Japan is advocating the development of “Society 5.0,” seeking to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and aiming to lead the world by concentrating on human resource development in the fields of data science, artificial intelligence, and robotics, demonstrating their positive social effects.
Moreover, for the development of the international community, Japan, a major donor country, along with Europe and the United States has contributed funds for the international development and promotion of the SDGs and is expected to continue to play a major role in this process in the future.

However, it must be said that the human resource development system that governs these fields is trailing behind the West, especially in terms of international competitiveness. For this reason, the international relevance and uniqueness of the master’s and doctoral degree programs are essential for multilateral assistance.

There is a growing need to train personnel who can contribute to economic development through a system that has the common foundation of the digital society, such as data science, artificial intelligence, and robotics, which are Japan’s strengths. Those human resources are also expected to develop advanced expertise in policy science to resolve various social issues such as mobility, energy, food, health, environment, and sustainable industries.

To this end, we foster professionals who have a mindset matching Innovation and Practice for Smart Society to implement institutional design and technological development that would flexibly adapt to the regional issues of societies with diverse history and cultures across time and space, from the global to local communities to achieve A Smart Society.

• A Smart Society is a human-centered society that achieves both economic development and solution of social issues through a system that highly integrates cyberspace (virtual space) and physical space (real space).