Study Group on the Ideal of a Digital Transportation Society (1st)

Overview

• Date and Time: Wednesday, April 13, 2022 from 10:00 to 12:00

• Location: Online

• Agenda:

1. Opening
2. How to proceed with this study group
3. Presentation, Discussion
   "Resident-Oriented Roads' Asset Utilization' - Digital and Real Fusion -" Institute of International Economics Dear Miyashiro
   "Town development using NAVYA ARMA in Sakaimachi, Ibaraki" Mr. Hashimoto, Mayor of Sakaimachi, Ibaraki
4. Adjournment

Conference Video

The conference is available on YouTube (Digital Agency official channel).

Materials

• Handout 1 Agenda (PDF/298KB)

• Document 2: List of members (PDF / 350 kb)

• Exhibit 3: Establishment of the Study Group on the Ideal of the Digital Transportation Society (PDF / 888 kb)

• Handout 4: Digital Mobility (PDF / 2,553 kb)

• Exhibit 5 Key Points for Today's Discussion (PDF / 210 kb)

• Material 6 "Resident-Based Roads' Asset Utilization' - Fusion of Digital and Real -" (Materials announced by Mr. Miyashiro) (PDF / 4,929 kb)

• Exhibit 7: "Town Development Using NAVYAARMA in Sakaimachi, Ibaraki"
  Presentation materials) (PDF/7,171 kb)

• Minutes (PDF/565KB)

Relevant policies

• Mobility

Minutes

Councilor Takijima: , thank you very much for coming. Thank you very much from the morning.

My name is Takishima, and I'm a counselor in charge of mobility in Digital Agency. Nice to meet you.
You can write various things in the Teams chat, so if you have any questions about the proceedings, please write them in the chat. If you have any concerns or interesting points in the presentation, please do not hesitate to write them. Thank you.

First of all, I would like to say a few words from Mr. Murakami, Director-General. Mr. Murakami, nice to meet you.

Mr. Murakami: My name is Murakami .

Whether you are new, haven't seen me in a while, or haven't seen me in a very long time, thank you for coming.

There are two things I would like to ask you.

In the study group this time, the exit is Public-Private ITS Concept and Roadmap, but we would like to make a road map that is calculated backward from the social system, so I would like to ask you to put more and more emphasis on adding high value to space and life.

Public-Private ITS Concept and Roadmap, of course, is more interested in how to advance technology from the technology supply side and how to change systems. Of course, that is very important, but there is a certain amount of history and accumulation, and Digital Agency has properly taken over the accumulation from the time of the IT Office, and as a base, Public-Private ITS Concept and Roadmap will complete the process while listening to the opinions of each ministry. However, Digital Agency has taken over the project this time, so we would like to challenge how much we can recruit from the demand side and the social system side to Public-Private ITS Concept and Roadmap, which seemed to be writing a clean process chart on the supply side.

In that sense, the title was changed to "The Ideal Transportation Society." Even if the exit is Public-Private ITS Concept and Roadmap, I would like to incorporate discussions on actual demand, which will emerge from the side of demand, social systems, and the creation of high-value-added spaces, into the road map. Therefore, I expect strong input from them.

The first point is, I would like to look for a business model for mutual assistance in a good way, which is partly related to my obsession, or rather, to the discussion on Digital Garden City. This does not need to be the main subject of this study group, but I would like you to keep it in the back of your mind.

In other words, a future in which a city with a population of 7 to 80000 has two bus companies and two taxi companies, each of which invests in autonomous vehicles separately, is impossible without saying an ideal in the first place because all of them are waiting for losses. In addition, I am clearly telling the industry that taxis are in trouble. The company is about to collapse. However, it is a family business, and our company does not operate cars after 6 pm. There are so many people who have returned their driver's licenses and are in trouble because they do not have a way to move. There is clearly demand, but the fact that the supplier is about to go bankrupt is clearly a bad way of providing service.

However, with regard to the systems, technologies, and digital base necessary for that purpose, I believe that if no one can make a return even if they take on the challenge, they will have no choice but to change the way they are provided. To put it simply, regarding the basic part of digital, everyone will jointly invest as cooperative areas, and on this basis, each will develop a differentiated service. It has been said for a long time, but in the sense that the time has come to put this into practice, I believe that the time has come to discuss not only the logic but also the specifics of how much cooperative areas will be extracted, who will contribute how much to the extracted cooperative areas, and how to support each other.

Although 80% of what you are thinking is the same, I think there is a growing sense of atmosphere that it is not easy to say yes because there is no way out. So, it is a business model of clean cooperation, and what was launched in cooperative areas can be called a circular or a shared economy. It can be called in any way, but I think it is time to start talking about it and putting it into practice. So, if you can discuss it from the demand-side, the social system side, and the high-value-added side of space, while mixing such perspectives, the roadmap, which is a road map that has been carefully built up mainly on the supply-side, will become even more powerful. In addition, Mr. Takijima, I have asked you to be my best friend. I would like you to accompany me several times with the hope that it will be a fun discussion.

That's all from me. Thank you very much.

Councilor Takijima: , thank you very much.

Then, I would like to ask Mr. Ishida to handle the proceedings from here.
Mr. Ishida, nice to meet you.

Chairman Ishida: .

Since this is my first visit, I believe that all of this is included in Director General Murakami's address, but I would also like to share a few of my own thoughts.

It has expanded greatly in terms of how to take over Public-Private ITS Concept and Roadmap. In a sense, it has expanded from the world of automobiles and roads to the digital transportation society, so I think it is necessary to include various mobility resources, systems, public acceptance, community development, ways of life, and ways of living. I think it is very difficult to create a roadmap that includes such things, but I think it is a very big job that is worthwhile. In that sense, although I am limited in what I can do, I would like to do my best with you. Thank you very much.

At that time, it is important how to share the vision, but I call it "eye on Kotsubone," but if it is only that, it will be far-fetched, so it is very important. We will position ourselves in the vision, and we will do what we can from a small perspective. Therefore, I believe that eye on region and starting point are extremely important. In that sense, I think it is about how to summarize the presentations from the field. In addition to the method of summary and rough plot, I also welcome detailed and small talks that will lead to the practice of the field. I would like to take this opportunity to say a few words.

I would like to start with the agenda. Regarding how to proceed today, I would like to proceed according to the agenda today. Could you please tell us how to proceed with the study group?

Councilor Takijima: .

First of all, I would like to introduce some simple slides that I have prepared as a premise for advancing the discussion in this way.

This is really an introduction, but when we are thinking about various things from the perspective of life, as Murakami said at the beginning, there are various inconveniences in the life of each person. When I think about various personas, I think there are various things such as what to do when going to a supermarket, how to move after returning my license, how to move without stress in a crowded train, the road here always turns red even though there is no traffic, and there are many cars running on the school route, and I am scared because my bicycle, stroller, and wheelchair are in a mess.

Naturally, I was born in 1978, and it was after the bubble economy that I became able to remember, but it has become very convenient. I can search for routes on my smartphone, and I can get to wherever I go right away. I can get on and off at the automatic ticket gate without waiting in line for the ticket vending machine, and I can buy something at the station right away. In that sense, it has become convenient. In addition, safe driving functions have gradually spread. My parents are just over 70 years old, and they are in the generation that thinks about these things. In that sense, I think I am relieved and I have been able to do various convenient things.

In addition, during our discussions this time, I would like to think about making it more convenient together with you. There are various ways to say convenience, and whether or not it is good to say convenience, but it means that various people can enjoy digital technology and live their lives by themselves. Of course, at that time, from a lifestyle perspective, I think the most basic of mobility is walking, and from that point to flying at the end, when flying, not only people fly, but also things fly. As a vision, I would like to include that in the scope as a whole.

As Mr. Murakami stated in the beginning, we will consider the issue from the perspective of people's lives. First of all, we will consider the issue from the perspective of society as a whole, services, and customers. If we discuss the issue in public office, it will end up being what public office will do. So, I would like to discuss not only G to B and G to C, but also what G should do to establish a business model in Murakami's words, so that G to business-to-consumer can be established.

Various positive demonstrations are taking place here and there, so I would like to share two wonderful presentations I asked you to make today from the perspective of how to implementation, realize, and expand these demonstrations.

As the secretariat, rather than doing desk work or writing an essay, we would like to have as many common experiences as possible with you and learn about the implementation. These are the people who are speaking or participating this time, the people who have been talking with us at some point of contact and have come here with the intention of doing so. We would like to create value together while knowing the site or sharing the site with you, and we would like to work on realistic operations in a scalable manner. Thank you very much.

Since everyone is online, if you look at the following reference materials as appropriate, various people have already created the vision we have imagined, so I have attached it for your reference.

That's all from the office.

Chairman Ishida: .

