What crossed my mind in Jeddah

Yoichi Morishita Vice Chairmen, Keidanren Chairman of the Board, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Warm and mild sunshine shows us that spring is really here. Back in the middle of January when very cold winds were blowing, I went on a journey to the Middle East to participate in the Economic Forum held in Jeddah, the commercial capitol of Saudi Arabia.

"The Jeddah Economic Forum" was co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the main theme being E-Business. At the Forum, I delivered a speech entitled "IT Transforming Society". I said that familiar home appliances will evolve into networking terminals, starting with cellular phones and digital TVs, and what we call the "Ubiquitous Network Society" will emerge, and highly advanced Digital Networking will become available wherever we are. I presented my vision to the local entrepreneurs who were gathered at the Forum and received a variety of responses from them.

What impressed me most was both their expectations and their anxiety regarding IT, common feelings which are simultaneously arising globally. IT is indispensable for the development of a country. Take education for example, IT will certainly play an important role in such areas as developing talent and improving creativity. However, if IT progresses without any attention to societal diversities, it will have unexpected influence on the culture and traditions that have been nurtured and handed down from generation to generation as the very foundation of a country. Through the Q&A session, I keenly felt such a complexity of feelings about IT.

All over Japan, people are now striving to realize an IT-based society. What I cannot help thinking is that Japan must continue to stand with technology and continue to serve the world by contributing its own wisdom, with the condition that such service rendered does not become stereotyped.

More credit will come to Japan, if and when it directs its technology in close harmony with the respective foundation of societies around the world. This is the requirement for Japan in the 21^st century, along with the strengthening and accumulation of technology itself. I do not think that a truly technology-based country can be sustained, without attracting sympathy from individual societies. The Jeddah Forum gave me an opportunity to refresh my thinking about these matters.