Digital Society - Opportunity or Threat? Case Studies of Japan and the Czech Republic

Abstract

Digital technologies, autonomous systems, and artificial intelligence are seen as mater‑of‑course parts of the world today. Japan, as one of the leading countries in technological innovations, is the most advanced in terms of approach to digital society. Japanese society and government have been working on a new concept of life where all the digital technologies will communicate through the internet. Society organised in this way is called Society 5.0 – super Smart society. In Japan, this concept is centred about seventeen sustainable goals (United Nations, 2018). Society 5.0 is a reaction to the fundamental technological revolutionary changes known today as Industry 4.0. Thus, Society 5.0 is the consequence of a technological revolution that will eventually affect not just the production but all parts of today’s life as well. The new technologies evoke some fundamental philosophical and existential questions. How can technological advances improve the prosperity and functioning of society? What about the privacy and security of all the users? The present paper compares Japan and the Czech Republic from the perspective of digitalization of society based on three main aspects: government programs supporting digital technologies, number of technically educated experts and investments in science and research. The objective is to find out how much the Czech Republic has advanced towards preparations for digital society.