ISSN 0915-3160

通巻百三十五号No.

3

Vol. 34 July 2022
SummerS pec i a l Feat u re

The Latest on eSports and Sustainable Development Goals

The Global Rise of eSports and Japan’s Increasing Prominence
Local Government Measures Utilizing Content
Formation and Other eSports Activities for Disabled Persons in Gunma Prefecture

New Breeze Vol. 34 No.3 Summer

New Breeze

July 2022

C O N T E N T S

ISSN 0915-3160

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		 Special Feature — The Latest on eSports and Sustainable
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The Global Rise of eSports and Japan’s Increasing Prominence

Editorial Committee

10

Formation and Other eSports Activities for Disabled Persons inGunma Prefecture

Chairman: Wataru Kameyama
Members: Ministry of Internal Affairs andCommunications, Association of Radio Industries
and Businesses, Communication Line Products
Association of Japan, Fujitsu Limited, Hitachi, Ltd.,
Japan Broadcasting Corporation,
KDDI CORPORATION, Mitsubishi Electric
Corporation, National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology, NEC Corporation,
NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONECORPORATION, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.,
Panasonic Operational Excellence Co., Ltd.,
Softbank Corp., Sony Group Corporation,
The Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association, and
The Telecommunication Technology Committee

Development Goals

Local Government Measures Utilizing Content— Issues and opportunities for local government collaboration
utilizing Anime, Game and eSports —		Report
14

54th Celebration of World Telecommunication and Information
Society Day

		Column
16= A Serial Introduction Part 2 =Winners of ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards 2021

Publisher: Tetsuo Yamakawa
Editors:

Junichi Kishimoto
Naoko Ishida
Mariko Shimizu

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The ITU Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) was founded on September 1, 1971, tocoordinate Japanese activities in the telecommunication and broadcasting sectors
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The Global Rise of eSports and Japan’s Increasing Prominence

Japan esports Union (JeSU)
Hirokazu HAMAMURA

1. The global rise of eSports
The rising world of eSports is advancing beyond all
imagination viewed from Japan. The competitive level of players
from Japan is not low by global standards and it has not been
unusual to see Japanese player in the highest ranks in tournaments
hosted by international eSports organizations. However, wecannot yet say that the economic environment supporting players
and games in Japan has taken shape.
The global eSports market in 2019 was estimated by Newzoo
to be on a scale of 958 million dollars, but was expected to growby a factor of 11.7 in the following 5 years, to reach 1.62 billion
dollars in 2024. As an intermediate figure, it was estimated at
1.084 billion dollars in 2021. To understand the market better, weneed to break down this number further. The largest fraction of
the market is sponsorships. At 641 million dollars, this represents
59% of the whole market. The next largest part of the market ismedia rights, accounting for 293 million dollars, or 18%. Sales ofrelated goods and tickets were 66 million dollars, less than 3% of
the total. In the major physical sports, 20 to 25% is understoodto depend on sponsorship. The fact that the part dependent on
sponsorships is greater than the business part indicates that the
global eSports market is still developing. eSports can also provide
content for broadcast. The number of viewers has also become an
important KPI. This trend can be followed using the same datafrom Newzoo. The global total number of eSports viewers was
397 million in 2019. However, five years later in 2024, this figure
was estimated to grow by a factor of about 1.45, to 577 million.
Thus, the global eSports market is expected to grow greatly into
the future, in both sales and number of customers.
Overseas, eSports is recognized by nations, governments
and academic institutions, and is protected in many cases. An
example of this is in North America, where the U.S. Citizenshipand Immigration Bureau has recognized League of Legends,
an archetypical eSports title, as a professional sport. It will now
issue athlete visas to players entering from other countries. RobertMorris University in Pennsylvania provides support such as 50%
fee exemptions for students recognized as eSports athletes. The
University of California, Irvine Campus, has also offered eSports
scholarships to eSports players since 2016. The university has also
invested approximately 25 million yen to build a dedicated eSports
arena facility. In another case, the Philadelphia team in the Over
Watch league announced it had invested 50 million dollars tobuild the Fusion Arena, an eSports arena with a capacity of 3,500
people. GameStop, the most widely recognized game retailer in
America, has also announced that they have acquired namingrights for an eSports facility that opened in May, 2019.
eSports is also popular in Europe. Three high schools in
Sweden have incorporated eSports into their physical education
classes for three hours per week. Public high schools in Norway
are also using eSports as electives in physical education. York
University in the U.K. has joined with the Electronic Sports
League (ESL) to conduct research related to the eSports industry.
York University is also giving credits toward degrees to students
taking courses in eSports. In 2016, the Ministry of Sport in
Russia announced that they would recognize eSports as sports.
In the U.K., FIFA opened an ePremium League for eSports
tournaments. In France, Team Vitality, which is known as aleading eSports team, raised 20 million Euros of capital. They
announced that it was allocated for developing advanced facilities
and to strengthen the team.
In South Korea, which is recognized as an eSports Mecca
and advanced even within Asia, awareness of eSports is highand initiatives are progressing. At Chung-Ang University in
Korea, eSports are used as part of the entrance exams for the
Department of Physical Education. The exams test both skills andachievements, and university entrance is determined based on botheSports skills and achievements in past tournaments. Support for
eSports by the government is also well developed in Korea. Since
1999, eSports organizations in Korea have received support from
the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In 2010, a law wasenacted to encourage eSports. In 2016, the city of Seoul and theMinistry of Culture, Sports and Tourism jointly built the SeouleSports Stadium.
Enthusiasm for eSports is also high in China. The numberof eSports players in China is already thought to exceed 300
million, and the government is studying ways to cultivate players.
The government recognizes eSports player as an occupation, andcolleges training players are appearing in regions throughout China.
One KPI measuring the popularity of eSports is prize money.
In tournaments hosted by Epic Games using their product,
Fortnite, in 2018 and 2019, prizes totaling 100 million dollars
were offered. In July 2019, in the final of a tournament held in
New York, the winner was a 16-year-old, who received a prize of
three million dollars. Professional league play is also popular. In
the Overwatch League, with franchise teams based in major cities
in America, China, the U.K., and Korea, teams compete in global
championships, with support from their local areas. Broadcast
rights for these events together with other IP competitions, as
released by the publisher, were priced at an astonishing 17 billion
yen for a two-year contract.

