Backcasting R&D

Backcasting from the society of 2050 we are identifying essential technological issues and creating breakthrough technology

At Hitachi we have backcast from the society of 2050 to get a bird’s eye view of a range of issues and to identify essential technological issues. We are engaged in creating breakthrough technology that will bring about change in the industrial structure.

Starting from what is a worldwide issue -the global agenda- we engaged in discussions with external experts in international institutions and universities, with customers, and with start-ups and have embraced as the next society:

  • •Environmentally neutral society;
  • •Society with 100-year active life
  • •Digital technologies, people and society evolve together

To realize "Environmentally neutral society," "Society with 100-year active life," and "Digital technologies, people and society evolve together," we will take on the challenge of creating breakthrough technologies under the following themes.

Environmentally neutral society

Hitachi is aiming for decarbonization and carbon negativity to achieve an environmentally neutral society. We took as a essential technological issue, understanding and controlling the appropriate flow of things, materials, and energy necessary for both the sustainable global environment and economic activity, and established two themes: Energy storage and supply; and Carbon transformation. In Energy storage and supply, we are engaged in developing overall logistics for power and hydrogen, including a large-scale, low-cost hydrogen production system, and for Carbon transformation, we are engaged in configuring a carbon cycle society using synthetic biotechnology.

Society with 100-year active life

Hitachi has taken as a essential technological issue for achieving a society in which people can live with human dignity over an active 100-year life span, understanding, maintaining, and improving cell function, which is fundamental to the activity of life, and are aiming to overcome cancer, difficult-to-treat illness, and infectious disease. For example, by achieving advances in automation of the positioning of radio therapy devices, we are engaged in achieving more sophisticated cancer treatments. We are also making progress in developing Designed cell using genetic modification and cell measurement technologies.

See all articles

Digital technologies, people and society evolve together

Hitachi has taken as a essential issue, improving the judgement and creativity of people and society, to evolve digital technologies, people and society together. To make it possible for people and society to make rapid and optimum judgements, we are progressing R&D on Digital observatory, which makes risks visible that have otherwise been invisible by observing various and economic activity data from around the world, and we are progressing R&D on Silicon quantum computing, which are capable of high capacity integration, with a view to computation of complex and large-scale problems not solvable by classic computing in the present.

This article is a sponsored article by
''.