All aboard the digital train

All aboard the digital train

Did anyone ever tell you that the future is digital? It's a phrase you've probably heard many times over. But what happens in reality when governments around the world try to kickstart the digital transformation of their societies? How do we make sure no one is left behind? And how do you make people feel safe entrusting sensitive data to the authorities?

In this episode, we investigate the situation in Japan - a country that rapidly needs to become more digitalized in order to take care of a population with the world's largest proportion of people over 65. Can Japan make the transformation and how is it going about it? And we look at the Nordic digital frontrunners, like Denmark, to see if there are experiences we can draw from when developing and implementing new digital solutions.

This podcast episode comes from a Nordic Talks live event held at the University of Creativity in Tokyo, Japan, arranged by the Nordic embassies and Nordic Innovation House Tokyo.

 

“Trust in digitalization is very hard to build and very easy to lose.”

Rikke Hougaard Zeberg, Branch Director of DI Digital at the Confederation of Danish Industry.

This podcast episode features the following speakers

Taro Kono (Japan)

Taro Kono (Japan)

Taro Kono is a member of the House of Representatives of Japan. He has previously held a number of ministerial posts including those of Defence Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs. In August 2022, after the Nordic Talks event was recorded, he became Japan's Minister of Digital Affairs.

Rikke Hougaard Zeberg

Rikke Hougaard Zeberg (Denmark)

Rikke Hougaard Zeberg is the Branch Director of DI Digital at the Confederation of Danish Industry. There, she, in collaboration with members of the industry community, is at the forefront of the business community's contribution to the digitalization of Danish society. Rikke was previously Director General of the Danish Digitization Agency. Her expertise lies in administrative policy, including digitalization, regulatory simplification and reducing administrative burdens. 

Henrik Johansson

Henrik Johansson (Sweden)

Henrik Johansson is the Executive Vice President of Growth at Crypto.com and the former Managing Director of Spotify Japan. He has 15 years of experience scaling internet services and digital products.