IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Japanese developer Mitsui Fudosan is focusing on community-based urban development in "Kashiwanoha Smart City" in Chiba Prefecture, where medical and research institutions are concentrated.

A new accommodation facility that closely links a hotel and a hospital will open in July. The company is targeting foreign and domestic visitors for medical purposes.

The Osaka Prefectural Government on May 29 launched a system for people to register their email addresses at shops and other locales they visit, enabling it to warn them if they have potentially come into contact with someone infected with the novel coronavirus.

Shops, event organizers and other facilities post a QR code issued by the "Osaka COVID-19 Tracing System" at the entrance. Visitors can then read the code with their smartphones and register their email addresses online. Registrants will then be informed by email if someone else who has been in the same spot on the same day tests positive for the virus, depending on the infection risk and conditions at the facility. A total of 2,586 people had registered with the system as of 4 p.m. on May 29.

Mitsubishi Corp is in talks with Kamakura City's municipal government about developing its urban core and surrounding region into a smart city. Recently, the partnership joined forces with four other interests to commence a pilot project that will combine autonomous-driving technologies and healthcare services in Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark). Along with Shonan iPark, the other partners on this project are Tokushukai Shonan Kamakura General Hospital (Kamakura General), Macnica Inc and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.

One of the keys to the scheme will be making local medical services more convenient and accessible. Recently, Mitsubishi has been working with the five parties to monitor roughly 1,000 residents of Kamakura and Fujisawa cities and augment those cities' various medical services with self-driving vehicles.

Although the images are used mainly to prevent shoplifting, experts and industry bodies say it is necessary to make clear rules because providing people’s facial data to a third party could constitute an invasion of privacy.

Japan drops to the 14th spot in UN e-government ranking

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will propose a national budget for fiscal 2021 set to top 105 trillion yen ($994 billion) that places digitization of government services front and center.

Digitization has emerged as a pressing issue after Japan's failure to distribute stimulus payouts to households in a timely manner this spring. Outdated systems also have hampered the collection of coronavirus-related data. That performance caused Japan to drop in the United Nations' e-government development ranking to 14th place for this year.

The $10 billion Woven City near Mount Fuji is where Japanese automaker Toyota plans to test everyday living with robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation.

Daisuke Toyoda, an executive in charge of the project from the automaker's founding family, stressed it's not "a smart city."

"We're making a test course for mobility so that's a little bit different. We're not a real estate developer," he said during a recent tour of the facility, where the first phase of construction was completed.

One of the recent initiatives at Kuoni Tumlare involved setting up a virtual tour to Tallinn, Estonia, in the high-tech Ulemiste district, for WASEDA University, a research-intensive institution located in the heart of Tokyo.

The Ulemiste district is a truly unique place to visit as it’s a smart city that is pushing the envelope when it comes to implementing technology into our daily lives. The virtual tour immersed students from WASEDA University, in this smart city through the guided online tour.

Smart poles could support 5G, Wi-Fi, street lighting and other applications

Japanese company Sumitomo Corporation has inked an agreement with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for the preliminary installation and verification of smart poles being carried out by the government.

Together with NEC Corporation, Sumitomo Corporation intends to install two types of smart poles in the Nishi-shinjuku area of Tokyo by the end of this month.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic athletes’ village in the heart of the metropolis will be transformed as first smart city by 2024. comprising residential and commercial space and powered by hydrogen energy as a primary source.

This as the metropolitan government advances efforts towards their goal of a decarbonised society with net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

Despite Tokyo’s distance from the epicenter, not only were there direct damages from the earthquake, but the spread of radioactive materials from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant affected Tokyo’s air and tap water, as well as certain food products, raising doubts on the safety of day-to-day living in the metropolis.

A spokesperson for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) told FutureGov that new challenges were brought to light as a result of the recent earthquake, such as unexpected damages, the slowing down of economic activities, and the significant disruption on the citizen’s daily lives due to rolling blackouts that were conducted to avoid large-scale blackouts and power supply shortages.

