IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Estonian e-Governance Academy and Japanese think tank Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd (MURC) have established a joint venture to provide digital transformation services for governments in Japan and the Asian region. The name of the new enterprise is Digital Governance Academy Asia-Pacific or D-GAP.

The D-GAP will use the knowledge accumulated in Estonia to provide high-quality training, survey and consulting services to meet the diverse needs related to the digital government in Japan and overseas.

"Like the world's other democracies, Japan is now grappling with a central dilemma of the Information Age -- how to reap the powerful benefits of information technology in business and government, while also safeguarding citizen and consumer privacy," said Dr. Alan Westin, Director of CSLR's Japan-U.S. Privacy & Data Protection Program and the new JPR. "And this unfolds at a time of major social, technological, institutional, and political change in Japan."

The World Economic Forum explains that every week 3 million people move to a city around the world. Natural disasters, pandemics, transportation, carbon emissions, inequality, jobs, waste, and contamination are just some of the challenges affecting cities that will feel the stress of 68% of the global population by 2050, the organization explains.

Japan's Woven City has been highlighted as a smart city that could inspire the future. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 calls for governments to build or transform cities to be inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. While cities contribute to 60% of the global GDP, they also produce 70% of the global carbon emissions — through transportation, industry, and buildings — and use 60% of all global resources. Japan wants to bring solutions to health crises like the COVID global health pandemic, climate change, globalization and isolation problems, access to food, and access to basic services and security.

A Japanese professor explains why smart city projects in the country draw from a national initiative to build smart infrastructure.

In Japan, a country with considerable technological influence on the global stage, the concept of a “smart city” has a strong social dimension, explained Atsushi Deguchi, a professor and vice dean at the University of Tokyo at Industrial IoT World last year.

The government is scouting foreign companies that can set up operations in these smart cities. The focus is on projects that can generate local employment opportunities

"India is looking East to attract investments from countries such as Japan and Singapore for its industrial smart city project, an official has told Moneycontrol.

"We are vying for Singapore and Japan to collaborate with us on the project, urging firms to set up operations in industrial smart cities," the official, who didn' wish to be identified, said.

A Japanese delegation visited Thane to assess the progress of Smart City projects and explore potential technological collaborations under the Japan-India Smart City Cooperation Platform (JISCOP). Officials discussed completed initiatives, ongoing developments, and areas for future cooperation.

A delegation from Japan recently visited Thane to assess the progress of various initiatives under the Smart City project and explore potential avenues for technological collaboration, a civic official confirmed on Saturday.

Giving India-Japan cooperation a new perspective Nobuhiro Endo, chairman of NEC Corporation, said on Monday that Japan will help India develop smart cities and 5G projects. Endo stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a great desire to create and enhance skills after meeting with him in Tokyo. Endo stated that Japan will assist India in developing smart cities. “From the perspective of smart cities, we can help through applications and also provide communication platforms such as 5G.” Dr. Nobuhiro Endo, speaking on partnership with India for smart cities and 5G, said, “We already have the solution to all of those areas.”

Emphasizing the importance of collaborating with telecom operators in India to provide safe and secure 5G systems in India, he added, “To implement the applications, we need to have a communication with India and in order to provide 5G systems, we need to confirm the security and safety. So, we need to have a collaboration with operators in India and try to confirm the security and safety of the system.”

While the Indian project, dubbed e-Network, is equipped to support tele-education, e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment and resource mapping, the Japanese project is focused on tele-education and e-governance.

Masahiro Yoshizaki, vice minister for policy coordination, ministry of internal affairs and communications, Japan, and Anil Kaushal, member of Telecom Commission of India, signed a joint statement Thursday, which said the thrust area would be development of technology and standards.

A futuristic smart city called Woven City is being built at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. Labelled a ‘living laboratory’ for new technologies it is being developed by Toyota subsidiary, Woven Planet, and will be the world’s first programmable city.

As well as being a testing ground for smart solutions it will also become home to 2000 residents who will get the chance to live somewhere that is being designed to allow humans and nature to live their best lives.

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan and Ministry of Public Works and Housing of Indonesia held the "Japan-Indonesia Construction Vice-Ministerial Meeting" online on February 10.

The two ministries shared the status of their efforts in the areas of smart cities, infrastructure quality management, and disaster prevention. The Indonesian counterpart expressed its policy to realize smart cities in the new capital city in line with the capital relocation plan. The Japanese side will continue to monitor developments with a view to Japanese companies' participation in the relocation plan.

Japan and Jordan will henceforth share their expertise and technical knowhow on different modern technologies including the building of digital public infrastructure, Jordan Times reports.

The deal was signed recently by the Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship of Jordan, Ahmad Hanandeh, and the Minister of Digital Transformation of Japan, Kono Taro.

In an exclusive interview with FutureGov, Atsushi Shiota, Chief, Information Technology Promotion Department, General Affairs and Planning Bureau, City of Kitakyushu, Japan, revealed why his team created the country’s first geo-data portal last October.

Japanese Digital Transformation Minister Kono Taro has highlighted the need for an international framework for dialogue to ensure trust in cross-border data transfers.

A five-day UN conference on internet governance kicked off in the Japanese city of Kyoto on Sunday. Government officials and business people from tech firms are attending the gathering.

The survey, published as part of the annual White Paper on Information and Communications in Japan, found Internet users in Japan are worried about multiple aspects of being online. However, the government said their worries might be out of proportion with the actual risks they face.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at an extraordinary meeting Friday, adopted basic economic and fiscal policy guidelines calling for intensified efforts to digitize administrative work over the next year.

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the Japanese government's inferior online capabilities. With its poor information technology infrastructure, the government failed to swiftly implement relief programs to coronavirus-hit businesses and people,including 100,000-yen cash handouts to all households.

Competition and national security concerns arise if Beijing takes the lead

The Japanese government has grown increasingly concerned about China's proposed international standards for smart cities, worried about a competitive disadvantage as companies vie for business.

China has already submitted smart-city proposals to both the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO, and the International Electrotechnical Commission, according to a source close to the government here.

Japan verfügt durch seine Glasfasernetze über die weltweit beste Infrastruktur für Breitbanddienste. Das ergab eine Untersuchung von zwei europäischen Universitäten, finanziert von Cisco Systems. Schweden liegt an zweiter Stelle, gefolgt von den Niederlanden. Deutschland dümpelt auf Platz 9, noch hinter Lettland, der Schweiz und Litauen.

Von 42 untersuchten Ländern erhält Japan die höchste Punktzahl für Download-, Uploadgeschwindigkeiten und Latenzzeiten, so die britische University of Oxford und die Universidad de Oviedo (Spanien) in einer gemeinsamen Studie.

It’s a bad sign when the digital minister chuckles about the prominence of floppy disks at an overseas tech conference

Japan is known around the world for its technology – in high-speed rail, robotics and even toilets. Even watching the recent Bullet Trainoffers a glimpse into how Japan is perceived, with the film set on arguably the country’s most famous technological landmarks. The story is very different at home, however, with businesses and the public sector alike struggling to modernise. This struggle to digitally transform, which puts Japan at risk of restricting its future growth, is down to the government’s fragmented leadership, businesses in thrall to an archaic working culture, as well as a shortage of tech talent.