The two of you will make a presentation, and I would like to have a discussion based on your presentation.

I expect that there will be a lot of discussion, and I am anticipating it. I am sorry to say this all of a sudden, but there will be some overtime, and it should not be, but I would appreciate if you could keep in mind in advance that there is a possibility that the discussion will be extended due to the excitement of having lunch quickly. I will do my best so that it does not happen, and I would appreciate your cooperation.

All of the participants can submit their opinions via Teams or chat, or as Mr. Takijima said, you can submit your opinions at any time during the presentation. Thank you very much.

Then, I would like to ask Mr. Miyashiro of the Institute of International Economics to make the first presentation.

Miyashiro Member: Thank you, Thank you very much. I am Miyashiro of the Institute of International Economics.

In terms of fields, the main efforts are being made in mobility and smart cities, but today I am going to talk about trends in Europe and the United States. First of all, I would like to introduce my own interpretation of what is happening in non-Japanese countries and what is behind it. Then, I would like to ask for your cooperation.

This time, I would like to take up roads. Since roads have changed from a fixed infrastructure to a "place," I would like to introduce their trends and aims.

First of all, in terms of road re-design, I would like to introduce what is actually human-centered, and what kind of aim or fundamental idea it has.

A typical example is "Tactical Urbanism," which occurred in the United States. It took five years to renovate Times Square in New York City. We decided to change the road from a car-centered road to a completely pedestrian zone by inviting residents to participate in the change and gradually testing and evaluating how to use the road. Over the course of five years and at a total cost of 55 million dollars, Times Square was changed from a car-centered road to a completely pedestrian zone. One approach is to create data on whether the road would interfere with the flow of cars and how the flow of people would be, to evaluate the road while visualization it, and to remove such obstacles.

Another example is Europe. In a sense, it is a similar movement. The "Superblocks" that occurred in Spain, a representative example is Barcelona. For example, part of the space on the road is closed to traffic, or it is turned into a playground as shown in the picture, or it is greened. What is important is whether the road can be used not only as a place for traffic but also as a public space. Keywords such as biodiversity and greening have emerged, and keywords such as community revitalization have emerged. I think the main point is that it has become possible to widely consider how the road will be involved in the activities of residents when the human-centered is the resident-centered.

In this context, the idea of a "15-minute city," which is said to be a representative example in Paris, came up as a close idea in a sense. Here, too, not only the way people travel and how to use buildings, but also the idea of how people interact in the living area, including community activity spaces, as shown in the lower right corner, is quite common. I feel that this is the core of a kind of resident-centered idea.

In France, as a representative example, there has been a recent movement to take back the Champs-Elysees Boulevard into the hands of the residents. The concept has already been announced in the form shown in this picture. I believe that construction has already begun, but the important thing is the next slide.

I thought it was important to me, so I listed and summarized the KPIs in the materials I presented. The letters are small and difficult to read, but on the left side are sustainability, what will happen to the ecosystem, and what will happen to carbon neutrality. In the middle is sustainability, which is centered on factors that hinder what we should be and comfort improvement. On the far right side is inclusive, which means that no one will be left behind. There are social and economic elements here, and when we change the Champs-Elysées Boulevard, for example, how many and where to place benches for comfort improvement, and among economic elements, leisure and free, for example, rental of sports equipment, and cultural activities, etc., are written in detail.

This is what I am aiming for. This is my own interpretation, but I am trying to make a visualization other than this KPI to determine whether residents will really use it, what will happen to the streets, and what will happen to the liveliness. Digital and data are absolutely necessary as a means of visualization change, and I think there are usually various ways to do it, but by combining them, I feel that the combination of digital, in the form of real movements, evaluation, and follow-up of change, is quite common, especially in large cities in Europe and the United States, and is becoming a way of thinking centered on residents. This is my introduction to how to view urban design and Re-design.

Furthermore, I would like to introduce one movement that is advancing this way of thinking. The question here is an example of who owns the road and who owns the residents.

As many of you know, there is a Swedish project called "One Minute City" that is asking what human-centered and resident-centered is. In a sense, this project is being carried out by the government of Kimoiri, and it is said that cities have changed from acceleration and expansion. In the era of deceleration, roads will become places that actually create biological and social diversity, rather than giving priority to automobile traffic. This is the basic understanding. Then, we are trying to allow diversity in roads. We are trying to give top priority to the intention of the residents who live in front of the road how they want to use it. We are experimenting with the idea of resident participation and resident protection.

Originally, as shown in the enclosure on the left, there was a concept proposal in 2019, and it started in September 2020, but it has already spread to many cities in Sweden.

One key point is that we provide a variety of wood materials. A practical example is on the next slide.

As you can see in these photos, for example, there is a bench on the road in front of our house, and we put our train rack and electric kick scooter rack behind it. The lower left is in front of the elementary school, and elementary school students said they wanted to play in front of the road and play in front of the school, so we stopped the car and painted it like this to make a play area.

Actually, what is important here is digitalization. I haven't heard that you are digitizing and following it, but I am using something that is easier to understand. What it is is wood. A wooden chair will deteriorate more and more if you don't maintain it yourself. It will get dirty. Keeping it clean shows the commitment of the residents. Of course, the residents have a responsibility to start talking about it, but one idea is to use wood materials for visualization. Personally, I think it contains relatively digital ideas, and I love such ideas.

I would like to change the perspective a little. Next, there are naturally moves to change the way we use roads in various ways on the policy front. I would like to introduce one example of this.

This time, I would like to introduce a movement called "Low Speed Zone." Based on the same idea, for example, in the United States, there is a movement called "Complete Street." In the COVID-19 pandemic, there are "Slow Street" and "Healthy Street." We are trying to restrict traffic and restore human movement. What is interesting about this "Low Speed Zone" is that it originally started with the idea of reducing the number of people killed in traffic accidents and the number of seriously ill people. The concept at that time is the inverted pyramid on the lower left, and the weakest people are pedestrians. Therefore, it should be considered the most important. Bicycles and scooters are also stronger than pedestrians. We should define that the strongest people are single-seater cars, and we should reconstruct roads in a way that adheres to this idea.

At that time, it is not only to reduce accidents, but also to revitalize people's activities, improve their QOL, and increase the liveliness, which is good for the economy. This is the aim of the initiative to renew design.

As for the establishment of the "Low Speed Zone," I would like to briefly touch on it because it is detailed. The target education will be clarified, the realization targets will be determined within it, and of course, financial plans will be made. In this process, not only the government and residents, but also local organizations, if there is a school, will be involved. For example, if planting is to be done, planting businesses will participate, and if decorating is to be done, decorating businesses will also participate. This is a broader and more flexible approach than in Japan, and the chart in small letters on the right summarizes what kind of zone and how many kilometers of speed should be used. This is a useful reference.

As an idea, the actual traveling speed of vehicles in a city, which is called the effective speed, is, for example, in Tokyo, the effective speed of Toei buses is a little more than 20 kilometers. If that is the case, there is an idea that it is okay if there is no traffic jam in a 20-kilometer zone.

The next slide is the one that has actually realized this in the midst of the novel coronavirus in a close form now.

Since May 2020, after the Corona lockdown, Brussels has tried to limit the speed of 20 kilometers per hour in about one square kilometer of Brussels. In short, I said that I would do it as a pilot. What is unique is that I coexist with pedestrians and vehicles. I have tried to limit the speed of 20 kilometers, coexist with pedestrians and vehicles, give priority to pedestrians, and give priority to bicycles. It started in May 2020, but it has been extended about three times, and I am still doing it. I am still doing it as a pilot. Because it has such an effect, in fact, there are many cases where coexistence of pedestrians and vehicles is dangerous, but if you look at Brussels and other places, I think that it has a certain effect and that the results are highly satisfactory.

In response to this, as shown in the next slide, if we further limit the entire city to 30 kilometers, it will become a "Low Speed Zone" city, which will become a "Zone 30."

The photo on the right shows the center of the town. In the past, the street was like an open space in a sense, but now it has changed into a street that is easy for people to walk on, and the result is that it is becoming very busy.

In realizing such policies, digital power is important, although I will not introduce it this time. To get back to what I said about the "Low Speed Zone," digital power is necessary to ensure the 30-kilometer limit. If you try to limit the 30-kilometer limit digitally, you can firmly implement it. I will introduce one example of how digital is used.

As a link between the government and area, as many of you know, I would like to introduce a technology called Remix by Via.

This is a kind of data dashboard, a box. If you put various data you have in this box, you can make various combinations and play with it. Basically, it is such a tool.

What is interesting is that, as mentioned in the special note, for example, it is possible to create data that there are many children with asthma along this road. If there is data, it can be incorporated. Then, it will be possible to think about what to do about it. So far, I have talked about the fact that data is definitely effective for following changes and results, but in fact, it is positioned as an effective tool for planning.

