Problems and Solutions of Smart Small Cities in China and Japan-View of Yangzhong City and Tsuru CityJiang Liu †Peng Liu ‡† Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University‡ School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, North China Electric Power University
E-mail: liujiang@aoni.waseda

Abstract Building smart cities becomes an important strategy to solve the problems of urban development
and improve the competitiveness of the cities for better lives and environments. Many smart cities have beenlaunched in developed countries such as Japan. Motivated by sustainable development requirements in globalenvironment, China also started to design and construct smart cities. This paper uses Yangzhong city and
Tsuru city as examples to give a review of smart cities in China and Japan. Moreover, some problems andsolutions of smart cities are summarized. The aim of this paper is to increase the awareness of the importanceof smart city construction, enable the government to provide relevant policy and make optimal resource
allocation for city development and environmental protection.
Keywords

Smart city, Yangzhong city, Tsuru city, Problems and solutions, City development
have been demonstrated. For example, U.S. and Japanese

1. Introduction
Urban populations around the world continue to rise. Incompanies began Smart Grid Project in Hawaii from 211.

the past three decades, China has seen the largest

More over, Nice Japanese Companies launch Japna-U.S.

rural-to-urban human migration in history [1]. According

Cllaborative Smart Grid Demonstration Project in New

to the latest official United Nations projections, China’smexico.

urban population is expected to increase from 636 million

In this paper, we will use Yangzhong city in China andto 1037 million between 2010 and 2050 [2]. Moreover,Tsuru city in Japan as examples to discuss the smart city

this rapid growth is continuing and anticipated to become

problems and solutions.

even faster. The urbanization enhances the growth of thenational economy but results in urban environmental andresidents’ life’s changes. There are a number of problems

2. Overview of Smart City development inYangzhong city.

need to be tackled such as overcrowding, congestion,
environmental

pollution,

human

problems,

healthlong-termwatercitizenshipshortages,problems

for

2.1 Introduction of Yangzhong CityTheprocessofurbanizationin

China

ismorerural-to-urban migrants etc. These problems motivate thecomplicated and diverse than other countries. With thecities to become smart to changing industrial structure,

rapid transformation of China's social economy and rapid

increasing more energy-efficient technologies, pollution

urbanization in recent years, the construction of China'sdecreasing for better lives and environments.

smart city has some differences with other countries in

Compare with China, Japan has more advanced smart

the scope of construction, construction mode and focusesurban planning, management and technology and the[4]. For example, Yangzhong city is a small city insmart cities in Japan have brought benefits for theJiangsu province and it has different constriction focus

citizens. In Japan, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, andcompare with the big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai

Industry (METI) supports a lot to build the smart cities.

in China.

METI also invests in Japanese business involvement inYangzhong is a small city in China, but it has a lot ofsmart city projects globally. The smart cities market here,

specialty: ① Strong economy. In 2014, the GDP per

which stood at around ¥1.12 trillion in 2011, is expected

capitato grow to ¥3.8 trillion by 2020 [3]. Many smart projects

high-tech products is 75% of the total GDP, ranking firstexceeded

130,000yuan.

The

proportionof

in Jiangsu Province; ② Beautiful ecological environment

and(shown as Fig. 1). Yangzhong is known as "National

comprehensive institutions and vocational schools. TheseNanjing

metropolitanarea.

Ithas

many

Ecological Civilization Demonstration Area" and is alsocolleges and vocational schools have a wide range ofknown as "China Puffer Fish Island". ③ People is rich.

professional facilities. These schools can provide a lot of

The level of urban and rural integration is in the forefront

skilled workers for the industries.

of the country. The per capita savings and per capita
incomein

Yangzhong,listinNo.

3andNo.

7.

respectively in Jiangsu province.

2.2 Comparison of Yangzhong city in China andTsuru city in Japan
Yangzhong city in China and Tsuru city in Japan areboth small size cities. These two cities are both very close
to the big city area: Shanghai metropolitan area andTokyo metropolitan area.
The trend of population and GDP from 2008 and 2015
in Yangzhong is shown as Fig. 3. From this figure, we cansee that the GDP is keeping increasing and the populationis also increasing except 2015.

Fig. 1. Beautiful ecological environment in YangzhongcityFrom

theindustryview,

Yangzhongisahighlyindustrialized city and has a "3 leading industries + X"
emerging industrial system (electrical engineering, newenergy, equipment manufacturing + other industries).
Fromthelocationview,

Yangzhonghas54kmdeep-water coastline and it is about 204 km far from thesea. The riverbed is stabile and unfrozen. It will not beFig. 3. GDP and Pupulation from 2008 to 2015 inYangzhong city.

affected by the tide and the typhoon and monsoon, with issuitable for inland port, and suitable for the development
ofportequipment

manufacturingandmodernportlogistics industry (shown as Fig. 2.).

Compare to Yangzhong, the population of Tsuru isaround 30 thousand and it started decreasing from 2000.
Moreover, the low birthrate and aging population areserious problems in Tsuru and also common problems inJapan. It becomes an important concern when designing
the smart cities.
Yangzhong city is an island, which is surrounded byrivers. It has 5 bridges to connect the city and otherplaces. Land transportation and river transportation areboth convenient. Tsuru is located in the mountain and has
more than 80% forest area. Similar to Yangzhong, Tsuru
also has plenty of water resources.
From the view of agriculture field, the agriculture landFig. 2. View of the port equipment and logistics
industry in Yangzhong cityin Tsuru is less than 2% [5]. The same as Tsuru,Yangzhong almost does not have any agriculture. Theeconomy is almost based on the secondary sector ofFrom the view of human resources, Yangzhong islocated at the intersection of Shanghai metropolitan areaindustry and the tertiary sector of industry.

