Tokyo Smart City, Japan largest city, and capital mixes the ultramodern and the traditional in one place. From ultra-modern skyscrapers to historic temples and sculptures, and the most punctual approach of government for future planning.
Smart City Tokyo, Japan
3.007 Smart Points
Tokyo, the city articulated in the Society 5.0 initiatives, installing smart cities in Japan has been one of the priority measures to resolve social and economic issues related to mobility, health, tourism, energy, environment, finance, Tokyo metropolitan government services, etc. Recently, the Japanese diet passed the Digital Procedure Law to accelerate the digitalization of administrative procedures of governments, which is expected to serve as an important basis for promoting smart cities.
Smart City Institute Japan (SCI-J) is a not-for-profit organization established in September 2019 by Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. and Nikkei Inc. SCI-J aims to provide a membership program for public, private, and social sector organizations engaged in the development of smart cities in Japan.
Safe City - Diverse City - Tokyo Smart City
SCI-J will conduct an in-depth qualitative research report on the world’s leading smart cities through close collaboration with major universities and research institutions around the globe. Based on the research, SCI-J will organize seminars, symposiums, and business tours for members, and support members to build the knowledge base necessary to design and implement smart cities.
To promote best practices of smart cities and encourage further enrichment of new smart city ideas, SCI-J will grant annual awards to local governments, companies, startups, not-for-profit organizations, and individuals who significantly contribute to the advancement of smart cities in Japan.
Tokyo smart city projects is a beautiful, safe, and walkable city where roads do not become obstructed even in the event of an earthquake.
Tokyo's last years development in brackets
- Building parks
- Constructing community roads for disaster management and rebuilding roadside buildings for fire resistance
- Creating firebreaks through the construction of designated routes for improvement
- Rebuilding houses to be fire-resistant
- Creating a city that does not collapse or burn
- Seismic resistance of houses
- Fire resistance of districts with close-set wooden houses (in development districts)
- Fire-resistant ratio 61% → 70%
Advance urban development to build an earthquake resilient city
- In order to advance the seismic resistance of houses, expand support to municipalities undertaking efforts to visit every detached house.
- For condominiums, bolster support such as subsidies for earthquake resistance inspection.
- In districts with close-set wooden houses, along with engaging in measures such as developing city-planned roads to serve as firebreaks, also promote the rebuilding of houses to be fire-resistant.
Community development
- Advance initiatives for the revitalization of all of Tama New Town to make it an area where child-raising households and seniors can live with peace of mind.
- Promote the development of the islands by launching ultra-high-speed broadband services to the five villages / six islands.
We will increase the attraction of the Tama area and islands, which are rich with water and greenery. - Diverse City – A “Diverse City” is a city where everyone can lead to vibrant and active lives.
- A city where people can feel secure about having and raising children
- A society where senior citizens can live with peace of mind
- Enhancing healthcare and encouraging healthy living
- A society where the disabled can lead vibrant lives
- Enhancing life-work balance
- Advancing the active role of women in society
- Promoting the employment of senior citizens
- Advancing urban development that incorporates universal design
- Education that expands possibilities for all children
No waitlists for childcare
Children in daycare have increased by 14,192 over the previous year to 261,705 children. Due to growing needs, however, the number of children on waitlists has risen to 8,466 children, an increase of 652 children over the previous year.
We will enhance support for marriage, pregnancy, and parenting to realize a society where parents can have and raise children with peace of mind in their communities, and children can grow up healthy and strong.
- Subsidize the costs of constructing daycare facilities and provide support to companies establishing daycare facilities for employees, among other efforts, to expand the range of daycare options available.
- Provide support aimed at securing and retaining daycare staff such as subsidies for career development.
- Enhance seamless support from pregnancy to childbirth and parenting, and support municipalities working to secure after-school facilities for children.
- Together with wage improvements already in place, we will work to raise the monthly salary of childcare workers by 44,000 yen per person.
