Japanese Digital Minister Taro Kono, a distinguished contributor to the book “Remaking the World – Toward an Age of Global Enlightenment”, will speak at the BGF 2nd Shinzo Abe Initiative Conference about Japan’s digital transformation. He has discussed how Japan lagged behind in digital transformation until the government established a digital agency a year and a half ago. He spoke about the challenges Japan faced during the COVID-19 pandemic in distributing the benefit of a hundred thousand yen to citizens due to a lack of digital infrastructure. Minister Kono also will explain how Japan is now working towards a human-centric society by delegating tasks to AI, job, or computers, and concentrating on what humans need to do. He will discuss the importance of Japan’s digital transformation in the context of declining population and emphasized the need to make government procedures accessible through smartphones. Finally, Minister Kono will highlight the upcoming G7 digital ministers meeting in Japan and Japan’s focus on operationalizing data free flow with trust proposed by former Prime Minister Abe.
Japanese Digital Minister Taro Kono