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The key to accomplishing this is human capital, which is mainly achieved
through education. Africa’s population challenges are one of the foremost challenges in the world’s population explosion, and the answer lies in education. How
Africa ends up will determine the future of mankind, not least the population issue.
The spirit of “the good you do for others is good you do yourself” is the hardline
attitude that must now grip all nations.
The solution is becoming clearer concerning issues facing both developed and
developing countries. What is being asked of us is our courage as humans to collaborate and work toward that solution.
Social Disparity and Social Security, the State and the Market
The Earth has the capacity to provide “things” to allow all people, including those
born during the future population boom, to live a comfortable life. We can all
achieve a sustainable life that is materially abundant and satisfying at no one’s
expense, while working within Earth’s limitations. In other words, the Platinum
Society is a vision that can be realized.
However, to arrive at this point, there are issues that we must come to terms with.
In society, fairness and equality are significant values, and yet they face worldwide
challenges, as exemplified in Japan through the large disparity between full time
and temporary workers. The social security system has eased the large social gap in
society. In reality, however, we are unable to fund this solely with our insurance
income, and our government debt has only grown. Since there is a limit to how
much the working generation can shoulder insurance payments, we can only reduce
debt by increasing tax revenue. Therefore, we must implement a total reform of
taxes and social security.
We need to increase the earnings of corporations and individuals to increase tax
income. For that, we need innovation. Industrial policy has traditionally been used
to support specific industries such as cars and solar power generation, but this is no
longer relevant for us. If we combine the technology and knowledge we have today,
we can develop most things. For instance, to improve the emergency transportation
system, we used to concentrate on developing a specialized ambulatory vehicle and
system, but going forward, we can build an efficient system through combining
existing techniques adapting smart cars and drones, and collaborating with dynamic
maps. To realize such innovations, the government must think about how to build a
lateral network among various industries and technologies. Only the government
can initiate such a transformation, although the government’s vertical bureaucratic
structure may stand as a formidable impediment to its implementation in many
industries.
Preface: From “Vision 2050” to “New Vision 2050”
The key to accomplishing this is human capital, which is mainly achieved
through education. Africa’s population challenges are one of the foremost challenges in the world’s population explosion, and the answer lies in education. How
Africa ends up will determine the future of mankind, not least the population issue.
The spirit of “the good you do for others is good you do yourself” is the hardline
attitude that must now grip all nations.
The solution is becoming clearer concerning issues facing both developed and
developing countries. What is being asked of us is our courage as humans to collaborate and work toward that solution.
Social Disparity and Social Security, the State and the Market
The Earth has the capacity to provide “things” to allow all people, including those
born during the future population boom, to live a comfortable life. We can all
achieve a sustainable life that is materially abundant and satisfying at no one’s
expense, while working within Earth’s limitations. In other words, the Platinum
Society is a vision that can be realized.
However, to arrive at this point, there are issues that we must come to terms with.
In society, fairness and equality are significant values, and yet they face worldwide
challenges, as exemplified in Japan through the large disparity between full time
and temporary workers. The social security system has eased the large social gap in
society. In reality, however, we are unable to fund this solely with our insurance
income, and our government debt has only grown. Since there is a limit to how
much the working generation can shoulder insurance payments, we can only reduce
debt by increasing tax revenue. Therefore, we must implement a total reform of
taxes and social security.
We need to increase the earnings of corporations and individuals to increase tax
income. For that, we need innovation. Industrial policy has traditionally been used
to support specific industries such as cars and solar power generation, but this is no
longer relevant for us. If we combine the technology and knowledge we have today,
we can develop most things. For instance, to improve the emergency transportation
system, we used to concentrate on developing a specialized ambulatory vehicle and
system, but going forward, we can build an efficient system through combining
existing techniques adapting smart cars and drones, and collaborating with dynamic
maps. To realize such innovations, the government must think about how to build a
lateral network among various industries and technologies. Only the government
can initiate such a transformation, although the government’s vertical bureaucratic
structure may stand as a formidable impediment to its implementation in many
industries.
Preface: From “Vision 2050” to “New Vision 2050”