Information Society
INTRODUCTION
HISTORY OF INFORMATION SOCIETY
The collocation “information society” as it is now used first emerged in Japanese social science(s) in the early 1960’s. The Japanese version of the expression (joho shakai, johoka shakai) was born during a conversation in 1961 between Kisho Kurokawa, the famous architect, and Tudao Umesao, the renowned historian and anthropologist. It debuted in written texts as the title of a study published in January 1964. The author was the aforementioned Jiro Kamishima but the title was given to the study by the editor Michiko Igarashi (Sociology in Information Societies).
Three authors are in competition to win the imaginary award for being the first to use the collocation “information society” in their book’s title and due to the reconstruction difficulties in regard to the dates of preparation and publication of the manuscripts, it is almost impossible to decide which publication was the first: Yujiro Hayashi’s bestseller of 1969 (Johoka Shakai: Hado No Shakai Kara Sofuto no Shakai e, The Information Society: From Hard to Soft Society) or the introductory and popularising books by Yoneji Masuda and Konichi Kohyma published in 1968 (Joho Shakai Nyumon - Introduction to an Information Society).
However, there is no doubt at all that the birth and fast consolidation of the concept is linked inexorably to the island country: as early as 1971 a systematising “dictionary” on information society was published in Japan (Johoka Shakai Jiten, Dictionary of Information Societies). The first English language reference dates from 1970 and can also be linked to Yoneji Masuda, who used the expression in his lecture at a conference (it Information Society – what is it exactly? (The meaning, history and conceptual framework of an expression) appeared in print in the same year). Of course all of this does not imply that the literature (in English) of the information society does not have even earlier antecedents. It was just that
HISTORY OF INFORMATION SOCIETY
The collocation “information society” as it is now used first emerged in Japanese social science(s) in the early 1960’s. The Japanese version of the expression (joho shakai, johoka shakai) was born during a conversation in 1961 between Kisho Kurokawa, the famous architect, and Tudao Umesao, the renowned historian and anthropologist. It debuted in written texts as the title of a study published in January 1964. The author was the aforementioned Jiro Kamishima but the title was given to the study by the editor Michiko Igarashi (Sociology in Information Societies).
Three authors are in competition to win the imaginary award for being the first to use the collocation “information society” in their book’s title and due to the reconstruction difficulties in regard to the dates of preparation and publication of the manuscripts, it is almost impossible to decide which publication was the first: Yujiro Hayashi’s bestseller of 1969 (Johoka Shakai: Hado No Shakai Kara Sofuto no Shakai e, The Information Society: From Hard to Soft Society) or the introductory and popularising books by Yoneji Masuda and Konichi Kohyma published in 1968 (Joho Shakai Nyumon - Introduction to an Information Society).
However, there is no doubt at all that the birth and fast consolidation of the concept is linked inexorably to the island country: as early as 1971 a systematising “dictionary” on information society was published in Japan (Johoka Shakai Jiten, Dictionary of Information Societies). The first English language reference dates from 1970 and can also be linked to Yoneji Masuda, who used the expression in his lecture at a conference (it Information Society – what is it exactly? (The meaning, history and conceptual framework of an expression) appeared in print in the same year). Of course all of this does not imply that the literature (in English) of the information society does not have even earlier antecedents. It was just that