A society where senior citizens can live with peace of mind
A comprehensive regional care system to ensure the seamless provision of medical care, long-term care, preventive care, living support, and housing to make it possible for senior citizens to continue living in the familiar surroundings of their communities.
- Promote a range of in-home care services, enhance measures for preventive care, and promote collaboration between medical care and long-term care providers.
- Promote the establishment of facilities and housing to meet the diverse needs of seniors.
- Enhance various forms of support for people with dementia and their families and enable them to continue living in their community with a sense of reassurance.
- Along with working to promote employment in this field, it also supports the improvement of caregiver compensation to secure human resources.
Enhancing healthcare and encouraging healthy living
In addition to building a health care system for a super-aging society, we will encourage lifelong healthy living.
- Promote the differentiation of hospital bed function and cooperation between medical institutions to allow patients to receive care suited to their condition.
- Through strengthened collaboration between medical care and nursing care providers, promote the establishment of an environment to support in-home care.
- In addition to securing a system for emergency medical care better suited to handling the needs of an aging society, strengthen systems for medical relief when a disaster occurs.
- Advance measures targeting lifestyle-related diseases, including support for companies that work to encourage employees to lead healthier lives.
- Promote measures to address secondhand smoke in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
A society where the disabled can lead vibrant lives
Employment of the disabled
Along with preparing an environment that allows people with disabilities to live in communities with a sense of security, we will promote various measures, including those for employment, to enable people with disabilities to lead independent lives.
- Prepare housing and day facilities in communities, as well as enhance support tailored to the characteristics of specific disabilities.
- Provide support for individuals with disabilities to find and stay at their jobs, and also support the efforts of social firms and others.
- Have Tokyo station metropolitan special needs schools provide an education that develops individuality and provides vocational education according to the level of disability.
- Promote understanding about disabilities and efforts to provide reasonable accommodations.
Reasonable accommodations are measures taken to remove barriers for disabled persons, including the use of communication boards to communicate in writing and reading aloud for those who need it at locations such as service counters.
Enhancing life-work balance
Rethinking of work styles to achieve a life-work balance.
- Work with the central government to establish a teleworking promotion center for one-stop services handling consultations from companies and providing information.
- Along with an increasing number of companies taking part in the TOKYO Work-Style Reform Declaration program, hold events to share expertise and other information.
- Hold events that fathers and mothers can participate in together, and spur the participation of men in housework and child-rearing.
Advancing the active role of women in society
We will realize a Tokyo where women can play active roles and demonstrate their abilities throughout society.
Hold events for working women, aiming to provide motivation to continue working and pursue career advancement.
Conduct seminars and events where women can meet and learn from female entrepreneurs, and support women in starting a business.
Hold appealing symposiums supported by the governor herself, which will feature a variety of guests, including leaders in the field of promoting women’s participation in society.
Promoting the employment of senior citizens
Although the number of job seekers aged 65 or over is increasing, due to a mismatch between those wishing to work and the employment needs of companies, some senior citizens are not finding work.
We will offer support to senior citizens, who have diverse employment needs, to allow them to stay active throughout their lives.
- Collaborate with Hello Work (Public Employment Security Office) to hold seminars on topics such as changing careers for senior citizens who are unable to find work due to the mismatch of skills and employment needs, as well as those who find it difficult to take the first step toward looking for employment.
- Use the Silver Human Resources Center to strive to secure employment opportunities for senior citizens and human resources to work in the community in areas such as childcare.
Education that expands possibilities for all children
The educational environment, including the aspect of household finances, provides education tailored to each child’s situation and cultivates global talent.
- Establish and expand the scholarship system to reduce financial burdens associated with sending a child to high schools such as fees for external tests and private school tuition.
- Aim to establish and enhance academic skills through measures such as properly grasping and analyzing the children’s level of understanding and offering after-school study support.