The fourth SSPP (Sustainable Smart City Partner Program) Forum convened in Tokyo’s Harajuku district this October at With Harajuku Hall, an open space fostering informal, energetic dialogue.

Launched in 2020, SSPP supports community-building centered on maximizing residents’ well-being, with communities as the main players. The program creates spaces where municipal governments, local businesses, educational institutions and residents cooperate across traditional boundaries.

The "Woven City" will eventually be home to 2,000 Toyota employees and their families, retired couples, retailers, and scientists, according to the company.

• Toyota just started construction on a 175-acre smart city at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan.
• The "Woven City" is expected to be a testing ground for technologies like robotics, smart homes, and AI.
• The first residents will be a group of about 360 inventors, young families, and senior citizens.

Toyota Motor Corp. is aiming to become a world leader in smart city technology with its ambitious project to build Woven City, a fully-connected, human-centered city at the base of Mt. Fuji.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted a rethink of how people move and live, and reinforced the need to create technology that supports "happy, healthy" human life, Toyota Chief Digital Officer James Kuffner said.

The head of Japanese carmaker Toyota has given more details about his company’s plan to build a “prototype city of the future” on the site of a former car factory at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Some 2,000 people will live on the 70ha site, which will host a hydrogen-powered town designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

Toyota Motor Corp on Thursday launched an experimental "city” in central Japan where self-driving vehicles, delivery robots and personal transporters operate to provide services to residents, marking a rare urban initiative by an automaker.

In the first phase of the Woven City project on about 47,000 square meters of land at the foot of Mount Fuji in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, a few households have moved in. Around 300 more people linked to Toyota are expected to live there.

After announcing it in 2020, the first residents and partner companies of Toyota Woven City are starting to move in. This marks the first step of it transforming into a real-world test course for mobility and a key driver of Toyota’s transformation from a traditional carmaker into a mobility company.

Located at the base of Mt. Fuji and at the former site of Toyota Motor East Japan’s Higashi-Fuji Plant in Susono City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Toyota Woven City spans 708,200 square meters. The first phase, completed in October of last year, includes space for around 360 residents (47,000 square meters), growing to a full population of 2,000 people once everything is completed.

• Toyota's £8 Billion Investment: Toyota has announced an £8 billion investment to create Woven City, a futuristic smart city at the base of an active volcano, aiming to redefine urban living through advanced technology and sustainability.
• Integration Challenges: The article explores the complexities of integrating smart technologies into urban environments, addressing issues such as privacy, data security, and the digital divide among residents.
• Sustainability and Innovation: Woven City is designed to be a carbon-neutral ecosystem, powered by hydrogen fuel cells and featuring smart homes built with traditional Japanese techniques and modern robotics.
• Living Laboratory: As a 'living laboratory', Woven City will test autonomous vehicles, AI-driven transport systems, and a digital operating system to manage urban infrastructure, setting new standards for smart city development.

Woven City near Mount Fuji is Toyota's bold initiative to experiment with robotics, AI, and autonomous transport in an urban environment. Spearheaded by Daisuke Toyoda, the project is not a 'smart city' but a mobility test course, aligning with Toyota's innovative history and future ambitions.

Toyota has embarked on an ambitious venture with Woven City, located near Mount Fuji, to explore the integration of robotics, artificial intelligence, and emissions-free transport in daily life. Leading this pioneering effort is Daisuke Toyoda, a member of the automaker's founding family, who emphasizes that this is not a typical 'smart city.'

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, is building the world’s first “smart city” in Japan.

Woven City, located near the base of Mt. Fuji, will be a 175-acre, fully autonomous community designed to test new technologies like automated driving, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) in a real-world environment.

The prototype "city of the future" will be built from the ground up on the site of the former Higashi-Fuji Plant, which drew its decades-long car-making history to a close in December 2020.

Toyota Motor Corp. has announced plans to open a prototype smart city at the foot of Mount Fuji as early as this fall.

The city will feature hydrogen power, autonomous mobility, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda revealed the plans on Jan. 6 at CES in Las Vegas. This marks the auto giant’s return to the annual technology trade show after a five-year hiatus since Toyoda first unveiled the concept of Woven City in 2020.