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2. eSports in Japan beginning to gain
prominence

Compared to Japan, the global eSports scene is astonishing,with large figures in administration, understanding and support
from academia, prize money, broadcast rights and other aspects.
In contrast, the eSports market in Japan in 2017, as reported by
the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, was noteven 400 million yen. However, with the appearance of eSports
in an exhibition at the Pyeong Chang Olympics, and the Japan
eSports Union (the first of its kind) beginning to issue professional
licenses, the eSports scene in Japan is beginning to change. At the
Asia Tournament, held as an exhibition match in August 2018,
Japanese players and teams were selected in five matches, and sent
to East Asia qualifying matches. The “Winning Eleven” playersthat broke through these qualifying matches accomplished a great
achievement and received a gold medal. This great achievement
by Japanese players in their first international competition wasreported widely in various media. At the end of that same year,“eSports” was selected for a “New and Trending Word” prize.
Sales exceeding 4.8 billion yen had been recorded in this market,
growing by a factor of 14 over the previous year. As such, it reallyis appropriate to call 2018 the inaugural year of eSports in Japan.
Enterprise activity in eSports initiatives is also starting toincrease. Capcom, which holds the IP for another globally popular
eSports game called Street Fighter, began sponsoring a publicleague in the summer of 2019. It featured three-on-three teams
combining beginners, amateurs, and pros battling, and generated
much drama before the series ended. For the next series, expanded
team competition with franchises in regions throughout Japanwas soon announced. Just like with major sports such as baseballand soccer, it was expected that tournaments would attract strong
support from local fans in each region. An increasing number of
eSports events are also being held by organizations other than the
IP holders. Of note are some of the enterprise groups collaborating
to hold tournaments. Only a few years ago, it would have beennormal to see mainly the names of PC and peripheral device
manufacturers at an eSports tournament, but at EVO JAPAN in
January 2019, sponsors included companies having nothing to dowith eSports, such as NTT DOCOMO, Indeed, Nissin Foods,
Nissan, and Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical. The Dwango-sponsored
event, Tokaigi (“Battle Meet”), was co-sponsored by SevenEleven, Fujitsu, au, Big Globe and others, and the RAGE eSports
event held by eSports broadcaster, OPENREC, was co-sponsoredby enterprises including Nestle, Kao, PIZZA-LA and Sharp.
There have also been many tournaments for high-school
students. In March, 2019, a national high-school eSports
championship was held, sponsored by Mainichi Newspapers and
PC retailer, Third Wave. In August that year, TV Tokyo andDentsu held the STAGE: 0 high-school eSports tournament,
which concluded in great success. STAGE: 0 was supported bynames including Japan Coca Cola and Rohto Pharmaceutical.
In 2019, eSports were also used as a culture program in the
National Athletic Meet (called the “Kokutai”), held in Ibaraki.
The tournament was called the “Inter-prefecture eSports

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Championship.” This was a Kokutai for a new generation,
attended by the new Emperor and Empress. Use of eSports was
initiated in Ibaraki prefecture to appeal to the new generation ina resolution by Ibaraki governor, Kazuhiko OOIGAWA. The
same tournament was held in Kagoshima the following year andin Mie prefecture in October, 2021. The Kagoshima tournamentin 2020 was a great success, with over 85,000 people participating
in qualifying rounds.
Activity in regional eSports initiatives also jumped due to thisInter-prefecture eSports Championship. In 2017, there were only
about 14 regional eSports organizations bearing the name of aprefecture, but as of October, 2019, this figure had risen to over
60. Many prefectures also have multiple organizations. Support
for eSports by other regional administrations has also increased
sharply. In Ishikawa prefecture, the city of Kanazawa has included
promotion of eSports in its budget. In Fukuoka, the mayor worked
actively to invite EVO Japan, an eSports tournament focused onfighting games, to the city. In Tokushima prefecture, the governor
made an election promise to promote eSports and was re-elected
decisively. The Tokyo Metropolitan has also budgeted to holdeSports festivals for two years in a row. It is undeniable that
regional eSports activity has increased, which is a change since
2018, when eSports was appearing as something new in media.
Finally, in 2021 the International Olympic Committee (IOC)decided to hold its own eSports competition, called the Olympic
Virtual Series. Sports titles from Japan including Power Pros
Baseball and Gran Turismo were entered in the competitionand created much excitement. Competitions were also officiallyannounced for the Asia Games to be held in Hangzhou, China, in
2022. The IOC explained that the use of eSports in the Olympics
was part of initiatives to strengthen engagement of the younger
generation in the Olympic Movement.

3. Why eSports are attracting attention now

The “younger generation” is a phrase often heard in discussion
regarding eSports. It is what entices enterprises to support thesevarious tournaments. So, why is it that eSports attracts suchstrong support from the younger generation? We will attempt
to explain using another sport, namely baseball, as an example.
Baseball is thought to have been brought to Japan in about 1827,
and the number of baseball players, including high-school baseball(formerly middle-school baseball), university competition andmunicipal baseball, grew greatly after that. However, at that level,
baseball consisted of just the players actually using bat and ball.
This continued for nearly 60 years. The turning point was theadvent of radio broadcasting. High school baseball was broadcast
on the radio, and just a few years later, in 1934, a major team fromthe U.S. came to Japan. Two years after that, in 1936, teams wereformed that became precursors to modern pro-baseball in Japan,
including the Tokyo Giants, the Osaka Tigers, and the Nagoya
Golden Dolphins. Then, after the Second World War, television
broadcasting began in 1953. The killer content for television at
the time included professional sumo wrestling, pro wrestling, andbaseball. However, sumo and pro wrestling naturally centered on

athletes that were very large. At the time, baseball was the only
prominent professional sport with young athletes having excellent
physical abilities. Five years after television broadcasts began, in
1958, Shigeo NAGASHIMA joined the Giants, and Minoru
MURAYAMA joined the Osaka Tigers. Sadaharu OH joined
the Giants in 1959. This heralded the golden age of pro-baseballin Japan.
As shown in Figure 1, initially, there were only amateur
baseball players, forming level (1). Later, with high-school anduniversity baseball, highly-skilled but non-pro players began toappear. Soon, with radio broadcasting, the number of competitors
increased. When professional players began appearing to viewers
on television, the number of fans increased rapidly. This was
because baseball itself was interesting, but also because players
like NAGASHIMA were so cool. These were the non-player
baseball fans at level (4) in Figure 1. There is a definite difference
between levels (1) to (3) and level (4). Levels (1) to (3) consist ofpeople that actually take bat and ball and play baseball, but level(4) consists of people who watch baseball on television. Withlevel (4), baseball was attracting interest as a spectator sport,
and spectators would pay money to enter venues or buy goods.
Baseball also grew dramatically with this level, becoming a major
business and producing other businesses such as broadcast rights
and sponsorships. As such, baseball is a spectator sport that wasdeveloped by the medium of television.
So what about eSports? In fact, eSports have developedin almost the same way as baseball. Initially, there were many
game fans focused on games such as Dragon Quest and the
Mario franchise. Soon, game consoles and PCs connected to
the Internet, and video related to the games increased on video
sharing sites. Regarding game commentary, one would expect itwould only become popular with people able to say interesting
things in their commentary, and inevitably popularity would
focus on a small number of Internet personalities. But what about
the overwhelming number of other players? They also began
uploading videos of their own game play, and there were far moreof these latter game-play videos than those by commentators.
Soon, game-play video became popular on video sharing sites. In
fact, the most popular type of content on YouTube, the largest
video site, is music, but the next most popular type is game-related
video. Nearly half of the live streams on Niconico video are also
game related. Twitch and OPENREC are stations dedicated togame video. Thus, it is not an exaggeration to say game video is amajor part of video distribution sites.
Many people enjoyed game-play videos, of which there were ahuge number. Soon, videos from people with confidence in theirskills began to attract more popularity and then competitions
began being held at community events, where people could watch
these advanced players. Then, seeing the popularity of these
events and the ability of internet video to attract viewers, the IP
holders began to hold tournaments with prize money, to promote
their game IP. The success of these led to broadcasts of pro■ Figure 1: Pro baseball evolution and player hierarchy