- Cultivate global talent using foreign instructors and introduce extracurricular programs that use English.
basic
Smart City Tokyo
A “Smart City” is a vibrant city that keeps growing, a city open to the world, a city leading the world in environmental policies, and a global financial and economic center. Smart Tokyo is globally open, eco-friendly, and a global financial and economic center.
- Firmly implanting the spirit of mottainai
- The comfortable city where people feel close to nature
- Becoming a global financial city
- Creating innovations and supporting SMEs
- Tokyo: The world’s prime tourist destination
- Promoting the arts and culture
- Building up the land, sea, and air transport network
- Urban development with a diversity of functions
Smart energy city
- Encourage households, buildings, and factories to introduce LED lighting, and set an example by using LED lights at metropolitan facilities.
- Promote eco-houses, energy-saving measures at buildings and factories, and the conversion of metropolitan facilities to zero-energy buildings.
- Conduct research on hydrogen that does not emit CO2 in its production.
Fuel cell car motor scooter- Fuel cell bus
- Home-use fuel cell
Tokyo-Style Food Loss Reduction
Citizens’ lifestyles are sustainable through such measures as reducing food loss as being mottainai (too precious to waste).
- Draw up the “Tokyo-Style Food Loss Reduction,” a set of rules to reduce food loss and waste.
- Make effective use of emergency food stock nearing the end of their recommended consumption period.
- Encourage stores to stop the free distribution of plastic shopping bags, and rethink our disposable lifestyle.
- In Japan, about 6 million tonnes of food that can be eaten safely is disposed of in a year. This is equivalent to one bowl of rice per citizen per day.
Becoming a global financial city
To restore Smart Tokyo to its position as Asia’s No. 1 global financial city, the city promotes bold measures to revitalize the financial industry.
- Accelerate efforts to attract foreign businesses in the fintech, IoT, and similar fields, by helping them draw up business plans and get connected to Japanese firms.
- Promote efforts to create a more comfortable environment for foreign businesses and their employees.
- Issue green bonds and advance environmental policies.
This word is a portmanteau of “finance” and “technology.” There is a movement to change how money flows and create new industries through financial services using innovative technologies.
We will implement measures for the sustainable growth of Tokyo, including technological innovations of SMEs, which are the foundation of the Japanese economy, and encouraging business start-ups.
- Support development projects that connect the excellent ideas of SMEs with technologies (including patented ones) of industry leaders.
- Revitalize businesses by utilizing IoT and other innovative technologies.
- Support startup firms in evolving into global businesses.
- Publicize, at home and abroad, traditional crafts and agricultural
produce harvested in Tokyo, to promote the Tokyo brand.
Long-established family businesses, the spirit of craftsmanship̶even these phrases sound intriguing and fascinating.
Tokyo smart city: The world’s prime tourist destination
The number of foreign travelers to Tokyo has been increasing significantly in recent years. In 2015, the number reached a record of 11.89 million. Through developing and publicizing tourism resources, we will convey Tokyo’s attractions throughout the world and also create an environment where travelers can enjoy sightseeing in comfort.
- Collaborate with other international tourist destinations to publicize each other’s attractions.
- Prepare a comfortable environment for international visitors, such as making signs multilingual and introducing more western-style toilets.
- Publicize tourism resources that attract interest from foreign people, such as anime and manga, as a part of Japanese culture.
Promoting the arts and culture
- Implement a cultural program in all municipalities for the Tokyo 2020 Games
- Make at least five districts, including Ueno, Ikebukuro, and Roppongi, more attractive as centers for the arts and culture
- We will utilize our diverse mix of arts and culture to make our culture-rich districts even more attractive, and, as part of the cultural program for the Smart Tokyo 2020 Games, hold events that allow a broad range of people to take part.
- Hold the TOKYO Caravan, which brings together artists from various genres, in areas throughout Japan, including those affected by major natural disasters.
- Cooperate with local municipalities and private-sector groups for community development efforts in Tokyo that draw on the attractions and strengths of each area.
