What is DX? From Mindset Reform to the New Normal

Since 1984, I have been leading a project called TRON to realize a world where numerous computers are embedded in our living environment and work together via networks to assist humans—what we now call the Internet of Things (IoT). As part of this, I have continued activities to research and develop real-time OS standards and make them open, including source code, in order to improve the efficiency of diverse embedded device development and accelerate innovation.

I take pride in the fact that the results of the TRON project supported the development of Japanese home appliances, automobiles, and mobile phones, contributing to their competitive advantage. However, in the process of advancing these activities, TRON also became involved in corporate business models and even national industrial policy. It was caught up in Japan-U.S. trade friction and was once considered a candidate for Super 301 sanctions. The lesson I learned from such experiences beyond the university laboratory is that in the field of ICT, it is not just pure technology that matters; liberal arts fields such as institutional design and business models are just as important as, if not more important than, technical design.

Japan once boasted of being an "electronic nation," but it has declined because it could not respond to the wave of open innovation brought about by the emergence of the internet, which was the very heart of the matter. What I felt during that process was Japan's structural problem: the inability to design the future with "technology and institutions as two wheels of a cart," and a resistance to "openness" due to a strong desire for zero risk and a guarantee-oriented mindset. The fact that it is only now establishing a "Digital Agency" and realizing the necessity of various uses for a "National ID" due to the COVID-19 pandemic is a typical example of this.

"DX" is a structural reform that fundamentally changes organizations and methods to respond to the open innovation made possible by digital technology and the internet. DX is impossible without that understanding. How to carry out structural reform, and as a prerequisite, how to change the mindset—this book discusses the philosophical aspects of DX based on the problems in Japan that I have found frustrating while continuing the TRON project for many years. Rather than focusing on the technical aspects of DX, I would be happy if this book were read by those interested in why DX cannot be achieved with technology alone and what needs to be done to move beyond that.

What is DX? From Mindset Reform to the New Normal

Ken Sakamura

Kadokawa Shinsho

248 pages, 990 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.