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■ Figure 2: eSports evolution and player hierarchy

eSports players in various forms, including terrestrial and satellite
television broadcasts. As a result, another layer of people who havenot played the games became accustomed to watching eSports, notbecause of interest in the games themselves, but because they wereattracted to the players. In Figure 2, levels (1) to (3) are people who
actually play the games, while level (4) consists of eSports fansthat do not play the games themselves. It goes without saying thatgrowth of this level (4) is what has enabled the eSports industry toachieve its incredible growth.
Baseball and eSports have followed exactly the same lineage.
One clear difference is in the media that nurtured them. Baseballas a spectator sport was developed by television, while eSports arespectator sports for a younger generation that was raised without
watching television.
Most of the younger generation, who were born into theworld when the internet already existed, are not in a habit of4

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watching television; they watch eSports on a smartphone instead.
People who watch television or read newspapers and magazines
have decreased, while smartphones have spread. Based on theindispensable smartphone, eSports video and eSports fanssupporting the players in such video are growing with incredible
energy and are already forming an unstoppable trend. Advertisingfrom television and newspapers is now supporting eSports,
to reach the younger generation that it cannot reach throughtelevision. Enterprises that were sponsoring real sports are leaving
real sports and starting to sponsor eSports. We can expect thisirresistible trend to continue in the future. Soon, eSports inJapan will reach new heights in the world, expanding from justthe younger generation and becoming a movement that involves
older age-groups as well. As was the case with baseball and soccer,internet media can be expected to continue to nurture eSports.

Local Government Measures Utilizing Content— Issues and opportunities for local government collaboration utilizing Anime,Game and eSports —Atsushi Sekiyama

Culture, Sports, and Tourism Department
Tourism Division
Yokosuka City

1. Introduction

The most important goal of regional governments is topromote the welfare of residents within their regions. As such,they must take multi-faceted approaches to solve various issues
arising from that goal. One such approach is to use collaboration
through eSports and content such as anime. Here, we introduce
some opportunities that Yokosuka City has found and used withthis approach.

2. Action plan to promote a tourism-based
city

Since World War II, Yokosuka City has been built
on manufacturing in industries such as automobiles andship-building, and has more-recently been trying to shift to
information and communication related industries. However,these industries are vulnerable to global conditions and withrecent developments in new technologies such as automatedmanufacturing and AI, they are becoming industries that do not
as directly result in employment.
To deal with changes in conditions such as declining
population and the mind-boggling changes in the global economy
and the structure of industry, it is important to diversify the
structure of industry within a city. In Japan, with its declining
and aging population, it will be difficult to plan for increases inpermanent residents in the future, so industries that attract people
from outside will be important.
Under such conditions, it will be important to cultivate
tourism as a new core industry and build it into a major industry.
As such, Yokosuka City has created a tourism-based city
promotion action plan, identifying three main directions. The
first is to develop a “Marine City” with rich marine products andleisure activities. The second is to develop a “Music, Sports andEntertainment City” that will provide excitement for everyone.
The third is to develop a “City with local communities that havetheir own personality,” providing a base for schools and local
residents to work together on various initiatives.
We plan to implement these, integrating nature, Japaneseheritage, and recent history with sports, music and entertainment,
strengthening our communication capabilities through synergistic
effects, creating differentiation with other regions, and thus
attracting visitors from groups that have not given Yokosuka muchconsideration in the past, such as women, families and foreign
visitors.

Eriko Oyamada

Culture, Sports, and Tourism Department
Tourism Division
Yokosuka City

We have various collaboration efforts with this approach at thecore, which makes our local government extremely easy to workwith compared to others.

3. History of collaboration measures

Yokosuka is in a good location, within an hour of metropolitan
areas, but it is far enough to require a reason to go and there areother tourism sites nearby, such as Yokohama and Kamakura. As
such, an extra push is needed to attract people to Yokosuka, so wehave begun using content collaboration as a primer to attract new
visitors.
We found that collaborations with Yokosuka City andsubculture content have worked very well. There was an action
plan to change the image of Yokosuka City. It was often used as
the setting in game content because its image was a bit edgy, andusers were familiar with many of the games.
The Yokosuka Cit y Tourism Division began suchcollaborations in 2013 with the “Tamayura” Gourmet Stamp
Rally. It became a must-see destination and attracted many fansthrough collaboration with Keikyu Railway and others.
The following year (2014), we started a campaign with a gamecalled Ingress, which was our first game collaboration. The gameused location information distributed by Google at the time andstaff were playing the game, which led to a collaboration proposal
and eventually to implementation.
Since then the Ingress startup team has gone independent,
as Niantic Inc., and launched other applications such as
Pokemon GO. Following the location-game event conducted incollaboration with Yokosuka City described above, another public
collaboration event was held in 2018 using Pokemon GO.
These events really raised awareness, for Yokosuka City andothers, that game content has the potential to move many people.
We held about two collaboration projects per year using
anime, manga, games, magazines and other media, and although
Yokosuka started to get a reputation that they would try anything,staff at the Tourism Division gained experience, became
accustomed to events involving copyright, and formed connections
with people in the industry.

4. Lessons learned from collaboration by
Yokosuka City

It is difficult to establish culture just by holding events. To
create sustainable initiatives requires involvement from many

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■ Figure 1: The administration’s ideal framework for development

people and awareness of the planning process needed to gain
acceptance by fans.
The administration must first take the initiative in searching
for, finding, and planning events, local businesses must take-overdevelopment and continuity, and fans must help form and expand
a community, establish the event, and earn a place as a must-see
destination for fans of the content. The ideal process is shown in
Figure 1. It is easy to think of content collaboration as transient,but with awareness of this process, even though each event istransient, we have had an increasing number of comments frompublishers, that Yokosuka City is becoming known for its agility,
and understanding of the various subcultures. The true value ofthese efforts will be shown as we continue with these initiatives.
However, if a plan ignores a global outlook, or does somethingthat could be done anywhere, fans will soon drift away. Whencreating plans, we must find aspects of Yokosuka that are
attractive and superior from the perspective of a fan, and build onthem. Making this the highest priority and planning to appeal tothe hearts of our core fans is what will draw their affection.
While it is also good for the administration to take initiative indrafting plans, the path to success is to gather as many colleagues
as possible, from related enterprises, local businesses or residents,and form scrums. The eSports project was implemented based on
this lesson.

5. eSports Initiatives

Based on connections cultivated in the various collaborative
events conducted by Yokosuka City and the Tokyo Game
Show, we studied plans to resolve various issues, and in 2019,
we released the Yokosuka eSports Project, in collaboration with

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partner enterprises. For this initiative we asked for collaborationin establishing eSports clubs in the city’s high schools, to lendthem high-performance PCs free-of-charge. As backgroundfor the initiative, PC manufacturers wanted to promote games
requiring high-performance PCs, and telecommunications
operators were very interested in the eSports market. The timingof these needs and the content of the plan matched, Yokosuka
City made the proposal to various enterprises, and we received
their endorsements. At the same time, Yokosuka City was also
considering holding eSports tournaments to promote eSports
culture in the city and to expand the culture of watching suchtournaments.
We have proceeded, knowing that Yokosuka City alone
would not be able to implement this support and there was doubt
whether it was even possible, so at times, we were reminded of theimportance of conveying our plans in this new field to as many
people as possible, to expand our group of partners.
As we moved into education environments, we also held
hearings with teachers and students who are acting as advisors,and continually worked to reflect their input into the initiative,
which is described below.