2.3 Smart city and the energy policy
Nowadaystheindustry

becomes

3. Problems and Solutions

moreandmore

productive by adopting good technology and efficient

3.1 Some problems in China

business models. However, we have to face a lot of

There are some problems in China’s smart cities:

challenges, one biggest challenge is Energy. Fig.4 shows(1)

The governments and companies pay too muchthat the increase in energy demand is driven by economic

attention to GDP growth and the environment

growth [6]. In this figure, the blue line indicates that toproblems such as air pollution，water pollution are

get the same GDP, China has more energy consumption

ignored.

compare with other countries. To make the air cleaner,(2) From the current development of the actualand get the sky bluer, we need good energy solutions todevelopment of the city, our understanding ofdecrease the environment pollutions.

smart city is not consistent: different government
departments, different regions of the city havedifferent understanding.
(3)

Poorness of the planning theory.

(4)

Lack of approaches sharing.

(5)

Large cities are developing very fast. However,
the instruction of small cities/towns is ignored.
IntegrationofUrban-ruraldevelopment

isissues:

therequired.
(6)

Information

network

securityInprocess of building smart city, due to a large
number of applications to the Internet of Things(IoT), cloud computing and other technologies, theFig. 4 Increase in energy demand is driven by economic

information network security issues are unclear.

growthWe have to be deeply concerned about its potential
threat.

From 2015, Yangzhong city has made “Green Energy
Island” as a new target. The key planning is constructing

3.2 Solutions

roof photovoltaic power generation, wind power, newTo solve the above problems, firstly, we should makeenergy micro-grid, biomass and other clean energy

an environment protecting attention to reduce the badsystem; Building clean, low carbon, safe and efficient

impacts on the environment. Recently, the air pollution

renewable energy production and consumption patterns;

becomes a severe problem in big cities such as Beijing

Makingenergyand Shanghai. Environmental pollution control policies

generation in the near future. From 2016, Rooftop PV canshould be made and new technology should be adopted toreceive 0.72 Yuan/ kWh subsidies from Yangzhong

improve the resource utilization.

very

highproportionofrenewable

government [7].

Secondly, any smart city construction led by a singleIn Japan, after the 3.11 earthquake and the accident atdepartment

willfacemany

shortcomings.

WemustFukushima nuclear power plant, smart cities are seen as aestablish a comprehensive coordination for different

panacea

departments to be aware of business content and shareforimproving

theefficiencyofenergy

consumption. From around 2001, Tsuru citizens wereresources.

working

onrevitalizing

micro-hydropower.

TsurumiMoreover,intelligent

city

construction

theregionbyusing

involves a wide range of areas, including the management

cityhasbuilt

smallofinformationandcommunicationindustry,urbanhydropower facility, named "Genki-kun", to provide party

transport, health care, education, community managementof the electronic power for the Tsuru City Hall and theservices and other fields, a comprehensive coordination

Eco House in Tsuru [8]. Moreover, when the City Hallmechanism must be established to coordinate different

and Eco House are lightly loaded such as in the nighttime

areas in the city.

and holidays, the extra power is sold to the electric powercompany.

Furthermore, we should work to narrow the gap
between urban and rural areas, and promote their common

prosperity.

Balancing and integrating urban and ruraldevelopment provides the fundamental solution to the[3]above issues.
IntheIoT

andcloud-computing

era,

legaland[4]

regulatory issues than the traditional Internet era are more
complex. In China, there are a of of inadequacy in theconstruction of Internet laws and regulations. Firstly,[5]

information network security issues should be included in
the law and the law should be followed. Second is wehave to establish and improve the intrusion detection and[6][7]

prevention system to ensure the safe operation of theinformation network. Also ， we have to establish andimprove the safety monitoring and emergency response
mechanisms and reduce network imformation threat to ourpublic and enterprise network.
Moreover, actively city data such as Map data, GPSdata, taxi/bus/bicycle data, smart phone data, surveillancecamera data, environmental weather, water, air pollution
state,

socialactivitydata(energyconsumption,population) etc. can be utilized. Through monitoring,
analyzing, integrating and utilizing the city real-time data,various parts of the city’s environment can be understoodand the harmony between people and the city in all
aspects can be achieved. Nowadays, China's central andlocal governments are actively seeking the better way forconstruction

ofsmartcities,

as

well

as

actively

conducting related theoretical research and technology toexplore and discover urban data resources [9].

4. Conclusions
The construction of smart city is an effective way ofindustrialization, informatization and urbanization for the
next-generation cities. This paper presented a survey ofthe development and perspective of the smart cities in
China and Japan. As examples, Yangzhong city in Chinaand Tsuru City in Japan are introduced and compared. The
problems and solutions are given in this paper. In
conclusion, not only for big cities, but also for smallcities,

theestablishedcomprehensive
toserve

thecoordination
urbanresidents

shouldbeandruralresidents.

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