Report on the 100th Kyoto University Marunouchi Seminar Special Lecture, Moderated by Center Director Kawai and Featured Lectures by Prof. Hiroi

The 100th Kyoto University Marunouchi Seminar Special Lecture “A Future of the Humanities and Social Science” was held on November 1, 2018.

The Kyoto University Marunouchi Seminar has been held monthly since June 2010. This month’s seminar was the 100th seminar since its launch.
The special lectures were given by three professors specializing in the Humanities and Sociology. Prof. Toshio Kawai (Center Director) moderated the seminar, and Prof. Yoshinori Hiroi presented a lecture entitled “Designs for a Society Experiencing Population Decline”.

Prof. Hiroi’s discussion encompassed a wide range of topics, including policy proposals for a sustainable future for Japan using AI (a collaborative project with the Hitachi-Kyoto University Laboratory), the post-growth society of population decline in human history and a social model for a sustainable welfare society that envisions a global steady-state society. During the discussion, Prof. Kawai talked about prospects regarding each lecture topic and responded to questions. Prof. Hiroi used an AI simulation showing the negative aspects of financial efficiency, environment and resource to illustrate how decentralization is an ideal scenario for the population and can affect the sustainability of communities, disparity, health and happiness.

2018/11/15