One of the important issues of the G20 summit held in Osaka in 2019 was the replacement of Industry 4.0 with Community 5.0. Society 5.0 considers people, their contribution to social life, and how future technological developments will affect the quality of human life. Society 5.0 has a different philosophy from Industry 4.0 in that it focuses on people and society. While the expression “information society” is used for Industry 4.0, the term “super smart society” has been used for Society 5.0. “Industry 4.0 has emerged as an industrial revolution, so it focuses on industrial activities,” said Tateo Arimoto, Director of the Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Program at the Japanese National Institute for Graduate Policy Studies (GRIPS). He also added that “Social welfare and the happiness of individuals are at the focus of Society 5.0,” expressing the difference between Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 (Kellelioğlu, 2018)
The concept of Society 5.0 includes the view that technology should be perceived as an aid, not a threat, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mentioned at the 2019 CeBIT fair. The 26-page study prepared by Keidanren, the Federation of Japanese Economic Organizations, aims to explain the economic and sociological reform that is expected to develop in the light of Society 5.0 philosophy to large masses. In Japan, we can say that the Society 5.0 philosophy is innovations in the following headings:
- Developing solutions against the aging world population
- Making the virtual world and the real world work together
- Benefiting from the Internet of Things by considering the interests of the society
- Finding solutions for environmental pollution and natural disasters
There are some obstacles regarding the realization of this social transformation and goals. Japan Economic Organization Keidanren defines 5 important barriers that must be broken in order to develop Society 5.0:
- Obstacles in the law system
- Scientific gaps in the digitalization of objects
- Lack of qualified personnels
- Socio-political prejudices
- Societal resistance
In this process, finding talented and qualified employees as well as ensuring their commitment, which have become one of the priority issues of companies, the availability of training and career development opportunities, leaders ability to coach their employees are considered as important points. For the development of new talents that will support the social transformation, New departments are opened at universities to support developments in technology, and new positions are created in companies to serve this transformation.
Human Resources departments that started to benefit from the artificial intelligence applications brought by Industry 4.0 should include Community 5.0 in their strategies in this period. The most important issues to be pondered upon should be the existence and availability of talents, career planning after starting to work in the company, talent management, comprehensiveness and diversity.