Industry 4.0 vs. Society 5.0

Abstract

Our latest stop in the industrialization journey that starts with steam engines is the Industry 4.0 that commonly heard nowadays and that was first introduced in 2011 at the Hannover Fair in Germany. Industry 4.0 provides an autonomous system by using a large technology such as artificial intelligence that transfers the decision-making capability (mechanism) that belongs to human to electronic systems and machines. In this concept, although there is a work that provides prosperity of societies by thinking consumers in Industry 4.0, it ignores human factor when it is considered as individually. On the other hand, when it is mentioned about technology, Japan that is a technology giant comes with Germany together. However it falls behind of Germany for this super modern era of industrialization. Japan that doesn’t want to stay in back, In April 2016, it emerges a philosophy that supports to name Society 5.0 thanks to Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence instead of today’s society that is called Information Society. This movement that deals with individual well-being, aims to use systems that work in harmony with each other in the interest of society, through the Internet of Things. Industry 4.0 trend that is also called digitalization in the industry with smart factories make various promises to businesses, on the other hand Society 5.0 trend that integrates cyber and physical systems for individual or common use make a lot of promises to humanity. Thus, these trends come face to face each other. In this study, Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 trends are discussed conceptually in detail and a comparison is made by handling the positive and negative aspects of these concepts. As a result of the comparison, it is stated whether that both concepts have superiority over each other or not. Suggestions are made about the need to direct the future academic and sectoral studies with superior concept that one of the Industry 4.0 or Society 5.0. In this way, it is aimed to contribute to the literature, to raise awareness of societies and to enable them to deal with their development in different dimensions.