- Develop new touristic events and attractions like limousine buses to attract more touristic visit in surrounded areas.
- Promotion and support of art museum, imperial palace, tokugawa shogunate, inokashira park, or central Tokyo places during the period of “cherry blossoms”, in late March and beginning of April.
Implementation plan of the main areas of development
Safe City
- Creating an earthquake-resilient city
- Improving disaster preparedness through self-help, mutual assistance, and government support.
- Countermeasures for torrential rain and sediment disasters
- Maintaining and renewing urban infrastructure
- Securing safety and security
- Creating community vitality
- Advancing development of the Tama area and Tokyo islands
Diverse City
- A city where people can feel secure about having and raising children
- A society where senior citizens can live with peace of mind
- A city with a substantial healthcare system where people can lead healthy lives
- A society where the disabled can lead vibrant lives
- A city where all can actively participate in society
- A city where all can sense kindness
- Cultivating talent for the future
- A society where sports is accessible to all
Smart City
- A smart energy city
- Creating a pleasant urban environment
- Creating and preserving a rich natural environment
- A global financial and economic center
- Creating a transportation and logistics network
- Urban planning that concentrates various functions
- An international city and tourist destination open to the world
- Promoting the arts and culture
Steady implementation through
A system to formulate plans (Plan), implement policies and programs (Do), manage progress and evaluate programs (Check), and improve and review programs (Act)—the PDCA cycle—was incorporated into the plan from the formulation stage.
- Concrete four-year work schedules drawn up for each policy initiative
- The plan builds on the approx. 360 policy targets of the Long-Term Vision for Tokyo, raising the number of targets to approx. 500
- Proper management of progress through implementation of the PDCA cycle Steady advancement of each polic
The direction of Tokyo’s growth strategy
Tokyo, the engine that drives Japan’s growth, will fully leverage its strengths, including its concentration of people, goods, money, and information, and the high technology of its small and medium-sized enterprises, to continue supporting the sustainable growth of our entire country.
The aggressive and bold strategy is needed to seize upon the success of the Tokyo 2020 Games as a golden opportunity for the dramatic development of not only Tokyo, but also the entire nation, and for sustainable growth beyond 2020.
The FIRST strategy consists of five strategies Tokyo will employ to achieve the goals of the four challenges. With the first letter of each strategy spelling out FIRST, the plan presents the direction to be taken to make Tokyo “No. 1 (first) in the world” and “the first to take on challenges to create growth for the country.”
Innovation – Generating innovations with new technologies and new ideas
Rise – Improving strengths for greater dynamism
Success – A city where everyone can play an active role
Technology – Accelerating growth with cutting‐edge technologies
Finance – Becoming a global financial center
- Advance international business projects that use the National Strategic Special Zone system
- Improve the business and living environment for foreign nationals through the special zone system and other means
- Provide support for companies entering growth industries and nurture global ventures
- Make tourism a leading industry
- Enhance the land, sea, and air transportation infrastructure
- Advance urban renewal to help strengthen Tokyo’s international competitiveness
- Capture demand from overseas and promote the appeal of Tokyo’s industries
- Reform of work styles promotion
- Participation of women in society
- Active participation of the elderly and impaired in society
- Cultivate globally competent talent
- Promote education that nurtures the ability to create new value
- Take steps to address the 4th industrial revolution
- Become a leading eco-friendly city
- Make the Tokyo 2020 Games a showcase for cutting-edge technology
Beyond 2020—Toward Tokyo’s Future
In recent years, technology has made rapid advances in areas such as automated driving and artificial intelligence (AI), and it is said that such advances are set to transform people’s lives in the near future.
It is projected that after peaking in 2025, Tokyo’s population will begin to decline and the graying of the population will advance rapidly. For the ongoing sustainable growth of Tokyo, sharp insight into what lies ahead and readiness to also respond to rapid social changes are needed.
