Society 5.0. Society 5.0, also known as the Super Smart Society, is a concept for a designed society introduced by the Japanese government in 2016. The plan aims to integrate modern technology such as artificial intelligence into a pre-existing society.

It is an adaptation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, first introduced by the Japanese government's Cabinet Office's Council for Science, Technology, and Innovation. The unveiling of Society 5.0 took place within the framework of the 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan, presented by the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2019. In summary, the plan called for the integration of cyberspace and physical space, vis-a-vis augmented reality.

Objective 
Society 5.0 was designed to promote a shift toward a human-centered, knowledge-based, and data-driven society. Contrary to Germany's Industry 4.0, which focuses on industrial IT integration, Society 5.0 includes the application of IT to improve public living spaces and habits.

The Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan describes Society 5.0 as an initiative aimed at ensuring safety, security, comfort, and health for all individuals, facilitating the pursuit of their preferred lifestyles.

History 
The term "Society 5.0" comes from the intention of creating a fifth new society by making the best use of digital transformation, after going through several societies such as the hunting society (Society 1.0), the agrarian society (Society 2.0), the industrial society (Society 3.0), and the information society (Society 4.0).

Society 1.0  (Hunting society)
A hunter-gatherer society is an anthropological concept that characterizes a society's way of life as dependent on hunting and collecting wild animals, fruits and plants for sustenance. It is believed that all human societies followed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle until the advent of agriculture during the Neolithic era/period.

Society 2.0 (Agricultural society)
An agrarian society is a societal structure where the economy primarily relies on agriculture. The origins of agrarian societies are associated with the Neolithic Revolution, also known as the First Agricultural Revolution, which took place during the Neolithic or Stone Age. These societies have persisted in various parts of the world for thousands of years since then, up to the present day, making them the most prevalent form of social and economic organization throughout the history of human organizational work in pre-industrial times.

Society 3.0 (Industrial society) 
An industrial society that has made significant progress in industrialization, and is also referred to as an industrialized society. In many instances, industrial societies follow a previous stage characterized by an agricultural society, including making full use of technologies across different fields for a human-centered society.

Society 4.0 (Information society) 
An information society is a society in which activities related to the utilization, generation, dissemination, and incorporation of information hold considerable importance. The primary catalysts behind this phenomenon are information and communication technologies, which have led to the rapid development of automatic machines and robots for the revolution of industry and information.

Technology applications 
Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology report lists the following six topics as basic technologies for realizing Society 5.0:
 Technology for enhancing human capabilities, fostering sensitivity, and enabling control within Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).
 AI hardware technology and AI application systems.
 Self-developing security technology for AI applications.
 Highly efficient network technology along with advanced information input and output devices.
 Next-generation manufacturing system technology designed to facilitate mass customization.
 New measurement technology tailored for digital manufacturing processes.

The Japan Business Federation (Keidanren) initiated "Society 5.0 for SDGs" in alignment with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to the compatibility between Society 5.0 and the SDGs.

See also
 Cyber manufacturing
 List of emerging technologies
 Digital modelling and fabrication
 Computer-integrated manufacturing
 Industrial control system
 Simulation software
 Technological singularity
 Work 4.0
 World Economic Forum 2016

References

21st century
Industrial automation
Industrial computing
Internet of things
Technology forecasting
Big data
Industrial Revolution
Fourth Industrial Revolution
Science and technology in Japan