The Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) is a national project led by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and is based on the Comprehensive Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation and the Japan Revitalization Strategy.
In the third phase of the SIP, the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (CSTI) of the Cabinet Office has identified the key programs for solving social issues and for the Japanese economy and the industrial competitiveness, through a backcasting approach toward realizing Society 5.0. CSTI has determined the program directors (PDs) and budget allocations for them.
This project promotes research and development in a comprehensive manner, spanning from basic research to social implementation, through cross-sectoral efforts that require collaboration among government, industry, and academia.
The third phase of the SIP addresses 14 programs. NEDO, as a project management agency, supports the operation of the three programs, including overseeing the progress of research and development.
The future vision of Society 5.0 is a human-centered society that achieves both economic development and the resolution of social issues through a system that highly integrates cyberspace (metaverse) and physical space (universe). In order to realize Society 5.0, we believe that it is essential to create a virtual economy sphere in which cyberspace and physical space are mutually linked in various situations such as disaster prevention, healthcare, community, and infrastructure.
Virtual space services such as the metaverse are expected to become a huge market exceeding 100 trillion yen in the future, with GAFAM, which is a leader in the global economy, entering the market, and we are currently in a period of expansion of the "virtual economy," an economic zone that utilizes cyberspace. In particular, the increase in the number of users of cyberspace due to the coronavirus pandemic and the accompanying improvement in user literacy and accessibility are driving the expansion of the virtual space service market.
Japan's strength lies in its ability to not only bring physical information from physical space into cyberspace through interaction with both spaces, but also to generate value there and to return that value to physical space. We believe that this "return of value to physical space" is a way Japan revitalize the economy.
For this reason, this project, "Establishing foundational technologies and rules for the expansion of the virtual economy," will focus on the Interverse, which connects cyberspace and physical space. The aim is for Japan to get competitiveness in the virtual economy through a comprehensive activities from the basics to social implementation, through collaboration between government ministries and agencies that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional industries and fields.
Our mission is to realize affluent lifestyles through the return of value from cyberspace to physical space, create a domestic virtual economy sphere, and to obtain competitiveness in the virtual economy.
While leveraging Japan's strengths in the physical space, we will contribute to the realization of Society 5.0 by promoting the strengthening of international competitiveness and international cooperation in the use of cyberspace, the enhancement of the added value of real industries utilizing cyberspace, and the prevention of adverse effects on users in cyberspace.
Since the third phase of SIP is targeted at the creation of these markets, we consider not only the development of technologies to expand the experience of physical space in cyberspace as the core of the program, but also the standardization and rule development with a view to its social implementation, demonstration experiments of use cases that will serve as the foundation for business development, and the development of human resources to support them as part of our mission.
In addition, we will work to foster social acceptance by taking measures against ELSI (Ethical, Legal and Social Issues) and building public relationships through the dissemination of various information.
Please see below for the "Implementation Strategy for social implementation and R & D plan(written in Japanese)" of this program.
Implementation Strategy for social implementation and R & D plan(written in Japanese)
