This session is divided into two parts.  The first part is for an intermediate report from Task Force "Societal Harmony" through "Wa", the IFAC2023 concept, which includes four talks. The second part is a panel discussion for future directions and activities towards realizing societal harmony.

<First Part> Intermediate Report from Task Force "Societal Harmony"
 Paradigm Shift through Wa: New Feedback Schemes for Societal Harmony by Shinji Hara 　
 Societal System Design with Harmony: Human Centered System Design  by Tetsuo Sawaragi
 Environmental Issues for Harmony by Keiko Takahashi
 Actions to International Standardization by Michinaga Kohno

<Second Part> Panel Discussion
 "Future directions and activities towards realizing societal harmony"

Shinji Hara received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, in 1974, 1976, and 1981, respectively. In 1984, he joined Tokyo Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor and served as a Full Professor for ten years. From 2002 to 2017 he was a Full Professor in the Department of Information Physics and Computing at the University of Tokyo. He is Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo. His current research interests are in robust control, decentralized cooperative control for large-scale networked dynamical systems, system biology, and glocal control.

Dr. Hara has received many awards in control including the George S. Axelby Outstanding Paper Award from the IEEE Control System Society in 2006. He was the President of SICE (Society of Instrument and Control Engineers, Japan) in 2009, a Vice President of the IEEE Control Systems Society in 2009 to 2010, and an IFAC Council member from 2011 to 2017. He is a Fellow of IFAC, IEEE, and SICE.