[citation needed] Although his book that uses such terms in the title dates back to 1980, there was already a public debate on the issue in the 1950s and 1960s in Japan.
Thus, some authors suggest that the first scholars of the concept of Information Society appear in Japan : the book published by Yoneji Masuda in 1980 titled Johoka shakai, which means the higher stage of social evolution, from the perspective of the analogy with biological evolution.
This was, for the author, the information society, focusing on computer technology, which would have a much more decisive impact on human society that the Industrial Revolution which began with the invention of the steam engine, because the fundamental role of the computer is to replace and amplify human mental work, while the basic function of steam machinery was replacement and amplification of physical work.
In predicting the introduction of a general education system, the disappearance of illiteracy, the advent of world peace and human happiness, Masuda does not restrict his futuristic vision to those social sectors or countries actively participating in industry or in services information, but predicts a real New World Order that he calls "Computopía"[1] Masuda authored several books on technology and society.
The latter has been translated into many languages, including Portuguese (A Sociedade Sociedade da Informação as Post-Industrial, Rio / Embratel, Rio de Janeiro, 1980), and Spanish (with a title that changed 'information' to 'computer': The information society as post-industrial society, Fundesco-Tecnos, Madrid, 1984).