Defining Informatics across Bun-kei and Ri-kei

Abstract

The Science Council of Japan’s Committee on Informatics is currently creating a reference standard in informatics. This activity includes defining informatics for university education and for the future academic development of informatics. The most characteristic feature of the chosen definition of informatics is the desire to cover all branches of informatics across bun-kei (social sciences and humanities) and ri-kei (natural science and engineering), with the intention of unifying the field. In the present paper, the background of the activity, and the motivation and implications of the definition of informatics are presented. In particular, we discuss the importance of covering bun-kei and ri-kei for the future development of informatics and the implications of the definition on liberal arts education in universities and primary and secondary education in elementary, middle and high schools.