In fact, it is said that about 3,000 types of boxes can be imported. In a sense, it depends on the statistics of the local government and the business operator, but various studies are underway, such as those described here. I don't have time, so I will skip the details.

One is that it can be analyzed quite a lot. It is easy, but it can be analyzed clearly to a certain extent. For example, if you change a car lane to a pedestrian lane, what will happen? Rather than a simulation, what will it look like and how it will affect will be discussed.

When discussing among related parties, this is a dashboard that is easy to involve residents, and we are very particular about UI and UX. Residents are positioned as users, but we have a design that is particular about UX and visualization's technology.

By using this tool and involving the residents, it will be easier to see each other's faces and to have a dialogue based on trust. This is the merit of this tool. I think this idea will be one of the points in this discussion when deciding where digitalization is heading.

This is actually happening in several cities right now, and it is a massive movement in New York.

We're using Remix's technology at a time when New York City is trying to make 25 percent of its streets non-motorized by twenty twenty-five.

We will actually show a design in which a pedestrian space is created by simplifying a street with a large number of cars, which seems to be very crowded, and by greening. Based on this, we will start a dialogue with residents.

Of course, in terms of design, it is possible to move to school zones, lower areas where, for example, many people have asthma, biological low-lying wetlands, and diversity.

Although the Bronx is unique, it is a area where garbage is scattered, so it is possible to put a separate garbage container in an on-street parking space.

This is a rather royal change.

Finally, I would like to briefly introduce the movement toward data standardization.

There is a organization in the U.S. called the Open Mobility Foundation, and it also includes organizations from around the world. It is said that there are about 40 cities in it.

In terms of automobile manufacturers, Ford is included. In addition, there are companies such as POPULUS, a software company that handles data, and Automotiveus, a company that performs digital enforcement.

The purpose of this organization is to expand the Mobility Data Specification (MDS), which was originally published by mobility to share the standard data of micro areas such as electric kick scooter with the government.

Next, we focused on the curbside, that is, the shoulder. The shoulder is now used very often for getting on and off people and loading and unloading things, so let's use the shoulder as a road touchpoint for visualization. How to handle it, a standard type proposal was made.

The conceptual diagram is like this, but we are saying that we should create a standard form of shoulder usage, reservations and payment with the cooperation of the government and business operators, and we are evaluating startups that are already moving in various ways, including whether they are consistent or inconsistent.

I would like to introduce here the parts where co-creation and cooperation become clearer by such standardization, and the effects of clearing the needs of what is truly necessary.

That's all.

Chairman Ishida: . You have reported the latest overseas cases.

I would like to ask you to actively discuss this issue from now on. I would like to hear your active opinions based on the points in Handout 5, such as whether there is any discrepancy, where it is, and why things are not going well in the Japanese Ukami.

I would like to say a few words. In a chat between Mr. Takishima and Mr. Murakami, they said that roads and information and data are very similar. In relation to Mr. Miyashiro, as far as I know, the first move by residents to use road space as they please was in the nineteen seventy of the year, when the Dutch word "bonelf," which translates to "garden of life," began. Residents who were tired of passing traffic placed flower pots on their own and started to make it impossible for cars to pass or speed up. I think it was not just a matter of doing it on their own, but also a matter of taking responsibility for the maintenance and management of flower pots, such as taking care of them properly and moving them away when an ambulance came. Therefore, I think it is a big problem in terms of who makes them, who receives the benefits, and who pays for them.

First of all, I asked Mr. Nagumo to raise his hand, so please.

Member of Nagumo: Thank you, .

I was listening to Mr. Miyashiro now, nodding that it was exactly like that. Thank you very much. I'm also looking overseas, so I have exactly the same feeling.

If I were to add a few things that I know, I would say that there are three things that are happening.

One is that we have come to think about the ecology of cities. We use the term metabolism, and there is an ecosystem and an ecology agency in Barcelona. The perspective that human beings live in a boundary surrounded by the natural environment has become very important in determining the size of a city. The concept that it is not enough to scroll and grow, has become quite strong, and I think one of the things is that everyone goes to such a place, starting with Barcelona.

Another point is that motorization was longed for for a period of time and has been running around the world, but now it has become a "15 Minutes City" or a "Walkable City." I think it is often said that it is a return to the human scale. In other words, considering the ease of living of individual humans and organisms, flying at speed over a long distance is a mass transportation in mobility, but if you don't have something that isn't, everyone is returning to a place where the balance is bad. This is the debate centered on smart cities, and it is the debate that has been established in Europe today in a way that fuses community design and town development well.

The walled city, which was originally of such a size, has become a commons that forms a community, and I think that the ease of living there comes down to walking.

Another is that the concept of the circular economy, which is similar to the first metabolism and ecosystem, has grown considerably mainly in Europe. The concept that a town is not sustainable without a unit of circulation has grown considerably, rather than importing raw materials from far away, manufacturing them somewhere far away, transporting them to consumption areas, and transporting garbage somewhere. In this sense, I think the image of the town has changed a little.

Finally, one point, the concept of the three overlapping well has appeared, so if you don't mind sharing the screen now, I would like to show you one slide.

As many of you may know, this concept has grown especially in the context of the novel coronavirus, called Restorative Cities. When you go to a town, you wear a tie, get on a train, go in combat mode, feel stressed, and come home tired. This is not the case when you go from a commuter town to the center of Tokyo, but on the contrary, when you go to a town, you feel more energetic. The term Restorative is used to mean healing, vigor, and recovery. I think this is becoming a final concept that dilutes the green base, human scale, and circular.

There are seven concepts, green, blue, and appealing to the five senses. Neighborly, this is exactly the sense of Walkable or 15 Minutes. Active, as Mr. Miyashiro mentioned in his materials, is a town with a sense of scale, with a community in which citizens participate, culture and moisture, and Inclusive.

The concept of a decentralized Japanese society will be created in the future, but I believe that the concept of well-being will also become a form of Donpishari, and I have shared it for your reference that it would be good to summarize several concepts in this way.

Chairman Ishida: .

Next, Mr. Momota, could you please?

Member: , thank you for the detailed case study introduction as usual.

It is a contrast between Japan and other countries, so I think the current story will show the actual situation in Japan well on the contrary. I have been traveling around Europe and the United States at Japan-U. S. bases since the 80s, so I can understand it with a sense of touch.

On top of that, I think the presentation was mainly about urban areas, but the reasons are the lack of security, the dirtiness of the town, and sanitation. For example, in the 80s, Times Square, the streets around 30 to 45 were not places where women and children could go at all, and in the center of Detroit, Michigan, the center of Los Angeles, California, we have seen changes over the past few decades.

I don't know how to say it, but in the sense that life could not be maintained, I think it was a kind of marginal village. Therefore, my sense of context is that greening and the separation of pedestrians and vehicles advanced on a zero basis.

The most recent is ESG investment. The impact of investment that takes into account not only traditional financial information but also environmental and social governance is significant in Europe, particularly in urban development.

On the other hand, the insecurity in Japanese cities has been gradually improving since the 1975 s, and the development of area has been progressing step by step, so it is difficult for residents to feel that there will be further major changes in the future. It is okay if there is none, but it is good if it will be more beautiful. In short, I feel that the main people of Japan are in a somewhat blessed environment everywhere.

On the other hand, the reality in local cities is the same as that in urban areas. Even if there are more shutter-type shopping districts, there are more commercial facilities such as AEON malls on major national highways, and there are many convenience stores. I realize that there are very few people who feel that the convenience is bad if they can move by car.

Lastly, discussions on MaaS have tended to be centered on public transportation's approach to vulnerable road users, such as the elderly and children. If we take a bird' s-eye view of local areas, I think the biggest point is that discussions have to be concentrated within each city, town, and village, even though the life sphere of residents actually extends across municipalities and prefectures by passenger car travel. Wide-area cooperation will also be held at the Eiheiji-cho MaaS Conference, which I am coordinating, and even if the person in charge is OK, at the executive level, there are historical backgrounds and so on, so to speak, it will be a very human story, whether they are close or not. Therefore, to be frank, I will look around the country, but the discussion on MaaS is not serious. This is because those who hesitate to do so because it will be a considerable effort to change society, or those who think that they do not need to change if they do so to that extent, as Mr. Murakami mentioned in his opening remarks about taxi companies, in any case, I think that they need to be prepared to change society on whatever basis they consider it.

In the Japanese case, it is not just regulation mitigation, but on the contrary, some kind of regulation will be implemented, or society will be changed to the extent that the year and content of implementation are decided. Otherwise, I am somehow blessed now, so in various ways, I think Mr. Miyashiro's various points will be a good reference to compare Japanese things.

Chairman Ishida: , please.

