On 10 September 2021, the ITU Digital World Partner Session, organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, was held under the theme: "Future Networks and Standardization 'Beyond 5G'" The session took place in a virtual format using the Zoom platform.

The event was attended by representatives from regional and international telecommunication organizations.

Masayoshi Shintani, Minister of State for Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan opened the aforementioned meeting and delivered his welcoming remarks.

Masayoshi Shintani stressed that many countries have recently launched commercial fifth-generation mobile communication systems. However, Japan has formulated a strategy that goes beyond 5G to realize, an inclusive, sustainable and reliable data-driven society. This roadmap is based on three main strategies entitled "Implementing the first global ecosystem, driving innovation and concentration". It was created to bring together the government, the private sector and other stakeholders.

The Government of Japan is willing to discuss telecommunication standardization activities with other countries, the private sector as well as local authorities.

This session was moderated by Mémiko Otsuki, Assistant Director, Global Strategy Division, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.

This session addressed the following questions:

- What is the current status of 5G in terms of deployment, what are the corporate efforts and global market trends - and how will the industry move from 5G launch to 6G and beyond?

- What new services will the networks of the future provide and how will these services improve people's lives around the world?

- What are the requirements for implementing the networks of the future, including extremely high data rates, low latency and low power consumption?

- What role should standardisation play in creating the networks of the future and what does the roadmap to the post 5G era look like?

This session discussed the expectations and challenges of future networks and standardisation "Beyond 5G" from a global and multi-stakeholder perspective.

The following were among the speakers:

- Seizo Onoe, Director of Standardization Strategy, NTT CORP. And a researcher at NTT DOCOMO, INC;

- Eric Ekudden, Chief Technology Officer, Ericsson;

- Durga Malladi, Senior Vice President and GM, 5G, Mobile Broadband and Infrastructure, Qualcomm, Inc;

- Ryosuke Takahashi, Founder and CEO, Acompany Co., Ltd.

Opening the discussion, the Government of Japan announced the nomination of Seizo Onoe as Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau. During his presentation, he gave an overview of the development of 5th generation networks and predictions for the future.

The experts, representing system providers and mobile operators, then shared their views on future network development and discussed standardization issues. Ryosuke Takahashi talked about his experience in setting up a cybersecurity company, highlighting the importance of this issue when digitizing areas such as healthcare, for example.

At the end of the session, moderator Memiko Otsuki thanked the speakers for sharing their experiences and also thanked all participants for joining in.