NEC Corporation (hereafter referred to as NEC) believes that the challenges facing rural areas in Japan, such as depopulation and financial difficulties, can be solved by utilizing digital technology. He pointed out that the changes in life caused by the coronavirus, such as the inability to continue learning at school and to go to the hospital, are examples of the exposure of digital delays.
In this article, we will introduce an overview of the super city, which NEC envisions as a vision of "evolution of a community-like town that can be proud of to the world," and examples of efforts to realize a smart city.
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What NEC considers a super city
NEC sees a super city as a special version of a smart city. Based on the revision bill of the "National Strategic Special Zone Law" passed by the Cabinet Office in May 2020, commonly known as the "Super City Bill", Super City is a "marugoto" that will lead to a better life 10 years from now. We will create a futuristic city.
Smart city projects are being worked on in various places, but the current situation is that they have not passed the demonstration stage.
On the other hand, Mr. Misato Hattori, Senior Manager of Business Co-Creation Group, Super City Business Promotion Headquarters of the company (hereafter Mr. Hattori) said, "I expect that social implementation of smart cities will progress rapidly by realizing Super City. "
Conditions for Super City by National Policy
Mr. Hattori said, "The conditions for Super City by national policy are the provision of advanced services in multiple fields that span all aspects of life and the data linkage infrastructure for that purpose. , and bold regulatory reform."
Currently, not only the special zone law but also the government as a whole indicates a focus on investment in super city projects. It is described that it will be implemented in
Key measures for smart city social implementation
NEC established the Super City Business Promotion Headquarters in April 2021. What the Super City Business Promotion Headquarters emphasizes is the establishment of a community-based execution system. Specifically, we will provide services that are close to the local community while cooperating with the NEC Group's "sales" and "development/maintenance" departments at 114 locations nationwide.Mr. Hattori listed the following three important measures for social implementation of smart cities.
Revitalization of Economic Infrastructure "Urban Management Service"
NEC sees the region from the perspective of city management, and regarding the monetization part such as expenditure reduction and revenue expansion, We will encourage improvements.
"By improving management efficiency, we will reduce expenditures, expand revenues, and reinvest. We believe that by turning this cycle, we can secure financial resources and revitalize the region," said Mr. Hattori. Stated.
"Co-creation Process" to improve the QOL of people who live and gather
NEC believes that the "co-creation process" centered on residents is important in improving the QOL of people who live and gather. Among them, he places importance on dialogue with citizens.
NEC is working with Sarabetsu village in Hokkaido. Mr. Hattori explained the reason for this, saying, "I thought that innovation could be brought about by fusing local governments, which value dialogue with local residents, with NEC's own technology."
In Sarabetsu Village, the local government has interviewed the elderly in the area about their "problems" and listed about 100 of them. We unearthed latent needs and verified hypotheses about regional issues.
Among the "problems", there was a voice saying that winter is "worrying" because Sarabetsu Village is a snow country and the physical limitations of the elderly people. Therefore, at NEC, we formulated a hypothesis on how we can clear up the feeling of "worry" and lead a positive life, interviewed elderly people about the contents of the hypothesis, verified it, and proposed a concept.
Resolving Region-Specific Issues "Inter-Sectoral Data Utilization"
NEC believes that inter-sectoral data utilization will lead to solutions for regional issues.
The following are two examples of use cases for “interdisciplinary data utilization.”
Use Case 1: Anytime, Anywhere Life Support
Of the approximately 100 "problems" listed by the municipality of Sarabetsu, there are opinions about medical and health concerns. was there.
NEC believes that medical data, disaster prevention data, tourism data, etc. can be utilized cross-sectionally to support medical care. For example, if a person is injured while traveling, with the person's consent, the family hospital can provide medical data to the medical institution at the travel destination.
Use case 2: Smart tourism to revitalize local economies
NEC believes that increasing revenue from tourism is important in revitalizing local economies. Especially in tourism, the trend is for people to want to visit their favorite places individually rather than in groups.
If tourists use the smart tourism service, they can create a plan that combines a tour plan and traffic information before the trip, and can change the route flexibly according to the weather during the trip. In addition, we will improve the repeat rate of travelers through post-trip reviews and future recommendations through digital marketing that utilizes data, leading to the revitalization of the local economy.