6. Reasons for the initiative

We have been asked why the administration has started
working in eSports. There are various answers to this, but we will
describe the four main reasons here. Beyond this initiative, wewant it to lead to creating new possibilities that Yokosuka City did
not have before and to increase the potential of the community
itself.

6.1 Expand possibilities for children
By increasing the choices for children, even by one, we can
expand their possibilities in the future. It is clear that there aremany different ways of learning and living, so more choices is also
good.
Becoming a professional player is not the only future pathfor being involved in eSports, and there are many others such as
working with an enterprise or event company in the eSports field,
being a streamer, or a game developer.
6.2 Anyone can be involved
In contrast with physical sports, eSports are a level playing
field that anyone can join, regardless of age, sex, disability,
language, physical strength or other factors. This could also
contribute to solving social issues. For example, introducing
eSports into facilities for the elderly could promote communication
between students and elderly people. From the perspective of local
governments, which are highly communal, eSports bring newvalue in that they are highly impartial and equitable.
6.3 Create opportunities locallyWith eSports, anyone can join, and a location does not haveto be found. If participants can get on line, they can compete withanyone in the world, so tournaments can be held at very small
scale, or covering the whole country. This is clearly not possible
with ordinary sports.
6.4 Topicality
eSports is now an often-heard expression, but three years ago,the fact that Yokosuka City was working on it was newsworthy,
and provided good PR that the city was agile and helped infinding interesting talent. From the initial release in 2019 tillnow, we have been called by various media, receiving plenty of
feedback. We have also heard from several enterprises, having readsome of these articles and thinking that Yokosuka City offices
could be a place that would hear their proposals, and this has leadto some actual projects.

7. Disadvantages and issues

A topic that cannot be separated from eSports is video gameaddiction. We spend much time discussing this when starting

the project, but at this stage there have not been any examplesof video game dependency arising from an eSports club. Rather,
we have seen scenarios where students show a surprisingly highlevel of awareness, such as discussing together and deciding how
much time to play. We were also prepared to receive criticism fromparents, but instead, we heard that parents wanted us to introduce
the program in more schools.
Even so, the possibility of game addition is not zero. As
someone promoting eSports, it is also important to ensure thatthose involved have accurate information regarding eSports,
through seminars and hearings, to give them a deeper
understanding of the issues.
One issue that we sensed in running the project was that the
shortage of staff in school education is a major problem. Thisis an issue in school education overall, not related to eSports.
Even when teachers were enthusiastic and wanted to let students
interested in eSports participate, they did not have time they could
allocate to being advisors, there was no space or funding to do it,
and no one that could lead the project. Yokosuka City would liketo provide any support that it can to resolve these types of issues.

8. Support to establish high-school eSports
clubs

8.1 Donating gaming PCs free-of-charge
We have secured the cooperation of INTEL, MSI Computer
Japan, NTT East, and TSUKUMO Inc., to provide up to fivePCs, monitors and peripheral devices free-of-charge for three
years to each of 13 city high schools that want to participate(Figure 2). All of these products were donated to Yokosuka City in
FY2021. Currently, eight schools have introduced the computers.
We had expected that many schools would naturally comeforward when the program was introduced, but in fact, very few
did, and only after we started going to individual schools to recruit
them and explaining the program, they began to join. When we
actually spoke to them, various concerns came to the surface,such as what to do for the network connection, how to pay for thegames themselves, and whether the program could be operated
without a person to lead it. We spoke in detail regarding operation
with each of the clubs to gain their agreement, and based on these
hearings, we added the following two points.

■ Figure 2: Partner companies donating PCs free-of-charge
学 校 対 応 ・ イ ベン ト

PC BrandCon ﬁgur a tio n

Clu b sta r t- u p su p p o r t p r o g r a m

C PU

N e tw o r k / S e c ur ity

Gam i ng d esk t op PC :“ G- GE A R Power ed by MS I”

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■ Figure 3: Structure for PC donations

8.2 Network installation support
Kanagawa prefecture high schools already had NURO
networks for student use, separate from that used by staff, sothese could be used by simply having the participating schools
report it to the prefectural education committee. However, almost
none of the private schools had networks that could be used forclub activity, and new connections had to be arranged. Yokosuka
City provided assistance for the initial costs, which were the firsthurdle.
We have asked each school to bear the running costs, either
through club fees or from the school’s activity fees.
8.3 Support student guidance programs
Some people were happy to receive a Gaming PC, but did notknow where to start with it, or have anyone who could teach thestudents. We realized that rather than starting completely in thedark, participants could only appreciate the attraction of eSports
and set meaningful personal or club goals with training from a
dedicated leader or pro.
As with other issues discussed above, it seemed that it would
be difficult for schools to carry the costs of programs provided byprivate enterprise, so we provided support in the form of course
fees, as a startup support measure.
We thought that it would be good to provide introductions
to various eSports program titles through people we had met forthe project, and by asking the professional eSports teams for theircooperation.
We are already conducting trials with several titles, and they
are meaningful both for students to experience valuable timeand guidance from pros and for businesses and eSports teams
to interact with the younger generation, so we hope that we can
expect even more active interaction in the future.

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New Breeze Summer 2022

9. Description of eSports project

An issue for the overall eSports industry is recognition. We
believe there will be business opportunities, once a culture ofwatching and supporting eSports spreads, and as the surrounding
adults reach a higher level of understanding. Our efforts justwithin Yokosuka City may not have great effect, but we areworking to increase the number of people that understand, even by
one person.
9.1 Seminars
We have held seminars to provide accurate knowledge
regarding eSports, both for businesses and for the general public.
For businesses in particular, we have discussed issues such assponsorship and cultivating a company’s own team.
9.2 eSports facilities
We have taken an approach oriented to high-school club
activity, but the number of PCs made available is much smaller
than the number of students, and time for such activity is limited.
We are also planning eSports facilities to increase opportunities
to try eSports, including pre-high-school students and others who
have finished school.
9.3 eSports tournaments
We have been holding eSports tournaments for high-school
students since FY2020. We hope eventually to invite large-scale
tournaments to Yokosuka City, but we will hold regular regional
tournaments in order to establish the eSports culture in the city.

10. Future objectives

It cannot be denied that some people are still skeptical about
eSports. While we are giving consideration to criticisms ofeSports, we are also actively working to gain understanding of thebenefits of eSports described above, from both business people andthose involved in schools.
Although we are promoting it through informational articles,
SNS and other means, it still feels inadequate. We need tocontinue our current activity on eSports projects, while also
strengthening promotional activities to attract the attention ofmany more people.
It is due to the interactions we have had with many businesses
in the past that we have been able to start and promote theseprojects. By expanding our circle of interaction with people
involved or interested in eSports, we have been able to support
projects.

