Innovation Nippon the 1st Symposium 2013
Open Data and Innovation (1)Date: September 12, 2013
Venue: GLOCOM (Center for Global Communications), International UniversitySpeakers：
Gaku Hashimoto, member of House of Representatives (Liberal Democratic Party)

Kouhei Miki, Deputy Director-General at Chiba City’s General Affairs Bureau (CIO aide)

Hirotomo Nagai, President of Water-Cell Inc.

Kouichiro Fujii at Google’s Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Japan

Masahiko Shoji, Senior Research Fellow at Center for Global Communications andRepresentative of Open Knowledge Foundation JapanModerator：
Tomoaki Watanabe, Executive Research Fellow at Center for Global Communications,Co-founder of Open Knowledge Foundation Japan, Executive Director atCommonSphere

Japan satisfies the multiple requirements for leading the world’s innovations using open
data. In fact, the government is set to promote open data through political leadership, andlocal governments and companies deploying advanced technologies continue to explore theuse of data to create economic values. Yet, we can see further progress in open data
implementations in countries like the United Kingdom. This symposium looked at thedevelopment of open data in Japan and overseas, and discussed its potential for driving
innovations.
Mr. Masahiko Shoji, Senior Research Fellow at Center for Global Communications andRepresentative of the Open Knowledge Foundation Japan, delivered the keynote entitled,“The Frontier of Open Data: Challenges for Innovations”. After introducing trends in open
data and open government in Japan and overseas, he pointed out that challenges forinnovation are: maintaining the motivation to disseminate the idea globally, creating
initiatives one after another from local communities while continuously evolving, anddelivering at a fast pace. He also emphasized the need for making something good in theface of domestic issues in Japan.

In the panel session, Mr. Gaku Hashimoto, member of House of Representatives (LDP)
reported the developments in the government. The Abe administration released its ICT
strategy “Declaration to be the World’s Most Advanced IT Nation” on June 14, 2013 with theaim to tackle the current stagnatation and revitalize the nation by achieving the utilization ofICT at the world’s highest standard. It includes specific measures such as establishing rulesfor personal information, API and data formats to enable the“Realization of System
Specifications for an Open Data Distribution Platform”.
The beta version of Japanese data catalog website was launched in 2013 and is set for fulloperation during FY2014, and is progressing to reach its goal of being at the world's highest
standard by the end of 2015. The study group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications has made recommendations for rule making on the use of personal data.
Furthermore, with the intent to designate an independent third-party organization forrealizing system development as an international standard, the entire government isdetermined to make prompt and concrete moves.
Mr. Kouhei Miki, Deputy Director-General at Chiba City’s General Affairs Bureau (CIO aide)
pointed out that although data sharing has begun, the exit strategy for how to make use of
the data is not yet visible. In order to overcome such conditions, he shared examples among
local governments and public entities, such as setting common terminologies and examining
Creative Commons Licenses.
Mr. Miki categorized the utilized data into three types: A. Small and open information
provided by local municipalities, B. Big data collected from sensor networks that observe thenatural environment such as air pollution and the water levels of rivers, and C. Big data suchas medical and healthcare information and census registration data, and talked about exit
strategies for each. In his efforts to demonstrate citizen-government collaboration, heshared the story of “Chiba repo”, an app that enables citizens to report issues in theircommunities to the city council, and work together for solutions.
Mr. Hirotomo Nagai, President of Water-Cell Inc. presented “agri-note”, an app wherefarmers can enter farm records, spray records, and use aerial photographs to gain insightsfrom the data. Using Google Maps and open data published by the government, the appallows farmers to keep records of fertilizers and pesticides, and enable them to apply PDCA
cycles. Farmers can choose to publish their information publicly. Mr. Nagai said he hopes tocounter today’s shrinking, hyper-aging farming population by opening up agricultural data todrive innovation. If agricultural and biological research institutions open growth and illnessdata in the future, farmers can experiment with various methods and practice good farming.
Mr. Kouichiro Fujii at Google’s Head of Public Policy and Government Affairs for Japan
talked about the potential of monetizing government data. It is estimated that government
data can generate 5.4 trillion JPY worth of economic effects. He explained different types ofmonetizing; Government to Business (GtoB) primarily in the new service/productdevelopment market, and Government to Consumer/Citizen (GtoC) in the app buildingmarket.
In the panel discussion, speakers exchanged their opinions on the importance of small data
and local data. They also discussed the point that the future challenge is to make a network
where various players can cooperate together to create value from open data.