INTERNATIONAL - The World Economic Forum and the International Organisation for Public-Private Cooperation have opened the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Japan.
The purpose of the Tokyo-based centre is to create a space for leading businesses, start-ups, civil society, academia and international organizations to shape the trajectory of emerging technologies according to a report by Modern Diplomacy.
Other partners involved with the project include; Hitachi, Horiba, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings, Salesforce, Sompo Holdings and Suntory Holdings.
The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan will be part of the World Economic Forum’s global network of centres working to ensure the foundations for a fairer, more sustainable, more prosperous world.
It is the first such centre to open outside of the United States, with other centres opening in India and China later this year.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the determining force shaping not only industries and economies, but also societies,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum in an interview with Modern Diplomacy.
“New technologies – such as artificial intelligence, precision medicine, autonomous vehicles and many others – offer great potential to lift humankind to new levels of well-being, but there is an urgent need to determine the ethical rules and policies around these technologies. For this reason, the World Economic Forum is creating a network of Centres for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, enabling business, governments and civil society to work together to ensure a human-centred future for innovation.”
“Technology will continue to advance,” Yoichi Funabashi, Chairman of the Asia Pacific Initiative, Japan told Modern Diplomacy.
“Governments have an obligation to harness technological advancement for the benefit of society"
The centre will add more research to work started at centre headquarters in San Francisco, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan will focus on initially on autonomous mobility, data policy and precision medicine.
The Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan is managed by the World Economic Forum in collaboration with Japan’s Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Asia Pacific Initiative (API).