NEC City OS and FIWARE
Mr. Hattori mentioned "NEC City OS" as a measure to realize data utilization.
"NEC City OS" is equipped with data utilization platform services and personal data utilization services that utilize FIWAER, which are necessary to realize super cities and smart cities announced by NEC on September 8, 2021. It is a cloud service with common functions such as a data linkage platform, AI, biometric authentication, ID linkage, and full-layer security.
By using "NEC City OS", even local companies can easily start smart city initiatives without having to build a data linkage platform from scratch.
What is FIWERE?
FIWARE is an IoT platform developed and tested by the European Commission through a public-private partnership program. It was developed in five years from 2011 with a budget of about 40 billion yen.
FIWARE is a collection of software modules that support the development and spread of applications. Examples of software module groups are as follows, which are updated daily by the FIWARE Foundation. The FIWARE Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes the spread of FIWARE under the initiative of the private sector.
FIWARE software modules can be freely combined and utilized. A common interface (NGSI) for combining is defined, and by utilizing the API, it is possible to combine with parts other than FIWARE. Mr. Hattori said, "We can create the infrastructure of a city like building blocks."
The use of FIWARE is spreading all over the world. Specifically, 993 companies, 117 cities in 24 countries. Among them, NEC has actually implemented FIWARE in 6 overseas cities (related cities in Spain, Portugal, the UK, and India) and 5 cities in Japan (Takamatsu City, Kakogawa City, Toyama City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Niihama City). is.
Advanced Services Provided by NEC
Mr. Hattori introduced "disaster prevention" and "tourism" as advanced services provided by NEC.
Advanced Service 1: "Disaster Prevention"
NEC has an AI technology brand called "NEC the WISE," which utilizes river water level analysis and a satellite called ASNARO-2. We are analyzing the terrestrial phenomena and using a supercomputer to simulate flood damage caused by a tsunami. "In the future, we are investigating whether we can use quantum computers to achieve overall optimization," said Mr. Hattori.
Advanced Service 2: Sightseeing
By utilizing NEC's biometric authentication in the field of tourism, facial recognition can be used for touchless payments, etc., and you can travel while wearing a mask. We are expanding our services. This will reduce the risk of infectious diseases caused by corona.
Smart City Cases
NEC has already co-created a smart city project with 13 local governments, including the implementation of FIWARE. Furthermore, the other day, in the Cabinet Office's public offering for areas for the super city concept, 31 local governments proposed proposals, and 17 of them approached NEC and started co-creation.
Introducing the case of a smart city project that NEC did with Toyama City.
Smart City Case: Toyama City
NEC built an LPWA network that covers 99% of the residential area of Toyama City, and implemented the FIWARE platform on it.Toyama City is currently in the stage of demonstrating services based on data linkage by local companies. One of them is a service that monitors the route to school by giving elementary school students GPS sensors. During the demonstration of this service, it was found that the route for elementary school students to go to school and return to school changes.
Especially on the route home, we obtained data that, instead of taking the shortest route to home, we took a detour at a parking lot to get home. The data is used as evidence for policy decisions, such as establishing schoolchildren.
In addition, we established a data science endowed course at the University of Toyama, and prepared an environment where students from all faculties can study data science. By doing so, we are working on the goal of local production for local consumption of human resources who can utilize data.
NEC conducted a demonstration of the Strategic Innovation Creation Program (SIP) by the Cabinet Office in Toyama City and Takamatsu City. This demonstration is a demonstration study of cross-sectoral services by linking different systems within a city, including private businesses.
In this demonstration, the tourism MaaS service “Odekake Concierge”, which was demonstrated in Toyama City, was able to be horizontally deployed as it was by unifying the data model and platform for Takamatsu City.
"Odekake Concierge" is a cross-sectoral service by linking different systems in the city, including private businesses. This service aims to increase local consumption by encouraging travelers to take detours to places other than their destination and increase opportunities for excursions. In addition, the data collected by using this service will be used to improve services and be reflected in community development.
NEC's Overseas Activities
Since 2012, NEC has been promoting super city projects in parts of Europe and India. As future focus areas, it will expand to India, ASEAN, and Australia.
Finally, Mr. Hattori said, "We believe that the social implementation of smart cities can be realized by the cooperation of NEC and partner companies. We aim to develop the
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