Health and Well-being Week
Cultivating a Well-being Future with "Slowness" Agenda 2025 Co-created Programme
Shape New World Initiative
[Hypothesis for 2050] A future where slowness cultivates the richness of life amidst accelerating change.
As scientific advances promise extended healthy lifespans, we face unprecedented rates of social transformation with overwhelming intensity and amplitude within a single generation. This session explores new social paradigms and human-technology relationships for 2050, taking 'slowness' as principle concepts.
Discussion
- Well-being
- Healthy life expectancy
- Slow System/Creativity
| Transmission of simultaneous interpretation | Provided |
|---|---|
| Language of interpretation | Japanese and English |
Reservations are required for this programme.
Booking typically opens with the '2-month advance lottery.' Click below for details.
* Arrive early; latecomers may not be admitted.
For more information about making a reservation to watch a programme.
Please watch the Virtual Studio if you are outside the venue.
-
Agenda2025
Co-created Programme
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
- Time and
Date of
the event -
-
2025.06.21[Sat]
14:00 ～ 16:00
(Venue Open 13:30)
-
- Venue
- Theme Weeks Studio
Programme details
As scientific advances promise extended healthy lifespans, we face unprecedented rates of social transformation within a single generation. In this era of exponential growth in both information and choices and dramatic societal acceleration, we will experience changes with overwhelming intensity and amplitude throughout our extended lives. These transformative shifts pose significant challenges to our health and well-being.
How can we cultivate a healthy and well-being-focused future in such an era? Through our research in 2023-2024, we have identified 'slowness' as crucial concepts for navigating this future.
This session explores new social paradigms and human-technology relationships for 2050, taking these concepts as guiding principles to navigate this transformative age.
Reports
Reflection:
Although it was only a two-hour session, we believe that the most essential aspects of what we wanted to convey through the Shape New World Initiative "Health and Well-being" research report were successfully communicated to participants.
Using the four-dimensional correlation framework, we visualized the structural problem of extreme expansion in the economic domain (Dimension I) and shrinkage in other domains in contemporary society, developing multifaceted discussions about the significance of "slowness" in an accelerating society. We do not wish to halt progress. Rather, we welcome desirable changes and evolution. However, we aspire to build a future optimized not for maximizing economic growth, but for a society where people are respected as human beings—in other words, a future optimized for individual and societal well-being.
To achieve this, at the societal level, we need to establish comprehensive frameworks that include ethical verification and social dialogue to ensure that evolving technologies are introduced in ways that contribute to well-being. At the individual level, we need to secure space for people to engage in other dimensions of activity commensurate with productivity gains from science and technology. Such constraints and mechanisms that promote "slowness" become essential.
Each panelist presented diverse approaches from their specialized perspectives that contribute to the required "slowness." Toya explained what "smart" means and its dangers from the perspective of technology theory in contemporary thought, proposing "carefulness." Koshio presented possibilities of slow technology through AI with memory capabilities. Hasegawa offered questions about the future through speculative design using artificial wombs. Yoshida presented visions of a healthy longevity society from the perspective of in-body device technology and the current reality where increased productivity leads to more tasks rather than creating space.
Building on the framework outlined in our report, it was also a significant achievement of this session to present participants with perspectives that allow them to maintain a certain distance from assumptions such as "we must keep up with accelerating technological evolution (there are no other options)" and fixed ideas that "smartification and optimization should always be pursued and are inherently good."
Future initiatives after Expo 2025:
After the session, we received an insightful email from one of the participants who had also cooperated with us through interviews during the report writing process.
The email included statements such as "One of the real pleasures of the Expo lies in panelists and participants coming together to deeply consider the future" and "The act of designing future society should not be left to a few specialists, but it is important for diverse people living in society to maintain awareness of issues and actively engage." These words made us realize that the direction we aimed for in this session had certainly reached the participants.
There was also the observation that "in the current world of technology, there are aspects where some tech libertarians pursue their ideal society and push forward unilaterally." This recognition perfectly aligns with the structural problems of acceleration through capitalism and informatization discussed in our report, and we renewed our awareness of the importance of forming networks with people who can share such problem consciousness.
As for future initiatives, we would like to gradually expand our network while upholding the concept of "slowness" and continuously engage in discussions to connect this to more sophisticated theoretical construction and practical proposals.
