This volume investigates the reinforcement of policies designed to cultivate a digital society in Japan. Through the collaboration of the authors, the book identifies critical impediments to this progression, encompassing existing legal frameworks pertaining to information and the administrative processes associated with digitalization. A prevalent institutional inclination towards preserving existing analog operational modalities further exacerbates these challenges, complicating systemic unification and the assurance of interoperability. 

Japan confronts a notable deferral in its digital transformation relative to other nations exhibiting accelerated technological integration. Societal reluctance to this technology is frequently linked to anxieties regarding information breaches and privacy infringements concomitant with digitalization, alongside apprehensions about intensified governmental surveillance and control, thereby impeding the societal assimilation of novel technologies. However, the specific extent to which these citizen perspectives contribute to the deceleration of digitalization has yet to be subjected to comprehensive empirical scrutiny.

This book elucidates the contemporary condition and inherent challenges of digitalization within Japan, concentrating predominantly on the political and administrative domains. Through this analysis, the book substantively deepens the comprehension of the dynamics governing the acceptance and proliferation of digital technology within Japanese society, thereby offering recommendations for the formulation of more efficacious public policy.

Muneo Kaigo is a professor of communication and media at Meiji University, School of Political Science and Economics, Tokyo, Japan and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.

He served as the dean of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba and vice-dean for the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba until 2026. Prior to his appointment as dean, he had been the chair of the Master's and Doctoral Program of International and Advanced Japanese Studies at the University of Tsukuba for six consecutive years and has also been the Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences for two years. He was also appointed as the Director of the Institute for Comparative Research in Human and Social Sciences of Tsukuba and served as the Director for the University of Tsukuba offices in Bordeaux and in Grenoble France until 2025. His research focuses on e-democracy, social media and civil society in Japan and the network society.

Muneo Kaigo is currently the Asian Media Information Centre country representative for Japan and has also been one of the main acting faculty members that represents the University of Tsukuba in the Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) of the International Association of Universities, headquartered in UNESCO.

His work has appeared in such journals as the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Telematics and Informatics, Quality and Quantity, and other journals in Japan and around the world. He has also participated in numerous book projects and edited Social Media and Civil Society in Japan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Hidehiro Yamamoto is a professor of political sociology at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He received his PhD from Tohoku University. His research interests lie in civil society, social movements, interest groups, and political inequality. He has been one of the main acting faculty members that represents the University of Tsukuba in the Higher Education and Research for Sustainable Development (HESD) of the International Association of Universities, headquartered in UNESCO. His main works include Japanese Elites and the Idea of Equality (Co-edited book in Japanese, Akashi Shoten, 2021), “Interest Group Politics and Its Transformation in Japan,” Asian Survey 61(3), 2021, Neighborhood Associations and Local Governance in Japan, (Co-authored book, Routledge, 2014) and edited Political Inequality in Contemporary Japan: The Mechanisms of Disparities and Divides in Political Participation and Representation (in Japanese, Akashi Shoten, 2025).