MURASE Member: We also long for Barcelona, which was mentioned in the previous story, and we envision a world like this, with a comic book reflected in the background today.
This is similar to the previous opinion, but in the end, mutual assistance means that we can only do it within the range where we can see each other's faces. We think that we can't do mutual assistance in many and unspecified places. If we do it with people who can see each other's faces, we can bear the cost. It is the same as doing the road with wood. In the end, it will be a burden, but if we think about the benefits, we can do it with people who can see each other's faces, but if we have a relationship with an unspecified number of people who cannot see each other's faces, we can only think about it in a zero sum way, focusing on cost.

However, in Japan, when I was a child, I used to play on the road in front of my house and let my child eat at the next house. I think that kind of mutual assistance is suitable for Japan.

Second, simulation. We also show a simulation of crowds to residents, and we talk about doing it because it will be effective. When we show the results, we measure the location data of mobile phones and the number of people on the street by facial recognition, and even if the number of people on the street increases, we are always asked whether it is because of the economy. We need proof that the money really went around in digital currency or something. It is fine when we do a simulation, but it is very difficult to show the result that the economy was revitalized when we did something at the end.

Third, I would like to talk about the circular economy. To be honest, Japan is at a great disadvantage in terms of renewable energy. There are limits to where solar power can be installed in Japan, and although there is offshore wind power, it requires maintenance. As you know, capital and maintenance costs are high, and we intuitively know that renewal energy is high, so I think it is difficult at the present time to appeal to the people in the town.

Fourth, open data is a problem. As you saw in the United States earlier, we are doing VtoX in the United States. Only a few OEMs will provide data. In the end, the data on cars is not available. On the other hand, China is doing the same thing, but in the case of China, the state is forced to collect data on EVs, so we can use it. I think there is also a problem of access to data.

When I compared Japan with other countries, I felt that this is what we are doing in Japan, so I talked about this before sharing information.

.

Chairman Ishida: .

Mr. Miyashiro is raising his hand. Please.

Miyashiro Member: Thank you, Thank you for your various comments.

In fact, in Shobara, Hiroshima, a town with a population of 30000 and a declining population, I am working with Mr. Kanda of the Kure National College of Technology to help bring about change in the microscopic world. It is close to what Mr. Momota said, but there is one thing in common with the movements in large cities introduced in Europe and the United States.

I think the point is that there is a movement in big cities to focus on very micro parts, such as some streets and some districts, and to improve them first. If you divide the unit into small units, it will be easier to find common points even in rural towns and urban areas, and it will be easier to learn from Europe and the United States. As long as I consider Barcelona as a unit, it is difficult to find business, but I feel that it has become easier to connect stories from this district in Barcelona with such ideas. I would like to add that this is actually where I put it.

.

Chairman Ishida: .

I would like to take the floor once again.

One of the major differences between Japan and Europe and the United States is the decisive difference in the way towns are formed. In terms of roads in particular, unless a European town is an ancient settlement surrounded by a central castle wall, the road area ratio is quite high. In contrast, Japanese towns have poor roads to begin with. Therefore, I think it is quite difficult to take the European model as it is.

The road area density is low, but the road extension density is high in Japanese towns. In short, there are many roads like narrow alleys. It depends on our housing situation. How to make use of such characteristics, and how to create a form in which children can play with peace of mind and communities can be active. Therefore, I think that visualization with the power of digital technology, such as Remix, will be an extremely important tool. If we do not consider such a thing, Barcelona and New York City are good, but the how something is done of towns and roads is quite different, so I think that is an extremely important perspective.

Miyashiro-san, please.

Miyashiro Member: Thank you, digitalization will bring, when you look at various Issue, for example, when elderly people want to move now or how far they want to move, I think what is important is whether there are options. When there is only one option, whether you can be patient, compromise, or satisfied.

In the case I introduced this time, in a sense, it is important to give people a choice while giving them a choice, and it is very important for residents and wood tools to be able to choose from a variety of patterns. I feel that one of the aims of digital technology is to expand the range of choices and to be able to choose various options in any town.

Since I am from an automobile company, I would like to say a few words in relation to that option. If you do something like "Zone 30," even if it is not a fully electric car, plug-in hybrids are fully electric in that zone. Now, I may be in a bridging state, but there is a possibility that the number of options for tools can be increased in a sense, and I would like to add that I have recalled while listening to your discussions that the idea of expanding the range of options by combining them with policies is relatively effective.

Chairman Ishida: .

Next, Mr. Koda, please.

Koda Member: Nice to meet you.

This is the Koda of AsMama, which is engaged in community development by relying on each area nationwide.

Based on examples from other countries, I believe that the Issue varies greatly from area to Issue, particularly between cities and regions. With regard to area, I believe that the vision of digitalization to solve the problem of Issue and its needs, and the explanation of the reasons for the lack of convincing persuasion using digital data, have led to the fact that the residents of digitalization have always been left behind and, DX, and other such projects have been implemented in advance.

I feel that the biggest difference between Japan and other countries is that when we make a policy in the future, we don't start by saying that we are going to do this, but why is it necessary to solve this problem? If we solve this problem, how will our lives and our Issue change? Just as a lot of data is being released during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital data is being properly sent out to residents in each area, and we don't see the process of how each area's Issue is solving this problem.

Chairman Ishida: .

I think you are right, and I think it is related, but there was a tragic accident of an elementary school student, and the second safety full investigation on the school route throughout Japan was completed. But the way they are doing it is that they are walking, and it is good that discussions and observations are shared in accordance with the actual situation, but it is not shared properly at the upper level. Even if it is digital, I think it is fine to take a picture and attach it to a map, but such a thing is not being done.

I think it is a very important issue how to put those things into practice. In that case, I personally would like to see the safety of children and the issues of the elderly included. I feel that I will be able to make a specific proposal to that end. Thank you very much.

Mr. Ishimaru, please.

Ishimaru Member: I am Ishimaru of the area Strategic Promotion Council.

I believe that the members of the committee have talked about how to create a children's playground on the road. In fact, in the town where I am involved, rather than starting from what to do with traffic and roads, the residents of the Issue where children cannot play outside, and the people who are playing outside and the people who are not playing outside have an impact on their health and growth, and they talked about how to solve this. I would like to encourage children to play outside as much as possible, but due to the sense of area's Issue that people cannot play outside casually because of the lack of parks and the distance from elementary schools, I would like to secure such a place by conducting a questionnaire survey of area residents and elementary school students and collecting various data to confirm various evidence such as "I want to play outside, but I don't have a place to play" and "I want to play if there is such a place."

Among them, there are places that are used for transit traffic and small passages in city blocks. While managing various rules, including how to visualization places that can be used and how to eliminate roads if they are city roads, we are creating spaces. We are creating them from the perspective of residents while doing traffic control. In area, there are talks like this, but when the issues are settled to a certain extent, it first comes out that there are too many stakeholders. Even if there is a certain agreement as residents, there are talks about whether the jurisdiction is different, whether it is the prefecture, the city, or the police, and from there to the next step, there is an issue of how to create a mechanism that can be carried out at once. It is also from the perspective of suppliers or the policy side, but surprisingly, there are many places where the needs of residents are expressed in roads and transportation, so I made a comment that how to think about how to capture this can be one of the issues this time.

Chairman Ishida: .

If I were to make a statement, I would say that playing outside is really important. Or, it would mean that various communities will be established outside and that people will be able to see each other's faces. In Europe, we have been talking about various things such as Bonelf. Now, there are shared spaces, and there are many of them in the continent and the United Kingdom. We say that we want to be a place where children can play, but unfortunately, I have never seen children playing. Even in Europe, where we have been working on this for such a long time, the safety of children is not only an accident but also a crime, but I think it is a difficult problem, and I think it is necessary to make it right.

I would like to talk about the law, but I think there is a big problem that excludes such things. I am also the chairman of the Road Division of the Council for Infrastructure Development, so I am an expert on roads in a sense. Now, there is a law called the Road Act, and unless it is properly established, all sidewalks are sidewalks, and all roadsides are roadways, unless it is established that they are roadways. The roads in the alleys around there are also roadways. I honestly think that it is a little strange, but it seems that there are many obstacles.

As for the maximum speed in such places, the legal speed of 60 kilometers is overwhelmingly applied. No one wants to pass through such a road at 60 kilometers, but there are people who pass through it once in a while, but we cannot prosecute them for dangerous driving. Even if they are driving at 70 kilometers, they are only 10 kilometers over the limit. Including such things, the safety of children or the speed regulation is related to the square of the speed, which is the square of the kinetic energy of 1 / 2 MV, so I think it is overwhelmingly important from the perspective of energy consumption and energy saving, so I think I can think of something about that.

Then Kawabata-san, please.

Kawabata Member: Thank you, .