■ Figure 4: Measures for securing funding

11. Issues and solutions

It is true that there are still many issues to be addressed incontinuing these efforts and having them take root as part of theculture of the city. We discuss various issues and ways to deal withthem below.
11.1 Projects die out due to staff changes
When personnel involved in a project change, it is difficult
for new people to take over the related know-how and personalconnections. It is also difficult to preserve enthusiasm andquality, so it is not unusual for projects to die out. This danger isparticularly high for projects initiated mainly local governments,
where personnel changes are common. To ensure a projectcontinues, it is important to have a key person from a private
enterprise as a partner for the local government organization.
11.2 Securing funding and importance of agility
Two weaknesses of projects led by local governments are thedifficulty in securing funding and the inability to move quickly.
For funding, a budget can be secured through crowd funding, byusing municipal taxes collected from private businesses, or throughsponsorships from collaborating or endorsing businesses.
Having cooperation and the driving force from a key personfrom a private business can help improve agility while also helping
to secure funding (Figure 4).

Finally, as a person in charge of eSports for the city, thefocus on eSports has steadily increased in the three years since
we started this project. As actual studies and reports are saying,
the eSports market is expanding every year, with more and more
people and companies wanting to get involved. We want to use
this time, when it is attracting so much attention, to increase
the number of colleagues that we can form scrums and workwith. By using each of our strengths, we can build an even larger
movement.

Cover Art

12. Conclusion

We have described a full picture of eSports projects conductedby Yokosuka City, but another result of these initiatives is togenerate new types of intergenerational interaction between
students and adults. eSports seem to be able to fill-in age andgeneration gaps easily. We hope that more active exchange
between generations, such as between students and the elderly,
will contribute to revitalization of Yokosuka City in the future.
eSports can also help strengthen communication skills, suchas helping senior students communicate with juniors in club
activity, even though they may be worried about making thoseconnections. It can also provide opportunities for students tocontribute their own strategies, designs, plans for club activities
and other ideas, which will also help them in the future.

kyotomeishonouchi shijogawarayuusuzumi(Cooling off in the Evening at Shijogawara(Famous Places of Kyoto))
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797~1858)
Collection of the Art Research Center (ARC)
Ritsumeikan University
Object number: arcBK06-0013_008

New Breeze Summer 20229

Formation and Other eSports Activities for Disabled Persons
in Gunma Prefecture

Hironari Hamakawa

Esports GM, ONEGAME,ONELIFE Inc.

1. Why use eSports in social services fordisabled persons?
There is increasing awareness of eSports as a new genreof activity for disabled persons being sponsored by many local
governments. Disabled-person eSports has become topical as aform of barrier-free sports that enables people be on the stage as
players, regardless of having a disability. eSports tournaments andchampionships are currently attracting the attention of disabilityrelated facilities at a national level.
Our company first began noticing the potential of eSports fordisabled persons an initiated our eSports business in the winter of2018.
We wanted to give the people with disabilities, who werecoming to a facility every day, a chance to have hopes and dreams,
so we created a facility for life nursing care with an environmentthat enables them to set their sights on becoming eSports
professionals. No similar facilities existed at the time and we hadmany applicants, so it was clear there was much demand in thefield. For the facility, we contracted with a pro team and prepareda fully-equipped training environment, but there were still many
challenges for the players.

■ Figure 1: Mouth mouse■ Figure 2: Mr. Koshizuka’s devices

2. Types of devices for disabled persons
Every person operates devices differently, even when
considering the same type of disability, so finding out how a user
will operate a device can be a challenge. The market for suchdevices is also still small in Japan, so only a limited number ofdevices can be sold.
Consider the example of Mr. Koshizuka, with whom wehave a pro contract. Due to muscular dystrophy, Mr. Koshizuka
has difficulty with ordinary controllers and plays using parts of
his body from the neck upward. The first game-play method
Mr. Koshizuka tried was using line-of-sight as a mouse pointer.
However, this quickly became tiring and it was difficult to play for
longer periods of time.
The second device we tried was a mouth-operated mousecalled a Quad Stick (Figure 1). With this device, mouse operations
are done using the mouth, click operations can be done bybreathing in or out, and button operations can be optionallyconfigured. Mr. Koshizuka was able to do operations reliably, evenwhen playing intensely, so we decided to build a device for him
based on the Quad Stick (Figure 2).
Besides these, he uses ten other devices such as touch-activated

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buttons, buttons that can be pushed using your cheek, and buttons
that attach to the finger tips. He currently uses these devices toplay League of Legends.

3. Disabled person eSports for promotional
purposes

Mr. Koshizuka was able to play the game using the devices inthis example, but that may not be the case for other users. Devices
must be built suited to each person. Many types of devices are alsoneeded to build device configurations for each person, and much
more activity in the device market is needed to produce the devices
for these configurations. Having eSports for disabled persons will
help to build this market.
We have engaged in activities to gather disabled competitors
nationally and raise awareness of eSports for disabled people.

As the next step in this activity, we worked to expand activities
nation-wide and in 2019 we held the first eSports Tournament
for disabled persons in Japan. All participants were players withdisabilities. We had a capacity for 20 participants, but when we
began recruiting, we received more than expected—almost 30
applications! This gave us a strong impression that it was a big step
toward the future.
For the 2019 disabled-person eSports tournament, we
provided coaching to players before the tournament, so that even
beginners could participate easily. We also included various otheraspects into the tournament for people with no knowledge or priorinterest in eSports, to promote their interest.
Then, as the tournament day approached, we also held events
to make sports culture in Gunma prefecture more interesting andattract them to the event, such as having a parasports area, andholding eSports tournaments for disabled persons and the generalpublic.
However, there were still significant issues to resolve, since
there had never been an eSports tournament that enabled disabled
people to play to their own satisfaction. For example, the slope tothe stage was not designed with proper consideration for wheel
chairs, or the desks could not be adjusted for the heights ofwheelchairs, which differ for each person. There were manyother issues that do not need to be considered at other eSports
tournaments, such as people who tend to panic under harshlighting, how to contact participants that are hard of hearing, andhow to accommodate people requiring meal management or othertypes of care.

As soon as the tournament finished, we took feedback fromit and started a business for the next step. We really felt that thetournament had been a place where disabled persons were able
to take action, so as our next task we set out to create a training
space, so that disabled people could set their sights on reachingthat place.
We spent one year to complete the Onegame office, and it
opened in July, 2020. We received many inquiries, from within
and outside of Gunma prefecture and it became popular with
our users. For training, we had professionals from the training
industry to create video materials, and participants learned bywatching them.
Having only oral or written guidance can be difficult tounderstand, so we provided support suited to individuals’
disabilities, and we found that some of our enrollees were able tolearn extremely quickly.
Many participants did not feel comfortable with regular social
services for disabled people, and many were interested in becoming
eSports pros, so we also provide training in business manners andskills, to help them find work through eSports.
At the time it was a very new experiment and we had
difficulty working with the public administration and gamecompanies, but now the reputation of the program has improved
considerably and we have almost reached our capacity ofparticipants.

■ Figure 3: Disabled person eSports tournament winningteam

5. Regional establishment of Onegame andfranchising

By providing these improvements, we believe that disabledperson eSports can enable disabled persons to have hopes anddreams, and stand up on the stage. The first tournament in Japan,
in 2019, created a strong reaction in various media and the event

really showed how it could grow (Figure 3).