Looking further ahead to beyond 2020, this plan shows a glimpse of Tokyo’s bright future through technological advances, a transformation of mindsets, and other aspects. Action Plan (2017–2020)
- Safe City
- Diverse City
- Smart City
Sustainable growth – New Tokyo vision – by using the Tokyo 2020 Games as a springboard for
- lifestyles and work styles
- urban development and the environment
- healthcare, welfare, and education
- industry and tourism
A vision for Tokyo’s future - In the morning
Time in the morning is spent with family. Many people telework now and only go to the office a few days a week.
- Rush hour trains have become a thing of the past. Time on the train can now be spent more comfortably.
- People can change companies and careers when they wish. Half of the management and executive positions are filled by women. Many talented foreign nationals are now found at companies in Japan, and many Japanese people are working around the world.
- Spend a relaxing time with your pet cat before going to bed. Through the latest technology, people now know how animals feel. An idea comes to you just before falling asleep. Don’t worry. You can confirm that idea when you wake up the next day with your automatic memory device.
A vision for Tokyo’s future - Shape of the city
Automated vehicle technology has progressed, eliminating traffic congestion and accidents.
- The legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Games lives on throughout the city in the form of centers for sports and universal design.
- Utility poles and the many power lines have disappeared from view to reveal a beautiful blue sky over Tokyo.
- Next-generation energy systems and sustainable lifestyles
- The word “garbage” is now obsolete. Everything is reused and recycled for a complete recycling society.
- Smart house systems, which control energy use throughout an entire building, are used in all households in Tokyo, reducing home utility bills to zero.
A vision for Tokyo’s future
- Extending healthy life expectancy
Through drug development and advances in medical care, including regenerative medicine, conditions previously difficult to treat are now treatable and less suffering is experienced due to illnesses or symptoms associated with aging.
Image courtesy of Department of Surgery, Division of Gastroenterological and hepato-biliary Surgery, and Organ Transplantation, University of Tsukuba
Making Tokyo the world’s most business-friendly city
- Efforts were taken in the past to attract foreign companies to Tokyo using the special zone system. But Tokyo now dominates the No. 1 spot in global city rankings as a livable city overall for foreign nationals as well.
- A city that captivates people around the world
- Tokyo is now one of the world’s top tourism destinations, in the same class as London, Paris, and New York. With its refined traditional culture, cuisine, and service, Tokyo is a city that everyone wants to visit.
Making Tokyo the tourist attractive city
Tokyo smart city projects examples of projects that have already been completed and are planned in the near future
There are several smart city projects that have been completed or are planned for Tokyo. Here are some examples:
Completed Tokyo Smart City Projects:
Otemachi 1st Square: This is a large-scale urban development project that integrates smart technologies, such as energy-efficient lighting and building management systems, with sustainable design principles. The project includes a mixed-use complex with office space, a hotel, and retail shops.
Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City: This is a residential development located in the city of Kashiwa, in the northeastern part of the Tokyo metropolitan area. The project integrates smart technologies, such as smart grid systems, with sustainable design principles to create a highly livable and environmentally friendly community.
Tokyo Skytree: This is a 634-meter tower located in the Sumida district of Tokyo. The tower incorporates several smart technologies, such as an energy-efficient lighting system and a high-speed elevator system.
Planned Projects:
Tokyo Waterfront City: This is a large-scale urban development project planned for the waterfront area of Tokyo Bay. The project will include several smart technologies, such as a smart grid system and a waste-to-energy plant, to create a highly sustainable and livable community.
Tokyo Olympics 2021: The Tokyo Olympics will feature several smart technologies, such as a facial recognition system for security and a digital ticketing system for events.
Shibuya Smart City: The Shibuya district of Tokyo is planning a comprehensive smart city project that will incorporate several smart technologies, such as an energy-efficient lighting system, smart transportation systems, and a waste-to-energy plant, to create a highly sustainable and livable community.