As I put it in the chat, I believe there were many comments from some members, especially Mr. Momota. The penetration of public awareness, or democracy, is particularly high in North America and Europe, and when we refer to the resident-generated type very strongly, the one that is doing quite well is the resident-participatory type, but the penetration of democracy is different there, and as I believe Mr. Ishida has just mentioned, the roles of roads in urban design are different, so I think it is very necessary to reintroduce design in a way that matches the Japanese.

Looking at the results of overseas cases, I didn't say that it was wonderful. Instead, I thought that if Japan were to be structured in such a way that the parts that can match Japan would be structured in such a way that there would be parts that Japan lacks, so I thought it would be good if I could do one such study group.

In addition, there is also the position that digital technology must be promoted, so I don't think there has been any effort made to convey the benefits of digital technology to residents in a way that is visible to them. Digital technology has good points, but in the form of a magic wand, when I receive inquiries from local local government, I get the conclusion that the problem will be solved if MaaS is introduced, and there are many stories that I want to include. However, I think we must first communicate properly before we communicate the benefits of digital technology to residents. After that, we must make sure that the interface is properly design, but I think we must convey to many local local government and others that we want them to understand that digital technology has only two good points and is not a magic wand.

One is simply sharing and accelerating experiences. Digital is overwhelmingly strong in that regard. I think it means that people can tell that it was good. Of course, they can tell that it was bad, and I don't think the Issue on the school route that I mentioned earlier has been digitalization, but as soon as digitalization is made, many people see it. Moreover, it is strong that it creates empathy.

Another reason why we can provide feedback to the platform is that we can sort out a lot of data and return the information to improve the platform. Understanding these two points, however, the concept of a good city for residents and the basic idea of digitalization will probably not change even if design is built, so I thought it would be important to confirm the order of creating a digital platform for a city optimized for digitalization.

Chairman Ishida: .

We had an enthusiastic and in-depth discussion. Based on Mr. Miyashiro's overseas examples from various perspectives, he said that it is important to talk about actual real spaces. He also agreed that digital is very important for how to share and digitalization data.

As I said, the discussions were based on Japanese characteristics, and various things actually happened in various places. As an example, I mentioned safe full investigation on school routes. I received many comments on what is being discussed in European city planning and city policy from a broader perspective. Thank you very much.

It is a very deep and big issue, and we cannot summarize it right now. Some people said that we should properly discuss our output and big vision. So, I and the Secretariat would like to summarize it.

I have limited time today, so if you have any opinions or ideas, I would like to ask you to send them to the secretariat.

So, I would like to stop the discussion associated with Mr. Miyashiro's presentation and move on to the next presentation. I would like to ask Mayor Hashimoto of Sakaimachi, Ibaraki prefecture to make a presentation. Thank you very much.

Member: Thank you, Best regards

Mr. Takijima asked me to join him as a voice from the field, so I joined him. Thank you very much for inviting an amateur like me to this place.

I would like to ask a few questions about the boundaries of cities, towns, and villages that Mr. Momoda mentioned in Mr. Miyashiro's talk earlier, as well as various overseas cases. In addition, since we have built six facilities for Mr. Kengo Kuma in the past three years, Mr. Kuma has been actively saying that the world is entering an era of deceleration from an era of acceleration and expansion. I understand that, so I would like to ask a few questions.

In the case of Sakaimachi, we actually introduced automated driving vehicles, and I would like to talk about it.

Why did we start automated driving? area is a small town of 24000 people. With the declining population and aging population that every region has, area's public transportation is disappearing, and even taxi companies are disappearing. Issue is a town that can be found in any region.

In fact, Sakaimachi does not have a railway. In the past, it flourished greatly in terms of shipping. As a branch of the Tone and Edo Rivers, trees were cut from Nikko and transported to Edo, and soy sauce was transported from Choshi in Chiba and transported to Edo. It flourished as an important point for shipping. For this reason, for example, there is the JR Tohoku Line that goes to Utsunomiya. It actually went as far as Akagi, but the shipping people opposed it, and it became the current Koga City. It developed as a city, and Oyama and Utsunomiya were such area. So, I think it can be said that it is a very old town in terms of history. However, because of that, the public transportation network became extremely vulnerable.

After the Ikebukuro incident, elderly people want to return their licenses, and their families don't want them to drive. But they can't return them, so I think local local government will be like that, whether they will use demand taxis or circulation buses. What about school buses?

One possibility I considered was automated driving. On November 26, 2019, I saw an article on a small village in the Tohoku region on Yahoo Japan. Looking at it, I felt impatient that if things continued like this, Sakaimachi would become a place where automated driving would spread throughout Japan and then come into Japan. In fact, we had experts in our town who were involved in Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications's local revitalization project, so I asked Mr. Tamura if he knew anyone at SoftBank. He said he knew the senior managing director. A month later, on December 26, I met with President Saji of SB Drive, now BOLDLY.

In fact, in December 2019, I asked President Saji if it could be put into practical use rather than an experiment. He said it could be done, so I decided to do it in about a minute, and it started. So, we met on December 26 and approved a budget of 500 million yen on January 9. It is a town with 24000 people. It is a small local government with a budget of about 7 billion yen and tax revenues of about 3 billion yen. But actually, public office will be closed from the 28th. It was just Saturday at that time. So, the 27th was the last day of the Goyoso. The first day of the Goyoso is the 6th, so the 9th is because the Congressional Steering Committee has to be held three days before, so the Congressional Steering Committee is held on the 6th. We met on December 26, and the Congress will make adjustments, adjust the budget, and then the Congressional Steering Committee will be held on the 6th, and the extraordinary Congress will be held on the 9th. I think it is a schedule that is difficult for a normal local government. It is 500 million yen for five years, which is a large budget for a normal small local government. In that sense, I think Sakaimachi is a special town.

Actually, we will introduce three units for five years. If you look at the table earlier, demonstration experiments is not operating, we have not explained it to the people in the town, and we are not operating any at all. Even we are not operating it. Actually, we promised to go to France and ride this in Lyon, but we could not ride it because we had COVID-19, and we decided to introduce it as it was.

After the budget was passed, on January 15, we held a test-drive event for the townspeople, and we had various people ride on it, including elderly people and members of the assembly. We also had mothers holding babies ride on it, and we could hear various voices.

If true, we decided to start it in April 2020, but due to the novel coronavirus, we decided to spend a little bit of budget on the novel coronavirus and start it in six months, so we started running in the town on November 26, 2020. Therefore, it was originally scheduled to start on April 1, but due to the novel coronavirus, it was postponed for six months and started.

In fact, the departure ceremony looks like this.

The first route is this one. It is from Sympathy Hall to a station on the river bank, which used to be the main street of the old town. I heard that 40 years ago, it was so crowded that it was difficult to pass each other by bicycle. Now, it is a very quiet central urban area where no cars are running at five or six in the evening. We started operating on this route first.

It is often said that people are surprised when they see sidewalks. Usually, when demonstration experiments is done on such a road, it is not separated by pedestrians and cars, but it is said that the sidewalk and the roadway are firmly separated, or there is a guardrail, a step, or it may be wrong to say it is proper, but it is said that there are many cases where it is done on such a road. In our town, it is a road that can be found anywhere. There are almost no sidewalks, there are on-street parking, and there are telephone poles. If it is successful, we will be able to expand horizontally, so we are now running on such a road.

In 2020, our Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry was Mr. Kajiyama, who was a local resident, so I went to Mr. Kajiyama not in the name of going to get subsidies, but to ask the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry not to interfere with us. In short, I asked him to support us. Since we are using Navya's "ARMA" made in France, we had to use a domestic car, a domestic operation manager, and a domestic system, otherwise the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry could not support us. When we went, the mayor of the town asked us to go to Eiheiji Temple to study before we started, but we didn't even go there, so I felt sorry, and I thought that I had to go to Eiheiji Temple to study this year. That was how we started.

In fact, Mr. Katayama has been on board, and although the law has not yet caught up with it, he has said that it is a car that can achieve Level 4. The current Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Yamagiwa, has also been on board, and we have heard such a story.

Three months later, in February 2021, we actually added six bus stops. So that we could actually use them in our lives, there are supermarkets at banks, elementary schools, town halls, post offices, and a place called Kids House. So, in front of the large supermarket, and there is a hospital called Seinan area Center, which is the largest hospital in this medical care that is responsible for tertiary emergency, so we added them so that we could stop there.

In the demonstration of use by elementary school students to go to school, the children were very pleased. What has been happening recently is that not only do children from Sakaimachi get on and get off at once, but on Saturdays and Sundays, grandpa and grandma from Sakaimachi get married to children who have moved outside or their grandchildren get back home, and they tell their grandma to go and ride with them because the automated driving is running, and they brag to their grandma. In addition, during summer vacation, children from neighboring municipalities give us many offers to use it for independent research, and children who want to use it in children's newspapers come. It has a very good effect on children.

