Report on Technology and Humanity’s Future
Overview
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published an interim report prepared by the Future Technology Team of PIVOT, a young policy planning project. The report analyzes future trends in next-generation technologies such as AI and brain technology, along with their effects on society. It proposes “value-led innovation governance,” which uses social values as a guide to coordinate efforts from research and development through the formation of rules in Japan and abroad.
Key points
- The report incorporates technology insights to analyze future technology trends and social change in an integrated way.
- Looking toward the second half of this century, the report organized four megatrends in next-generation technologies.
- The report proposes “value-led innovation governance,” guided by social values.
Overview
On September 17, 2026, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry published “Technology and the Future of Human Society: Interim Report—Toward Value-Led Innovation Governance,” prepared by the Future Technology Team of PIVOT, a young policy planning project.
The report organized domestic and international technology roadmaps and trends, then analyzed the opportunities, risks, and policy issues that next-generation technologies may bring through expert interviews and discussions at study groups.
Technology insight is an effort to systematically anticipate future technology trends and their effects on society, identify opportunities and risks early, and proactively consider the policies, institutions, and rules needed over the medium to long term.
Impact
The report says next-generation technologies may contribute to higher productivity, longer healthy lifespans, and easing energy and resource constraints, while also creating policy challenges involving labor substitution; human agency and responsibility; disparities in access to and ability to use technology; industrial and economic structures; international order and security; and cultural diversity.
Details
The four megatrends identified are intelligence surpassing humans and advanced autonomous decision-making; expansion of human cognitive and physical capabilities and optimization of behavior; longer lives and a dramatic extension of healthy lifespans; and overcoming energy and resource constraints through next-generation energy sources.
The analysis examined across sectors how next-generation technologies may ease physical, biological, temporal, spatial, cognitive, and social and institutional constraints, and transform industry, the economy, society, the natural environment, and geopolitics. It also suggested that technologies may not develop in isolation, but may have “co-evolutionary” relationships in which they drive progress across fields, as AI advances drug discovery and materials development.
The recommendations call for coordinated efforts in research and development, talent development, market formation, institutional design, standardization, and the formation of international rules, guided by fairness, equity, diversity, democracy, and peace. The report’s content represents the team’s views and does not represent the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s views on the interpretation or administration of specific laws under its jurisdiction.