Information ethics is one of the newest fields in applied philosophy. Due to its urgency, the search for solutions to ethical problems created by the development of global digital networks, represented by the internet, along with the rapid progress of computer sciences, is a major task in the area of information ethics. There is an urgent need for discussion going beyond specialized areas, concerning especially the issues of privacy, unlawful access and information security, and internet communities.

Until now the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University has established Foundations of Information Ethics (FINE) as part of the “Research for the Future” Program of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and it has been a global leader in the field of information ethics. We will succeed FINE and aim for the construction of information ethics by working with researchers in sociology, telecommunications engineering and law, with ethics scholars engaged in research in this field in Japan at the center of discussion.