As for the actual effects, since Sakaimachi is the only city that operates on ordinary roads at all times, various regulation mitigation measures, legal revisions, and other horizontal development measures have been implemented. Currently, an extremely large number of ministries, agencies, and universities have come to Japan, and I believe it was about two to three months after the declaration of a state of emergency, but about 120 people, including companies in private sector, have visited Japan, and now that the state of emergency has ended, everyone has come to Japan to take part in these measures.

Sakaimachi has no stations, so no matter how many automated driving vehicles trains are run, it will be only the B section from the A section. As you just mentioned about MaaS, we have offered a bus from Sakaimachi to Yaesu Exit of Tokyo Station. We negotiated with Kanto Railway and JR to offer eight round-trip buses a day. I don't know who takes eight round-trip buses from Sakaimachi to Tokyo Station, but we have actually offered eight round-trip buses. People from Tokyo Station come to study, research, and inspection on this bus. We have connected the automated driving bus there, so it will be possible to take the automated driving bus around the town or go to a remote monitoring center. It will be a very effective tool.

On the other hand, we are working with Japan Railways (JR East) to create a system in which goods such as agricultural products from Sakaimachi are transported from Sakaimachi to Tokyo Station and then delivered.

Currently, on August 2, 2021, two routes and eight bus stops were added, and the service started on Saturdays and Sundays.

Thank you very much for your help. In February last year, Chairman Uchiyamada presented Mr. Kamata with the "Car, Society and Partnership Award."

I believe Mr. Suda is also present today, and I would like to once again express my gratitude to these people for their appreciation of Sakaimachi's efforts.

At that time, Mr. Saji asked Chairman Uchiyamada to give me an "e-Palette," so I talked to Chairman Uchiyamada. He asked if I could get a Toyota "e-Palette" for Sakaimachi. He asked how much it would cost, but it was a little more expensive than an "ARMA." Mr. Kamata said he would like to buy the next one instead of the current one. Mr. Kamata said I should buy the next one. The other day, Mr. Kawanabe, Chairman of Nippon Kotsu, and I got on an "e-Palette." Partly because I was infected with the novel coronavirus, but this car was operated by NTT, KDDI, and au alternately in demonstration experiments. Mr. Saji was told that SoftBank should not come, so Mr. Saji could not get on it, but I got on it. It was very well made. However, Issue cannot go up with a 4% slope, and the content is a Tier 4, so a Japanese one will come out soon.

When I compared foreign products with Japanese products, I felt that the designs were different and that they were very sophisticated. When I asked the person in charge, he said that we would not buy them but lease them. So, if we could make a new one, we would like to run it in our town before running it in Woven City.

There is a reason why it is a French car, but everything written here is a lie. I will simply leave it to Saji. Among them, people don't drive unless it has a design. In summer, it's hot, and in winter, it's cold. Grandpa and Grandma don't want to drive, and I told them that I wanted something that would make them want to drive. They told me that Navya's "ARMA" is very good, so there is no problem driving in Lyon, so I decided to put this in. In addition, I can go to Lyon, France, so for some impure motive, I thought I could go to Lyon next time when I introduced it, but there is no problem at all.

We are often asked about operating costs. People who have come for training and inspection are very often asked, but we think it is okay if we earn the costs. In local government, management is actually important, and it is okay to be a profitable local government from now on, or to earn advertising revenue or anything. It is okay to do various things and run the business steadily, so how much money can we earn from this, or derived from this, for example, we can earn money from restaurants like Gurunabi. Saji seems to be thinking about that, but I am actually thinking that it is okay to do sales by ourselves and follow a company that will invest in this.

It says that it has been reduced to zero by utilizing the Benefit-Your-Locality Hometown Tax and subsidies, but the subsidies were taken as an afterthought. At first, I was doing Society 5.0, but I couldn't get it after all, so I changed to a model of local revitalization in the middle of it. With the Benefit-Your-Locality Hometown Tax, there is a person who donates 10 million yen per person. In exchange for sticking the person's company name, I receive 10 million yen. In this way, I receive 10 million yen every year.

What should I do if an accident occurs? I have insurance now, so there is no problem at all. It has a drive recorder, and it is much safer than, for example, a 90-year-old person riding it as it is. I am driving whether I am 90 years old or 80 years old, so I have decided that this "ARMA" is safer than such people, so I have decided to do it like that.

While doing various things, I would like to see this initiative expand horizontally and spread to underpopulated areas, hilly and mountainous areas, and closed spaces that do not require human driving throughout Japan. We have been doing this for a year, but the current situation is that the second area has not been released yet, so I think that the hurdles in local government are a little high for such areas.

Our town has been doing a lot of things. We have been doing local revitalization, sports town development, and many other things over the past eight years. Actually, SoftBank estimated that the economic effect was 1.1 billion yen in the past year, but it is estimated that the effect was about 700 million yen. If we were to say that it was the cost of city promotion, I think it was good in the sense that the name Sakaimachi became very famous.

The subsidy is 150 million yen, but the other day, we received 200 million yen for Mr. Digital Agency's Digital Garden City, so we would like to do our best to lead the way forward while coordinating signals.

In this way, elevators that move sideways are shared with Saji. Just like if you press a button, if you say "ARMA" with smart speakers, for example, it will come right in front of you. We believe that such an era will come someday. I believe that all cars can operate without problems even if they do not become automated driving, so I would like to do that firmly.

Rather than being certified as a Super City, I think it is best to become a Super City while doing so. At present, we are doing facial recognition and various other things, but while doing various things, everyone is not in trouble with their lives. Now, people in their 60s and 70s are moving from the countryside. They are moving to an apartment close to a hospital in front of the station, or they are moving to Tsukuba, where their daughters are. They are thinking about their old age, thinking about their future, and moving from somewhere they have been used to. So, in order to improve these things as much as possible, drones will be doing it later. As a solution to various Issue, there are people in need, so we are just helping them. It is a simple project, so I don't think it will be that difficult. I would like to ask for your cooperation.

I would like to conclude my presentation.

Chairman Ishida: .

I was very impressed with your courage and speed. Thank you very much.

First of all, Mr. Murase, who is asking a question in the chat, is it correct to understand that this bus is a public transportation agency for financial contributions to private sector? What do you think?

Member: Thank you, I think it is okay to use it with such a recognition. However, we do not have such a sense. For example, until now, a subsidiary of Tobu Railway called Asahi Bus has been operating a route bus, but it runs about one bus per hour, so it does not operate as a public transportation in the town. There are also two taxi companies, but there are two taxis each, and the drivers are 73 or 72 years old, so there will be no taxis in two years.

In such a situation, we have actually carried out various projects. In such a situation, we were the only one in Japan to carry out automated driving, so we made great efforts, but we do not recognize it as a public transportation agency for financial contributions to private sector. Let's help them because they are really in trouble, and we used automated driving as a tool for that. That's all.

Chairman Ishida: I understand.

In addition, Mr. Koda also asked how you are preparing for operations, such as car failures and accidents while children are riding, and problems with passengers. He also asked to know the cost of monitoring and the support system associated with it.

Member: Thank you, : In fact, in anticipation of future revisions to the law and other changes, a company called Laura Groeseneken has already moved its head office functions to Sakaimachi in anticipation of remote operation. We are building our head office now, and we have had a room of our Social welfare Council renovated, and we are receiving rent, but as if the company operates all of them, the people driving them are not from BOLDLY, and Mr. Laura Groeseneken is working with BOLDLY on a education, and they are driving and insured. We also have a support system in place, such as a car that is a modification of a motorcycle, which will immediately rush there if something happens.

In the past year, there have been no opportunities to dispatch personnel, so it will be remote control and signal coordination will be possible, but before we know what to do in the event of an accident or who will be responsible, all of this will be covered by insurance, so local government will be able to continue to make progress if it has the courage to do so. I believe that it will eventually be beneficial to the people of area.

Chairman Ishida: .

Mr. Suda is raising his hand, so could you please speak?

Suda Member: Thank you, .

Mayor Hashimoto, I haven't seen you for a long time. Thank you very much for your help when you cut the tape, and I was the one in the left end of the picture earlier.

I was also in Sakaimachi last Friday, and Mr. Ishida was with me at the conference. I really admire the fact that social implementation is being advanced so much.

This time, I was thoroughly introduced. What I thought when I went to automated driving and saw various things was that it was very closely linked to various activities in area other than Okinawa. In particular, as Mr. Saji showed me various places, I thought that it was a case in which it was very successful to find out which hospitals have what kind of users and which supermarkets have what kind of needs, and to determine routes and various things. Therefore, I would like to develop this.

