Industry 4.0’s true potential in advancing the attainment of the SDGs and shaping Society 5.0

GMIS2020 Virtual Edition: Digital Series and Virtual Summit As an envisaged future society in the human evolution, Society 5.0 has been promoted in Japan since 2016, following from hunter-gatherer society (Society 1.0), agrarian society (Society 2.0), industrial society (Society 3.0) and information society (Society 4.0). The Society 5.0 is conceptualized as "a human society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space." It is closely connected to the concept of Industry 4.0, characterized by technological advances, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics. Industry 4.0 is likely to change not only the way we work, but also the way we live. Those spill-over effects of Industry 4.0 technologies beyond manufacturing and industry are captured by the Japanese concept of Society 5.0. Both Industry 4.0, and Society 5.0 are closely aligned with the attainment of the UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as inclusive and sustainable industrial development.