4. Start of the Onegame businessWe wanted Onegame to develop associated with the region, so
we worked to create an overall eSports facility suited to the region.
For example, in Ota City there are eSports departments in boththe Gunma prefecture offices and the municipal offices, and theadministrations are putting effort into eSports, so our Onegame
efforts helped to increase interest in eSports in people and to build
excitement in the region.
Other efforts included an event with SEGA, the developerof “Puyo Puyo eSports,” and collaboration with UBISOFT,
the developer of “Rainbow Six Siege,” which provided about1000 T-shirts commemorating the tournament. The tournament
seemed to raise the level of excitement for eSports in the wholegaming industry.
Several photographs from our Onegame efforts are included
here. Figure 4 is from an event held at Onegame in April 2021,
using Puyo Puyo. This was the first event planned in which
we had people competing in the facility from both the Gunma
Prefecture and the Ota City eSports Clubs.
We were able to hold an event very closely tied to the region,
using the whole facility, with people enrolled in the MC course
providing commentary and play-by-play for Puyo Puyo and acting
as master-of-ceremonies for the event, people enrolled in the

New Breeze Summer 202211event course handling relations with the various companies andoperating the event, and people enrolled in the player course,
dealing with competitors, eSports clubs and the competition.
Even though conditions are still bad due to COVID-19, weare preparing an environment that allow us to hold events formembers of the public, as we do for disabled persons.
Onegame provides a place that disabled persons can go tocommunicate with their local region and be involved in activities
that enliven the region through eSports.
With the Onegame business we are also offering franchises.
By franchising, people from throughout Japan will be able tocome to a place that previously only existed in Gunma Prefecture,and there will be more opportunities to learn in areas that were
not possible earlier, with Type-B continuous work support.
We decided to franchise Onegame to provide suitable learning
environments and to expand eSports activity.
After we started Onegame, we have seen many facilities
throughout the country adopting eSports. However, there reallywere no facilities with learning environments suited to disabled
people. Among the people who inquired at Onegame, there werepeople who had been going to other facilities providing eSports,
but the staff at those facilities did not provide any support, andonly provided an environment where games could be played freely.
Most of these facilities were providing eSports without permission
from the game companies, while Onegame certainly obtains

permission and also provides support.
In addition to playing games, we also provide an educational
environment that enables people to communicate and have contact
with people from outside, through eSports. By having richer
communication and contact with people from outside, users
can increase their confidence and become more positive about
gaining employment. Thus, eSports training at Onegame provides
education that has value for people, regardless of disability.
This type of training, available throughout Japan only at
Onegame, also provides support suitable for those looking forwork, through eSports.
We also hope to build an eSports economy with ourfranchises, so that disabled people interested in eSports work
can learn at Onegame in each region, help to build up the region
through Onegame, and thus promote hiring of disabled people.
After we have increased the number of franchise branches,
we have a vision for other activities only possible in Japan, such asplanning a para-eSports pro league and creating a disabled-person
eSports tournament brand.
We want to make progress each day, to enable even one
disabled person find a job or make progress toward their dreamthrough eSports education.
These activities also represent what we want to give back to allof those who have enjoyed and supported Onegame.
Onegame will set up the basics for franchises, and will provide■ Figure 4: From the left: Gunma Prefecture agency eSports Club, Ota City eSports department

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New Breeze Summer 2022

support for building them to owners after that.
The goal of ONELIFE Co. Ltd. is to be an education
business providing training for people’s dreams, so with each new
franchise branch, we hope to establish Onegame in a new form.

6. Gunma eSports Association
On a slightly different topic, we also have activities toexpand eSports to a wider range of people. The Gunma eSports
Association is the first eSports organization in Gunma Prefecture.
The association promotes eSports in Gunma, increasing the
population engaging in eSports, and creates enjoyable spaces forchildren using PCs and other devices to build interest in IT.
One of our activities to expand eSports was in Ota Cityin Gunma Prefecture. We held an eSports tournament incollaboration with a hot-springs resort called Yurabu and aninternet café called Zima (Figure 5). The event was also intended
as tourism PR for Ota City, so prizes for the tournament included
items such as admission to the Yurabu hot-springs resort. This was
so that visitors to the event would also see the allure of the hotsprings. The tournament attracted many participants, includingchildren and adults, and was quite lively.
Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has required more
restrictions, but even during the pandemic, we have been looking
for opportunities for activities with players.
Post COVID-19, many individual shops had closed dueto the drop in sales during the pandemic, so we are planningeSports events to invigorate towns that have lost energy during the
pandemic.
Onegame is working with the Gunma eSports Association,
consulting with everyone in the Ota City eSports department
regarding the event, including tourism PR. We have set a goal of
making Ota City in Gunma Prefecture a community enlivened by
eSports in 2022.
Finally, we will introduce initiatives involving disability,
eSports and medical treatment. Some people still believe thateSports can lead to gaming addiction. As such, we plan to conduct
a survey this year in collaboration with Gunma University,
regarding what benefits eSports could have for disabled persons.
With eSports, players must use their heads to think and hands
to control a keyboard or mouse when they play, so we expectthat it could have effects such as rehabilitating brain function
or training hands or feet. In preliminary experiments for thisresearch, we attached instruments to a player’s head while playing
a game and gained valuable data showing large changes in activity
in the frontal lobe of the brain. As this research progresses, we
may find that eSports can be applied to rehabilitate a wide rangeof disabilities, such as dementia in the elderly, or for physicalrehabilitation.
We will continue activities to raise awareness of eSports, tofurther expand their potential.

■ Figure 5: Yurabu tournament

New Breeze Summer 2022

13

54th Celebration of World Telecommunication andInformation Society Day
The ITU Association of Japan
Planning Department■ Ceremony at the Keio Plaza Hotel, TokyoOn May 17, 2022 for the first time in three years, the ITU
Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) held the “54th Celebration ofWorld Telecommunication and Information Society Day” at
the Keio Plaza Hotel in Nishishinjuku, Tokyo. It was attended
by approximately 90 guests from the Japanese government,
telecommunications and broadcasting industries and other relatedorganizations. The event was also posted on YouTube.
■ Award winners and Honorable guests

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The event began with greetings from the Honorable Mr.
NAKANISHI Yusuke, State Minister for Internal Affairs andCommunications (MIC) and Mr. HARA Keiichi, Deputy
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs (MOFA). This wasfollowed by a report on the selection of award recipients for thisyear, by Dr. TOKUDA Hideyuki, Chair of the ITU-AJ Award
Selection Board, and presentations of the MIC Minister’s Award
and ITU-AJ Awards.
The MIC Minister’s Award was presented to Dr.
SATO Kohei, of the National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology (NICT), who has made great
contributions to international standardization efforts in wirelesscommunications through the ITU and APT, held various key
positions at the APT, and contributed to discussion on nextgeneration standards in Japan at the Beyond 5G New
Management Strategy Center.
The ITU-AJ Special Achievement Award was presented
to Dr. ASAKAWA Chieko, of the IBM Corporation and
the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation(Miraikan), for her efforts improving accessibility in informationand communication technology as a researcher who is blind andcontributions to standardization.
ITU-AJ Accomplishment Awards were also presented

to 11 recipients, and ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards to 18
recipients, in recognition of their achievements contributing to
ITU activities or ITU-related activities in Japan, to implementing
the basic declaration and action plan at the World Summit on the
Information Society, to international cooperation in the fields ofinformation, communication, broadcasting and postal services,and to other achievements in international activities related to
information, communication and broadcasting.
After the awards ceremony, there was an anniversary keynote
presentation by Dr. ASAKAWA Chieko, recipient of the Special
Achievement Award, on the theme, “The Future: An Inclusive
Society via Science and Technology”.
Scenes from the ceremony have been posted on the ITU-AJ
web site and can be viewed at the following URL:
https://www.ituaj.jp/?page_id=27274 (Japanese only)Award recipients will be introduced in the next and following issuesof New Breeze.