I would like to ask you to introduce one thing. In the future, we will use the budget of Digital Agency to develop it, but what kind of obstacles are expected there? We would like to help you, so please tell us about it.

In addition, I would like to ask you to introduce how you will be able to successfully work with local companies such as public transportation and Asahi Motors, which you mentioned earlier. Thank you very much.

Member: Thank you, , thank you very much.

As I was in a short period of time, I could not explain some parts. As someone said earlier, I believe that it is important to listen to the voices of the residents on various policies. That is the way it is. Accountability is also important, and it begins after a thorough explanation to the residents, as well as the Council. So, it was early for the Council, but after that, I have been able to give a thorough explanation. Now, on the other hand, the residents have reduced the number of on-street parking, provided parking, and said that it is okay to make a bus stop in front of your house. In addition, the residents along the area line have really helped us. In addition, there are grandparents who say when they will pass by our house, and the community was close and small, so we were able to obtain the cooperation of the residents. I think this is perhaps an unusual and rare case.

Issue is planning to apply for Type 2 and 3 digital garden cities in the future, as I believe there is talk of 5G. We will make each town Wi-Fi. If we make it Wi-Fi, it will be possible to call people at home, so even if we can't do everything, it will be possible to make a certain area Wi-Fi, demonstration experiments people in that area, and then expand the area. In the near future, after the law is revised, I think it will be possible to make it possible to call "ARMA" and be taken to a hospital when there is no taxi 24 hours a day, for example, when a family member is transported by ambulance but cannot go because they have drunk alcohol. I think there will be detailed legal revisions and various regulation, so I would like to work with each ministry and agency to clear up this issue.

In addition, in private sector, Asahi Motors is also in trouble with securing drivers. We have secured drivers and got a job, but they have quit after three years since we raised them. public transportation in area is in trouble. On the contrary, by doing business with automated driving, if necessary, the route bus will be changed to automated driving. Conversely, we are receiving various information together. In that sense, we have been working to ensure that automated driving will not replace us and we will not lose our jobs. We have been working to ensure that everyone will coexist with us. I wonder if Asahi Motors has some understanding of this.

We have bus stops at Asahi Motors' bus stops, so in that sense, I think it is actually important to solve the Issue problem together with area in a common Issue.

Suda Member: Thank you, .

Chairman Ishida: , may I ask you a question?

Member: , We are always waiting for you to visit Eiheiji-cho.

Member: Thank you, Yes, please.

Member: : On that basis, I also have great respect for Sakaimachi's ability to act. Two years ago, in my position as Ambassador Evolution, I saw public transportation and exchanged views with the town office. During that time, I was impressed by the fact that it was not just a simple automated driving measure, but a reform of the entire town premised on the financial soundness of the town. As I have always said, I believe that the whole of mobility, including Kyoto, should be the blood of the entire society, and I felt that this is exactly what is being implemented.

I have been doing various things in automated driving for many years in Eiheiji-cho, and I think what I feel most strongly is that I do not put off social acceptance, which is often mentioned. Looking back, since the 2010s was the dawn of the practical application of automated driving, I think that Mr. Kuzumaki and SIP-adus, who are participating today, have achieved great results in owner cars and service cars under an all-Japan system in various fields such as technology, ergonomics, and international cooperation.

However, since strengthening Japanese industrial competitiveness will be the main focus, I believe that social acceptance has had to be discussed in the same way as technology. However, at the stage of social implementation now, as stated in today's backcast, first of all, discussions should be held on social acceptance. I believe that the backcast is to hold the idea of conducting not only transportation and Issue in the town, but also medical care, education, disaster risk management, etc., which Mayor Hashimoto has pointed out, at the municipal level and through wide-area cooperation, and I believe that discussions on a digital platform based on such an idea are necessary.

Finally, although it is often said that automated driving is not the gavel of launching, I strongly believe that it is necessary to clarify when, where, who, and how public transportation, small delivery robots, large trucks on highways, drones, and Level 3 private cars are necessary, and who and how to continue their businesses.

Mayor Hashimoto's presentation was very helpful. Thank you very much.

Member: Thank you, .

Actually, this S Pro is an afterthought, but I think we usually draw a design map like this from a city planning teacher before doing town development. I think we are a local government that is good at creating Ichi from scratch, but it was an ordinary town with no special products, nothing, and only debt. I built six of Mr. Kuma's facilities there. They are facilities that generate money. We borrowed government subsidies, invested in such things, and created points.

Now, we are connecting those points with automated driving vehicles, making it a line, and finally making it a surface. I have been the mayor of local government for eight years. In automated driving vehicles, which has built so many facilities in the past eight years, public facilities are usually evil, and I think they will fall into ruin. However, a system to make investments and collect them, and a system to actually connect them with Kyoto, are being established, and in that sense, I think it will become sustainable.

Mr. Momota's talk was very helpful. I hope to hear more from you in the future. Thank you very much.

Chairman Ishida: .

Mr. Yamamoto, please.

Member: I am Yamamoto, Managing Director of ITS Japan.

Thank you, Mayor Hashimoto.

ITS Japan is engaged in various activities and communicating with people in the local local government. I would like to ask for your advice. It goes without saying that your leadership is excellent. In deploying a model like Sakaimachi to a similar local government, is there any process left in Sakaimachi? In deploying it, I would like to ask for some advice on deploying it to another local government. Could you please give me a place where it does not matter?

Chairman Ishida: , in addition to Mr. Yamamoto's question, there is a table of economic effects. From the perspective of advice to other local government, the second and third cases are extremely rare in terms of being broadcast on TV or published in newspapers and media. At that time, I think Digital Agency would be grateful if it could properly collect data on the fact that this is contributing so much to the pride, love, and well-being of the residents, and if possible, collect digital data. I think that has already been considered, but I would be grateful if you could show it to me as long as I can speak.

Member: Thank you, .

With regard to the process and development I mentioned earlier, as you said, it is very important to create data on what has happened to Civic Pride and what has happened to City Promotion, so if you could introduce it, I would like to create data immediately, so I would like to ask for your advice.

If so, based on the data, we can say that it has had such an effect and that it will be like this, so it is very easy to spread it horizontally, and even if the heads of local governments want to do it, what should they do if they are opposed by the assembly or by the residents? I think this is a bottleneck. In that sense, I think it is an extremely effective means to explain it using data, rather than having the heads of local governments come here and see it. I would like to take this into account.

Another thing is about development. Saji brought drones with him, so I asked the people of drones. Now, they are doing it in various places, such as Tsuruga and Ina, but they are all quite analog. In fact, local government is a god, and they are doing it custom-made according to local government and the residents. If they do so, it will take years and decades. Instead, the people of drones are saying that it would be good to bring home what they want to do, and they are planning to start doing it this time, although they still have a Issue of the law.

Companies have what they want to do, advanced technologies, and data. Like ARMA, they downgrade it to suit local government. They think that this is Issue, and if local government frankly accepts what companies want to do and explains it to the residents and the Council that it is for the benefit of the people who live there and the country, they will be convinced. I think it will be very effective. So recently, we have been receiving a lot of things from them, and we are trying to accept them with the lowest obstacles. Advanced cases have come to Tsukuba, and Tsukuba likes the world's first, so other than the world's first, they flow to us. So, we are catching the things that flow to us and doing various things. In that sense, as I said, there are many cases where companies want to do something but local government has set obstacles, so if we can develop something that can clear such obstacles, I think it will spread to other cities.

Chairman Ishida: .

Mr. Nagumo, could you please?

Member of Nagumo: Thank you, .

I believe that there has been some discussion about creating a database from the perspective of well-being. In fact, within the same Digital Agency, it is a condition of the public offering to set a well-being indicator for Issue Gold Type 2 and 3 in Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation. In fact, I am the one who is creating the indicator, and the smart cities Institute is currently creating it in cooperation with Digital Agency.

Of course, I am not doing it alone. It is a combination of questionnaires on subjective well-being prepared by various famous universities such as the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, and Keio University, as well as objective indicators and social determinants of health, which are objective measures of local environments. If people in Sakaimachi are interested in it, I think it will be coordinated with Mr. Digital Agency, but I think it will be valuable for the whole of Japan to try to do it in the form of one advanced example, so I made an additional remark in the form of a proposal.

Chairman Ishida: I think it was significant that we were able to make one specific thing. Thank you very much.

Now, the ITF is saying that in MaaS data connections, I can only think of real-time data, but in terms of policy making and well-being, I think analog data or semi-annual data is fine. In such a new business model, data requirements for business operators, especially in the case of European countries, public money is flowing to transportation operators in many cases, so it is OK to demand that. So, we will sort out the matter based on the idea of data reporting, and the part where business operators work hard in real-time is competitive areas, and the part where business operators work hard is from those who have agreed to participate, so I think we can see the direction of dividing into two parts, data-sharing, and I would like you to refer to such a point.

