Takehiko Kato(Chief Fellow, Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies)

April 2017 to March 2018

   The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has calculated that advanced urban functions such as universities, emergency medical facilities, and large-scale recreational facilities cannot be maintained without an urban area (market) with a population of at least 300,000. At present, there are about a hundred provincial cities in Japan with a population of roughly 100,000 to 200,000 that are suffering from declining birthrates, an aging population, and an exodus of citizens to larger cities. As a result, it is becoming impossible to maintain their market size and urban functions. To address this issue, the government is promoting the downsizing and networking of cities, and some provincial cities are tying together regional stimulation initiatives and streamlining government services through the introduction of smart city functions and ICT while accepting the support of the government. At the same time, efforts are being made to form commercial zones through cooperation over large areas, and to pool resources used for regional disaster prevention and energy management.

   In this study, we introduce cases both here and abroad where efforts are being made to solve problems facing Japan’s provincial cities by promoting IoT and smart cities, and we consider ways of improving the sustainability and competitiveness of cities. Our report also introduces the current trends in FIWARE, which was developed as an information infrastructure for smart cities in Europe, and smart city-related applications that have been developed on this infrastructure.

   In our interim report, we introduced the current situation of provincial cities in Japan, we summarized the model urbanization and support systems provided by government ministries (Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Internal Affairs and Communications; Economy, Trade and Industry), and we presented some examples of ICT utilization in provincial cities (Fujieda, Iwamizawa, Toride, and Shimane prefecture). In the final report, taking the trends in smart cities as our main theme, we introduced the current situation and market scale of various examples of smart cities — three provincial cities in Japan (Hirosaki, Yokosuka, Obihiro), four European cities (Helsinki, Brussels, Espoo, Tampere), and two cities in the United States (Chicago, Columbus) — and based on these examples, we sought to compare the situations in Japan, Europe and the United States.