Based on such dialogues and the insights gained from this session, we will advance the writing of academic papers and general-audience books to more broadly disseminate the vision of a well-being future opened up by "slowness" to society. In particular, we will likely accumulate further research and practice regarding current situation analysis using the four-dimensional correlation framework and specific measures for social implementation of balancing-type structures.
Additionally, from the perspective of "future ethics" that we could not sufficiently introduce during this session, we hope to utilize speculative design as a balancing-type structure embedded in society and work toward making dialogue opportunities based on such virtual future visions a part of everyday life.
Cast
Moderator
Urara Satake
Representative Director, General Incorporated Association Tamani
Representative Director of General Incorporated Association Tamani and Project Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM), Keio University. As a researcher, she specializes in developing well-being social systems through multi-perspective and dynamic systems thinking approaches. Satake graduated from Hokkaido University's Faculty of Agriculture and completed her master's degree at Keio SDM. After working as a book editor and communication director for a medical startup, and serving as a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge, she has been in her current roles since 2021. At Keio SDM, she facilitates research, development, and implementation of regional subjective well-being indicators for Japan's Digital Garden City Nation. At Tamani, she focuses on human resource development based on systems thinking and design thinking, while fostering community connections through art and reciprocal activities.
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Speakers
Koshio Atsushi
Professor, Faculty of Engineering and Director of EdTech Research Center Reitaku University
With a background in data science and artificial intelligence research, he works as a researcher and entrepreneur to enhance human capability using digital technologies such as AI and metaverse. He specifically conducts research and development of IT and AI in fields closely related to humans, such as healthcare and education, implementing "Kind digital and AI" that care people closely and "slow systems" that emphasize humanity and creativity. He concurrently serves as Project Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, The University of Tokyo, CTO of HYPER CUBE Inc., CEO of Four H Inc., and CSO and Board Member of PICORE Inc.
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Hiroshi Toya
Associate Professor at Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences, Ritsumeikan University
Ph.D. in Literature from Osaka University. Specializes in philosophy and ethics. His research focuses on the ethics of technology in society, with a particular emphasis on the study of contemporary German thought. His publications include Future Ethics (Shueisha), The Evil of Smart: On Technology and Violence (Kodansha), and many others.
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Ai Hasegawa
Artist / Designer / Associate Professor, School of Integrated Design Engineering, Keio University
Artist and designer. Ai Hasegawa produced many works putting emphasis on subjects relating to technology and people with employing techniques such as Bio Art, Speculative Design and Design Fiction. She obtained degree of MA in 2012 from Design Interactions Course, Royal College of Art in Britain; worked as researcher at Design Fiction Group, MIT Media Lab from 2014 to fall of 2016; took degree of MS in 2016; serving as Project Researcher at The University of Tokyo since April 2017 ; won Excellence Award at Work Art Division in 19th Japan Media Arts Festival for her work titled "(Im)possible Baby, Case 01: Asako & Moriga"; hold exhibitions within and outside Japan including at MORI ART MUSEUM and Ars Electronica. Ai published a design education book “Revolutionary20XX”.
Exhibited at "Mind Temple" MoCA Shanghai, Ars Electronica "RADICAL ATOMS" 2016, National museum Design in Kulturhuset Stadsteatern Sweden, Milano Salone Italiy, Science Gallery Dublin , Taipei Digital Arts Center and so on.
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Shinya Yoshida
Professor, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, Shibaura Institute of Technology
He completed the Graduate School of Engineering at Tohoku University in 2008. (Dr. Eng). He has been Associate Professor at the Faculty of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology from April 2022, and selected as a "Nice Step Researcher" by National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) for his outstanding contributions to science and technology in 2022.
His specialties are microfabrication and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). He is currently focusing on research and development of medical devices such as miniature ultrasound imaging devices and ingestible devices.
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Health and Well-being Week
Cultivating a Well-being Future with "Slowness" Agenda 2025 Co-created Programme
[Hypothesis for 2050] A future where slowness cultivates the richness of life amidst accelerating change.
As scientific advances promise extended healthy lifespans, we face unprecedented rates of social transformation with overwhelming intensity and amplitude within a single generation. This session explores new social paradigms and human-technology relationships for 2050, taking 'slowness' as principle concepts.
-
2025.06.21[Sat]
14:00～16:00
(Venue Open 13:30)
- Theme Weeks Studio
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
Reservations are required for this programme.
Booking typically opens with the '2-month advance lottery.' Click below for details.
* Arrive early; latecomers may not be admitted.
For more information about making a reservation to watch a programme.
Please watch the Virtual Studio if you are outside the venue.
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