Miyashiro-san, please.

Miyashiro Member: Thank you, . I'm Miyashiro.

Mayor Hashimoto, I was so inspired by your very powerful presentation. Thank you very much.

I am sorry for asking such a simple question, but for Mayor Hashimoto, for example, the division between the public and private sector, and the administrative and private sector, is not so much conscious of the boundary, and for example, if there is a problem of the residents, the first priority is to solve it. I have been asking this study group with the sense that the future of the public and the private sector, and the word public itself may be old, but I would like to ask how you perceive the roles of the public and the private sector for the current mayor.

I'm sorry for being so primitive.

Member: Thank you, .

I believe that the public sector is the welfare of the whole, and that is what I have to think about. However, in terms of methods, we will build public facilities like we have done in the past, and we will build things that do not generate profits, and we will maintain them, and the population will decrease. I am wondering if the 1,741 local government in Japan can really do that.

In fact, when I took office, our town had a future burden ratio of more than 180, and was 29th from the back. Yubari is at the very back. So, if we made a five year financial plan, we would run out of money in five years and go bankrupt. Eight years ago, it was such a town.

Conversely, if we show a model in which a town with bad finances can make this much investment, reduce its debt, and increase its fund, we will consider the reason why local government does not do it, so it is not a matter of not doing it or not being able to do it, but we are doing it because this town is doing it this way, and we are doing it in the hope that it will be a model in which we can do it this way. Therefore, when we build public facilities, what we are thinking about now is that local government can operate with subsidies from the government, which is a very preferential situation that is unthinkable in private sector. This will go wrong because it is operated by people from the town office who have been parachute employees in the third sector, or people from public office, or someone else. It will be no problem at all if it is run by a businessman and is a place where you can open a restaurant, invest in it, and recover it.

Now, as the population is decreasing, the number of restaurants is decreasing, and then the number of hospitals is decreasing, and the functions of the town are steadily disappearing. So, as Dr. Miyashiro said at the beginning, there are people in need, so I came here to help them. For that purpose, the town doesn't have money, but the government will pay for it, and the business operators will operate it. If the area improves, it will be a win-win-win relationship, so I came here thinking that it will be a win-win relationship.

In the Kanto region, PFI's area Excellent Rental Housing was only offered in Yamakita-machi, Kanagawa. Now, I tell this to mayors and village mayors here and there, and it can be used for migration and settlement, and it can also be used for childcare support. Among them, I think it can be used for apartment houses where elderly people have difficulty in walking, but until now, they were town-run houses and city-run houses. However, if we use this area Excellent Rental Housing System, 45 percent of the construction cost, which is now 50 percent, will be covered by the General Issue Fund for Social Infrastructure Development. If we use this system, the town does not pay, and there is a system in which we can attract people, make a profit, and there are companies that operate it, but local government does not do anything new, so we do not see it. Yamakita-machi and us are the ones who are offering area Excellent Rental Housing in the Kanto region. We are introducing them to various places now.

For example, a manju-ya that was a vacant house and flourished a long time ago was renovated with corporate version of Benefit-Your-Locality Hometown Tax and government subsidies. Now, we are receiving 176,000 yen for rent from here, but the investment cost will soon be recovered. This time, on the contrary, it will become positive. local government did not have a tool to recover it. Until now, we have built a roadside station, employment has been created, sales have become like this, and economic effects are linked like this. But if we invest 2 billion yen and we cannot recover 2 billion yen, it is really meaningless. Even such a local government can earn money if we manage tourism facilities and various public facilities well. Moreover, there is no station, the population is 24000, and it is an unusual town with nothing. We sell 7 million yen of sand a month. We make it once and sell it all, only in the morning. So, local government can be a really good tool depending on how you do it.

That's also the case with Kuma-san's facility. There are probably no six local government to be built in three years. It seems that it takes about three years to build one in Kuma-san's facility. Kuma-san says that we are like private sector and it is fun, but we are doing these things to attract people.

And isn't the hockey field a negative legacy that we didn't intend? In 2020, we were the host town of the Argentine team. At that time, we were asked to create only a hockey field because we were a medal candidate. But isn't it a negative legacy even if we create one? I was very worried. For example, if we build a hockey field as usual, there is no subsidy because it is a new construction. Now, there are many distribution facilities, so children don't go to a park in the industrial park. We made the park a hockey field. By doing so, about 40 percent of the subsidy will be received.

The Japanese women's hockey team, Sakura Japan, came to Sakaimachi last week, and the Japanese representative, Samurai Japan, came the week before that. On Saturdays and Sundays, Gakushuin University and Chuo University have Olympic courts only in Oi-cho and here in eastern Japan, so it is very good that quality is the Olympic standard. As is the case with the tennis court below, it is happening that the famous tennis club wants to come to Tokyo.

As is the case with BMX, when we create the World Games, we will have many Japanese games. We are good at creating one from scratch, so I think we have had public facilities for the people of local government where we live and for the people of area where we live. As the population is decreasing, I would like people from outside to come and Civic Pride to create data. Conversely, people in the town are happy to hear that their grandchildren have returned home because of that facility, or that their relatives say that the facility in Sakaimachi is amazing. In that sense, as you say, there is no fence between public and private, and if it is for the people of area, we will take any option.

When people in local government promote something, they often take alcohol with them and think about what to do if it becomes PR for the alcohol company. I take everything with me. For example, even if it is 1 Michelin star or 3 Michelin stars, I take vegetables and alcohol with me and ask them to use it. Some people actually use it.

The head of local government should be like that, and I think it would be good if we could promote the good things of the town in various places and raise income on the contrary. In that sense, farmers don't have the tools to sell, so they are sold even during that time, so we sell them at a reasonable price. And rice is also like that. Isn't it cheaper now that there is no reduction of acreage? I knew that rice would be cheaper, so I made a rice pack before it became old rice. If it is made into a rice pack, the best-before date will be extended by half a year. So, you can buy it at the same price as conventional new rice.

Local government is really different depending on how it is done. In that sense, I was very impressed when the mayor of Shiwa-cho came to the border by name the other day, even though I wanted to go there after the novel coronavirus outbreak. In that sense, I believe that local government management in the future will be better if local government, which has only 24000 people, a rapidly decreasing population, and a large amount of debt, can do so much, and if the heads of local government and their staffs have the courage to do so.

Chairman Ishida: .

First of all, I said that I would exceed the time, and I received many likes. Thank you very much for the really deep and wide discussion.

In the presentation by Mayor Hashimoto and the discussions by all of you, I understood well that it is not only automated driving, and I thought that it is comprehensive town management.

However, if we are only able to do so because of the efforts of Mayor Hashimoto, it would be a complete failure for our mission. Although it is not for everyone, I believe that the question is how to create environments that will make it easier for everyone to do so, how to design systems, and how to develop data and scientific methods. Amidst this, I am glad that we are going to be able to quickly conclude a discussion based on Mr. Nagumo's proposal.

I am originally a civil engineer, so city planning is one of them. I make policies and make plans, but once I make plans, I don't know when I can make them. I do city planning projects to realize city planning, and the projects have created roads and facilities. Away from city planning, I have asked local government as a park administrator and local government as a road administrator, and the current legal system is such that management is very difficult to work on. Changing the City Planning Act is a huge task, but I myself thought deeply today that management and smart are Issue that should be considered after all, considering the use of data there. I was really impressed by Mayor Hashimoto, who is practicing such things, and I talked about it because it says to organize it.

Thank you very much for your in-depth discussion. As you wrote, Mr. Murakami, I would like to carefully look at the minutes of the meeting and think about what direction we should take, what the big vision is, and how we can make a small practice, as I said at the beginning, into our proposal. So, I would like to ask for your support for the second meeting, and this is all I will be chairing. Thank you very much.

Takijima-san, could you please?

Councilor Takijima: Finally, I would like to make an administrative contact only.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Today, in the form of various collaborations, I was picked up by Mr. Nagumo, so even after this meeting, I would like to prepare a place where we can exchange opinions and chat on Teams, so if there is anything, I will continue there.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 27, and Mr. Koda of AsMama and Mr. Ishimaru of the Fukuoka area Strategic Promotion Council will make presentations. Today, I heard that there are such interesting stories overseas and in Japan, so I would like to hear more from the two of you, including the perspective of people and the perspective of actual life.

I spoke with Mr. Murakami, Director-General for Foreign Affairs, and I would like to combine the real world as much as possible. Although it depends on the situation of the novel coronavirus, I am exploring the possibility of using a hybrid of the real world and online. I would like to contact you again on an administrative basis.

Then, I would like to close with this. Thank you very much, everyone. I look forward to your continued support.

()