What the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) envisions for the future of the STI basic plan?

By Kazuyoshi Shimada, Ph.D, Director of Washington, D.C. Office, JST

The 6th STI Basic plan in Japan

The Japanese Cabinet approved the new Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) basic plan two months ago. The first significant amendment in 25 years is the inclusion of the word “Innovation.” The government added only a single word, but it made a big difference. The new proposal is based on the STI basic act, the original framework defining Japanese STI policy. But it has new objectives, such as the two workstreams, “creation of innovation” and “S&T related only to humanities.” Previously, the STI plan aimed to improve the level of science and technology (other than science or technology whose sole concern is the humanities) in Japan by advancing R&D, research infrastructures and so on. Today, the global challenges facing our world are getting increasingly more complex compared to the past 25 years. Indeed, natural science alone will not tackle problems stemming from interconnected and multidimensional issues, such as climate change. We need “convergence of knowledge,” uniting natural science, social science, and humanities to solve today’s global problems.

I could say that implementing the “Society 5.0” is a major objective of the 6th STI basic plan. “Society 5.0” is defined in the 5th basic plan as “a human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems through a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space” and we are now in the implementation phase.

Back in 2004, I remember the words of Samuel Palmisano, past CEO of IBM, at the National Competitiveness Council. He said, “innovation is a societal phenomenon, not a technological one.” “Society 5.0” envisions a societal phenomenon and not just the creation of new technologies. While technological development itself is still part of our challenges, one of the most critical tasks we have is envisioning and planning the type of society where we wish to live.

Workshop 'Japan 2050' held by the JST.

How is the JST envisioning the future?

The Japanese Science and Technology Agency (JST) is one of the funding agencies under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and it responsible for implementing national policies in science, technology, and innovation, inside the framework of the Science, Technology, and Innovation Basic Plan, which operates as a national milestone. Under the leadership of our president, Dr. Hamaguchi, we drive all institutional programs towards executing the HAMAGUCHI Plan. We believe that convergence, inclusion, co-creation, and innovation for sustainable and resilient societies are the most important philosophies to consider when designing future strategies. These ideas are deeply rooted in every project promoted at the JST.

Convergence to achieve Moonshot goals, overcome COVID-19 and tackle local issues

Moonshot R&D Program is an iconic tentative created by the JST to converge knowledge, activities, and resources. The JST currently supports four out of seven programs led by the Cabinet Office of the Japanese government. We are now developing cybernetic avatars, ultra-early disease prediction and intervention, self-developing robots, and quantum computers. You have set goals beyond the limits of conventional technology, aiming to advance scientific knowledge.

We believe that promoting convergence can help to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. We are attempting a strategy that we called “Plan B,” a non-medical multidisciplinary approach to create a society in which we can move, meet, gather, and do business following COVID-19 safety conditions. We call strategies, such as the clinical trials of vaccines and drugs, the “Plan A,” which is the most critical field to focus on now. But it is essential to our role as a research foundation to create the way to a “New Normal” that will protect our societies from the dangers of current and future crises. With the funding for R&D and through the creation of a collaborative platform, we have been exploring a range of research areas to minimize the restrictions on people’s activities.

We seriously consider the importance of addressing domestic issues across Japan. Holding a “Glocal” mindset, which means thinking globally and acting locally, is crucial on the pathway to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We are paying attention to the inclusion of disabled people, creating incentives for energy prosumers, developing proactive alerts for disaster risk reduction, tackling all forms of sexual harassment, finding ways to stop depopulation in rural areas, and so on. We use funding programs to finance local activities using appropriate technologies and scientific knowledge that helps to develop our society, also respecting indigenous knowledge.

Inclusion & Co-creation beyond business sectors, generations, and national borders

We focus on the inclusion of diverse actors and the co-creation with multiple stakeholders, from industry, academia, and beyond, to make innovation happen. We have helped to fund innovation centers across Japan, accelerating collaboration for regional development. We co-founded an alliance with wider stakeholders and created the “Japan 2050” initiative to shape the future together

But we also acknowledge that borders between generations do matter. As Dr. Hamaguchi stressed in his speech for the Delphi Economic Forum, it should not be the senior leaders who set a future agenda but the young people since future challenges will impact them more than anyone else. We are starting to include the young generation in the future visioning process. For example, in exploring new Moonshot goals, there were many ambitious ideas from the visioning team of the program (it is called the “MILLENIA program”), and the team members are striving for proof of concepts now. One idea is harnessing the power of Typhoons as an energy source. For today’s ‘common sense’, this idea might seem to be ridiculous or impossible, but some of humanity's greatest achievements — like the original moon landing — also seemed impossible at the time.

Of course, including young people in innovation plans needs to take place beyond Japanese national borders. When we start to set an agenda, we must think, is it helpful elsewhere in the world? If the answer is “not”, we must set a different agenda together with other nations to understand their real needs. One of the key requirements for “sustainability” and “resilience” is making partnerships.

My thought

In the end, I would like to share my favorite quote from a book.

“It’s common to say that trees come from seeds. But how could a tiny seed create a huge tree? Seeds do not contain the resources needed to grow a tree. These must come from the medium or environment within which the tree grows. But the seed does provide something that is crucial: a place where the whole of the tree starts to form. As resources such as water and nutrients are drawn in, the seed organizes the process that generates growth. In a sense, the seed is a gateway through which the future possibility of the living tree emerges.”

Peter M. Senge, C.Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers, “Presence”, March 2004.

We would like to be a seed of the future.