“Future signs for a sustainable society” is a report summarizing discussions regarding possible changes in the way people think or behave in the future. These discussions focused on the theme of public facilities and services and were held among Hitachi researchers, designers, and employees in various business units. In light of COVID-19 pandemic, the discussions were held online. The report consists of nine signs of future changes and three stories for considering the QoL of society in the future.
Nowadays, problems caused by societal issues that cover our entire lives are becoming visible one and another. In this project, where we considered the future signs for a sustainable society, we focused on three social issues: the climate crisis, co-existence with new infectious diseases, and population decline. Since all of these are difficult to be solved immediately, we must continue to face these challenges. We believe that we now need to have a new vision of a social system to address these social issues.
It should be considered that everything in our life is in the midst of climate crisis. Every single action we take is linked to the climate crisis. Each one of us must change our perceptions in our daily lives.
In 2020, the world faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is important to think about how we can overcome this crisis, it is also important to think about the possibility that another new infectious disease would occur in the future.
It can be said that many of the social systems that support our daily lives have been designed in accordance with the needs of “Growth period”. Now that the society is entering the era of population decline and we are now at “Maturation period”, it is hoped that the social systems will be changed accordingly.
The nine signs of future changes described on this website represent “possible” changes in the way people might think or behave in the future. These were compiled through exchanging our subjective opinions and do not represent a sure future. It was complied with a desire to acquire a viewpoint that cannot be obtained from an objective approach and to broaden our perspective for an uncertain future.
For example, it can be considered that digitalization of various systems is a significant improvement in convenience. However, if we can broaden our perspective and think about people’s lives, we may be able to find a new way of breaking down the conventional boundaries that society has created, such as those between the elderly and the young or between people with and without disabilities, and creating a society where people can intermingle. In representing the nine signs of future change, we hope that, after finding a new way to break down boundaries, we can have more active discussions on issues related to current customs and social systems as well as on a vision for life in the future.
The following are the samples of future visions emerged through the nine signs of future changes. The signs of future changes can be used in many ways, however, one of the things we would like you to do is to discuss some of the signs of future changes and then think about how the society in which those changes have progressed will be. Here, three short stories are introduced. In each story, we reconsidered the characteristics of the QoL of people in that society and summarized those characteristics as keywords for each story.
