preparing an IP cloud base, content can be deployed to various devices through various transmission paths while significantly reducing costs. Big data on viewing histories can be used to lead viewing behavior through AI. Can a foundation like this be created?

During last year’s foreword, I concluded that “proactively presenting a vision that determines the future” was necessary as we enter fusion 2.0. However, now that we have already entered a new stage, I am rethinking this statement, as individual actions at each site may be what is required instead of a vision.

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Plans, Execution, and the Other Side

 ■Plans, Execution, and the Other Side

●Plans

　I call myself a policymaker because all I do is draft policies. However, this is a concept I came up with, and “social entrepreneur” is the closest title among those that are commonly used in society. 20 years have passed since I left public office to go to university when I was almost 40 years old, and I have started over 20 social businesses, such as public service corporations and projects.　

Let’s promote entrepreneurship. Let’s lower the threshold. iU aims for everybody to start a business and produces entrepreneurs. In “A World of Three Zeros,” Muhammad Yunus states that over 80% of Ugandans start a business at some point in their lives. These involved opening a small store or buying a goat. These types of business are fine to begin with.

　What kind of abilities are necessary to accomplish this? Some examples are the ability to plan, come up with ideas, discover things, frame questions, find interest, and identify problems. Each time that a student asks me what should be done, I respond that I take drinking parties seriously. What is important is to jot down all of the ideas from these parties in a project book the next day.

●Execution

　The main issue is that “how” is more important than “what.” How should plans be carried out? How should problems be resolved? How should technology be introduced? This involves the abilities of execution, resolution, and implementation.

　I only spoke about this to students for 10 years at KMD. The idea is to prioritize “how” over “what.” This holds more importance in society than coming up with ideas, which big-headed students are good at, and planning skills that students want to learn. iU will also emphasize this. This involves the legs rather than the head, the ability not to get discouraged, and endurance.

　In reality, most of this involves persuasion and adjustments, pushing and pulling, listening and speaking, bowing and being assertive, crying and laughing, and sweating a lot.

　Is something so unrefined being taught at university? That’s right. The industrial world seeks these types of communication abilities from human resources, but universities have not responded to this. Instead of the ability to make plans, I believe that the ability to carry them out over a year without getting discouraged is on a much higher level. This requires strategizing, military logistics, organizational management, and schedule adjustment.

●The Other Side

　Actually, the main issue is what comes next.

　When I watch a program on Netflix about Michelin starred restaurants, a surprisingly high number of chefs do not create recipes. They say, “I make what flows out of me,” and “I take my morning inspiration and turn it into food,” as if this is the obvious thing to do.

　They have no project book. They don’t work on design. Their ideas and implementation are unified.

　They are like improvisational musicians who do not write songs or lyrics.

　With that said, they simply repeatedly make food for guests who are not enthusiasts day after day and get the reputation of being first-class. What is the true nature of these abilities? Is it God-given or the accumulation of training?

　Chefs then share this inspiration by mouth to staff members and turn it into food as a team. This ability to convey concepts and manage a team while maintaining a standard for the output is a mystery to me.

　Perhaps it is second-rate to include inspiration in designs, project books, or papers. Are these abilities a personality trait that can be attained? Maybe I should ask people at a culinary school.

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Sharing Economy Report Summary

 ■Sharing Economy Report Summary

The Cabinet Secretariat “Sharing Economy Evaluation Meeting” that I participated in put together a secondary report.

The mid-term report from 2 years ago was held up by the pillars of:

1) Securing safety and reliability through voluntary rules

2) Efforts to clear up gray zones

3) Establishing and sharing leading best practices through municipalities

Below are the results of these efforts.

1) Service popularization: Recognition increased by 11.8% in a year to 42.4%

2) Market size expansion: 50.3 billion yen in fiscal year 2016 and projected as 107.1 billion yen in fiscal year 2021

The plan for promotion is to carry out the following 3 elements together.

1) Make the contribution of platformers toward business more efficient

2) Prepare ways for providers and users to determine safety and reliability

3) Support social implementation and international development

With that said, the following comprise the “Action Plan to Accelerate Sharing Economy Promotion.”

1) Revise model guidelines and update certification standards

2) Evaluate consumer guidelines (how to use the sharing economy), compliance with international standards for reviews, and methods of visualizing trust

3) Create 100 regional use cases

Items to be assessed in detail moving forward are the following.

1) Smartization of dispute resolution functions

2) Creation of the “Certified Shared Worker System (tentative name)”

Based on the above, the sharing economy model guidelines from the mid-term report have been updated.

There was a tense exchange between committee members and the government during the meeting  regarding whether or not ride sharing should be listed.

There are still some walls that we have not broken down regarding regulation, but the situation is improving.

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