■ MIC Minister’s Award winner
Dr. SATOH Kohei■ ITU-AJ Special Achievement Awardwinner Dr. ASAKAWA Chieko

The List of the Award Winners on 17 May 2022
MIC Minister's Award
Dr. SATOH Kohei (National Institute of Information andCommunications Technology)

ITU-AJ Special Achievement Award■ Honorable Guest :Mr. NAKANISHI Yusuke
State Minister, MIC

Dr. ASAKAWA Chieko (IBM Fellow, IBM Corporation
Chief Executive Director, Miraikan- The National Museum of Emerging
Science and Innovation)

ITU-AJ Accomplishment Awards
Dr. OTSUKI Sinya (NTT)Mr. OBATA Kenji (Japan Cable Laboratories)
Mr. KAWANISHI Motoharu (OKI Consulting Solutions)
Prof. TAKADA Jun-ichi (Tokyo Institute of Technology)
Mr. TANAKA Hidemi
Mr. TOCHIO Yuji (Fujitsu)
Dr. NAKAJIMA Isao (Seisa University)
Mr. FUKUYAMA Masafumi (NTT e-Asia)
Mr. HOTTA Akio (BHN)
Ms. HONDO Eriko (KDDI)Mr. YOKOYAMA Takahiro (ARIB)■ Honorable Guest :Mr. HARA Keiichi Deputy AssistantMinister, MOFAITU-AJ Encouragement Awards
Mr. AKIYAMA Shinsaku (NTT DOCOMO)
Mr. IIZUKA Hiroto (NEC)Mr. ISOHARA Takamasa (KDDI Research)
Mr. ITO Fumito (JAPAN BROADCASTING)
Mr. INOUE Yoshihiro (NTT Advanced Technology)
Mr. OKUGAWA Yuichiro (NTT)Dr. KUMAGAI Shinya (NTT DOCOMO)
Mr. KUMAKI Yuichi (NTT EAST)
Mr. KUMAMARU Kazuhiro (JAPAN BROADCASTING)
Mr. SAITO Susumu (JAPAN BROADCASTING)
Dr. SHIMODAIRA Hidekazu (NTT DOCOMO)
Mr. TAKEDA Hiroki (KDDI)
Ms. TANIDA Hisako (NTT DOCOMO)
Mr. HARADA Takashi (OKI)
Mr. FUTAKI Hisashi (NEC)Mr. HOYA Kazuhiro (FUJI TELEVISION NETWORK)
Mr. MAEGAWA Takanori (NTT EAST)
Mr. YOSHIDA Shinji (KDDI Foundation)■ Anniversary Keynote Presentation:
Dr. ASAKAWA Chieko

New Breeze Summer 202215

= A Serial Introduction Part 2 =Winners of ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards 2021
In May every year, The ITU Association of Japan (ITU-AJ) proudly presents ITU-AJ Encouragement Awards to people who have madeoutstanding contributions in the field of international standardization and have helped in the ongoing development of ICT.
These Awards are also an embodiment of our sincere desire to encourage further contributions from these individuals in the future.
If you happen to run into these winners at another meeting in the future, please say hello to them.
But first, as part of the introductory series of Award Winners, allow us to introduce some of those remarkable winners.

Fumito Kubota

Telecom Engineering Center
https://www.telec.or.jp/eng/
Fields of activity: ITU-R SG 1 Rapporteur, liaise with CISPR on WPT Issues

Study of Wireless Power Transmission (WPT)
I was nominated as a liaison rapporteur with CISPR,onwireless power transmission (WPT) at the ITU-R SG-1 meeting
held in June 2015.
The study of WPT technology began at CCIR in the 1970s as
a response to the photovoltaic satellite project. The development oftechnology for transmitting energy by radio waves, which is not as
far as geosynchronous orbit, was conducted using beam-type WPT.
However, with the invention of magnetic field resonance technology
in 2007, which can extend induction coupling and transmit energy
for several meters, the need for proximity WPT expanded suddenly.
In response, SG 1 expanded Question 210/1 on WPT in 2013 tostimulate study. This non-beam type WPT was recognized as oneof the most useful technologies for charging electric vehicles (EV)and mobile/portable equipment. International standardization
organizations (e.g., IEC, ISO) and product manufacturer
associations had started to develop product standards. The goal of
study in ITU-R was to formulate recommendations on frequencies
for WPT operation, considering responsibility for managing global
frequency spectrum utilization plans.
Since WARC-79, SG 1 has a history of cooperating withCISPR, which formulates international standards to suppress
radio interference by ISM equipment in radio services.

Kunihiko Toumura

However, there were no CISPR standard limits below 150
kHz, at frequencies expected to be used for EV WPT (WPTEV). Therefore, SG 1 requested the cooperation of CISPR
again and decided to appoint a liaison rapporteur who had beensuspended for a while. Japan agreed to this and I was nominated.
WRC-15 requested ITU-R urgently to study WPT-EV, WP
1B was in charge of compiling the CPM report for WRC-19. It
was a four-year period in which each country had keen interest
and conducted in-depth discussion. During this time, work wascontinuing actively at CISPR as well. Of course, there weredisagreements, and some issues still remain, but there was also across-country collaborations.
As a result of effort by each country, before the deadline forsubmitting the report to WRC-19, SG 1 completed study on theoperating-frequency recommendations for WPT-EV and also
mobile/portable equipment as guidance to the Administrations. The
ITU's recommended frequency band of 79-90 kHz for WPT-EV
laid the foundation for global interoperability of WPT-EV. This
was a great achievement in showing the world that the ITU is theleading international organization in the use of frequency spectra.
It was an unexpected joy to be able to participate in such ameaningful activity.

Hitachi, Ltd.
https://www.hitachi.com/rd/
Fields of activity: IoT Interoperability

Contributing to standardization with running code
It is a great honor for me to receive the Encouragement Award
from the ITU Association of Japan ITU. I’d like to take thisopportunity to thank everyone that has supported me.
The W3C Web of Things Working Group, in which I
participate, is promoting standardization to interconnect siloed
IoT systems. When I first joined, I had my hands full trying tocatch up with what kind of standardization was underway, but

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New Breeze Summer 2022

gradually I began to think about how I could contribute to thisstandardization discussion.
In WoT, an event called "Plugfest" is held in parallel withthe discussion to define specifications. Each participant brings
their IoT devices and applications to propose new specifications
that they think are necessary, to verify whether there are any
omissions in the specifications. I decided to contribute to thestandardization discussion by bringing my own implementation.
At the time, I was also involved in contributing to Node-RED,a low-code programming tool supported by many developers in
the IoT field, so I thought that linking Node-RED and WoT
would facilitate the development of IoT applications and promote
the advantages of WoT. We developed a tool that automaticallygenerates functional blocks for Node-RED from the Thing
Description defined by the WoT, and demonstrated it at Plugfest.
We believe that the development of this tool has helped
promote standardization as a "working" use case for the WoT andhas made it easier to understand the characteristics of the WoT in
facilitating interconnection of IoT platforms.

