Digital Architectures Under Society 5.0: An Enterprise Architecture Perspective

As Japan’s vision regarding Society 5.0 is unfolding, several digital architectures are (being) designed and constructed. Although Society 5.0 is extensively researched and its application is illustrated in several domains, little research is conducted regarding digital architectures under Society 5.0. The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze digital architectures that are (being) designed and constructed under Society 5.0 from an enterprise architecture perspective. Extending the results of related studies, a systematic literature review is conducted to find out which enterprise architecture frameworks and principles are utilized to create digital architectures under Society 5.0. The initial search in three scientific databases resulted in a sample of 857 documents. After removing duplicates and screening based on abstracts, 116 documents have been analyzed. This revealed a variety of 37 digital architectures in different domains. The main finding is that the analyzed digital architectures mainly use conceptual and system representations, make little use of established enterprise architecture frameworks, are not based on explicit principles, and do not refer to a reference architecture for Society 5.0. This paper presents an enterprise architecture perspective on Society 5.0 and is considered of value for scholars and enterprise architects that are interested in digital architectures under Society 5.0. This study is limited to scientific databases and selected published articles. Empirical research is required to validate the findings. As the interest in Society 5.0 is increasing, it is recommended to develop reference architectures and guiding principles to support digital transformation processes. Future research can contribute to develop prescriptive design knowledge and supporting methods for designing, constructing, and evaluating digital architectures under Society 5.0.