Jiro Nagao

Currently, as a co-editor of the device discovery function
being developed under the new charter, I am examining ways
to standardize it in a manner that is compatible with the device
discovery functions defined by existing IoT platforms. I would
like to develop an easy-to-use standard by communicating thestandardization content and its merits in an easy-to-understandmanner and feeding back the knowledge gained from
implementations to the standardization content, and by promoting
open-source implementation of the tool in parallel.
(Node-RED is a registered trademark or trademark of the
OpenJS Foundation in the United States and other countries.)

NTT Human Informatics Laboratories
https://group.ntt/en/
Fields of activity: ITU-T SG16

Immersive Live Experience (ILE) Standardization activity in ITU-T SG16
It is a great honor to receive the Encouragement Award
from the ITU Association of Japan. I would like to take thisopportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all those involved –ITU-AJ, current and former supervisors, seniors and colleagues in
NTT Group and participants in ITU-T and other SDO meetings.
I have been engaged with ITU-T SG16 since 2019, instandardization activities for Immersive Live Experience (ILE),
which enables highly-realistic (immersive), real-time transmissionof events to remote locations. I acted as an editor of ITU-T
H.430.4 (MMT Profile for ILE), where I encouraged sample
codes based on working implementations to ensure interoperability
and lower the implementation barrier. As an editor for ITU-T
H.430.5 (ILE Presentation Environments), I organized theclassification of ILE presentation environments, and fostered thedevelopment of the presentation environment reference models
comprising multiple options. I also led the development of theimplementation guidelines.

Kazunori Fujita

I bel ieve the post-COV ID world, where remotecommunication is a new norm, has the potential to bring the worldcloser and to the higher level of equity. For example, many ITU-T
SG meetings have been held virtually. This made participationeasier for some people who had been unable to do so because of
distance, time, financial or physical constraints. However, torealize more natural and intuitive communication, as if you are
physically present, transmission of events with more than justaudio and video is essential. ILE was developed for this purpose,and there have been five Recommendations regarding ILE,
namely: requirements, framework, service scenario, MMT profile,and presentation environments. Further enhancement of ILE is
also necessary, to accommodate other senses such as vibrotactile
sensation, touch, heat, and smell. ITU’s role to interconnect
everyone in the world is now more important than ever before. I
would like to continue contributing to realize such a world.

KDDI FOUNDATION
https://www.kddi-foundation.or.jp/
Fields of activity: International Cooperation Department

Activities toward Eliminating the Digital Divide and Encouraging SDGs in
the Field of International Cooperation
At this time, I would like to express my deep appreciation
on receiving an ITU-AJ Encouragement Award. I would also
like to thank from the bottom of my heart all those at ITU-AJ
who have offered me their assistance in the past. The KDDI
Foundation was founded in October 2009 through the integrationof the International Communication Fund (ICF) founded in 1988
and KDD Engineering Consulting (KEC) founded in 1974. In

addition, it was reorganized as a public interest corporation topromote activities for the public good in April 2012. This year
marks the 13th anniversary of its founding. The pillars of the work
performed by the KDDI Foundation are international cooperation
projects and grant programs.
Based on the idea that the benef its of informationcommunications should be spread throughout society and that

New Breeze Summer 202217

information-communications should contribute to world harmonyand sound development, the KDDI Foundation has been involved
in social contribution activities and Sustainable Development Goal
(SDG) activities both in Japan and overseas with the mission ofcontributing to sustainable growth in international society. To
help eliminate the international digital divide that has arisen incountries in the Asia-Pacific region, the KDDI Foundation has

Takae Minemura

been carrying out these social-contribution and SDG activities
by cooperating with the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT) andgovernment agencies of member countries and promoting various
types of surveys, training programs, and trials. In this way, we aim
to contribute to activities for the public good and to international
exchanges as a Japanese public interest corporation.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation
http://www.ntt-east.co.jp/en/
Fields of activity: Global Business Development

JICA Project for Development of Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for
Disaster Control in Bhutan
I am very honored to receive this ITU-AJ Encouragement
Award at this time. I would like to express sincere thanks to the
ITU Association of Japan and everyone else involved for theirencouragement and guidance.
This project began in November, 2018, with the goal ofdeveloping and enabling operation of the first BCP at Bhutan
Telecom (BT) for disaster control. It started with instruction on
basic questions like “What is a BCP?” and went on to develop
the BCP basic policies. Through repeated disaster-measuredrills, the code of conduct for disasters was created, and BT’s
BCMS (Business Continuity Management System) was officiallylaunched. BT’s BCP and its activities were expanded horizontallyto relevant local agencies, and in December, 2021, all work wascompleted. Currently, BT is operating the BCMS reliably, on its
own.

Noboru Yoshikane

The environment in Bhutan is completely different from Japanand BT had very little disaster experience, so it was not easy todevelop the first BCP with them. However, with the passion of
the Japanese experts, the enthusiastic guidance from everyone at
JICA, the strong leadership of BT management, and the sincere
attitude of the BT employees, we were able to complete the projectsuccessfully.
Although every day felt frantic and worrisome during
the project as part of the technical support, upon reflection I
personally learned so much from all of the participants from
Bhutan and Japan, in terms of technology, thinking, attitude andother factors. I hope to be able to use this experience in the future
in collaboration with people in Japan and overseas, to contributeto developing Japanese information and communications together
with Bhutan and other countries.

KDDI CORPORATION
https://www.kddi-research.jp/english
Fields of activity: ITU-T SG15

Standardization activities of OTN interfaces
At this time, I would like to express my appreciation to allconcerned on receiving this ITU-AJ Encouragement Award andto sincerely thank ITU-AJ and everyone involved for their efforts
in holding this ceremony.
Since 2006, I have been participating in standardization
activities at ITU-T SG15 in relation to the Optical Transport
Network (OTN). In particular, I have been involved with the
OTN interface used by nearly 100% of the world’s terrestrial core
optical networks by making contributions and proposals on carrier
requirements and drafting related Recommendations. I was also
fortunate in having the opportunity to work with both domestic
and overseas network carriers and network equipment vendors
in jointly tackling a variety of problems too difficult to solve
independently. In addition, I was able to collaborate with a number

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of people outside the company in promoting the standardizationof an Ethernet transport system on OTN and contributing to thedrafting of an OTN Interface Recommendation for transmission
speeds in excess of 100G and the drafting of a Flexible OTNInterface Recommendation that could achieve a beyond 100GOTN interface by bundling multiple physical interfaces. This wasa rare experience that I cherish.
Going forward, I see the role of the OTN as not just to carrycommunication traffic but also to support society as a social
infrastructure that can help solve a variety of social issues. With
this in mind, I will continue in my efforts to contribute to theconstruction of the OTN as a technical foundation for achievinga safe, secure, and highly reliable information-communications
network.

Huang Jingyi, Hiroshi Komatsu, Kentaro Sakata, Shiro Fukumoto

SoftBank Corp.

https://www.softbank.jp/en/corp/
Fields of activity: ITU-R WP5D, APG, AWG

Standardization Activities for Implementing HIBS
I am sincerely grateful to receive this ITU Encouragement
Award at this time.
Our team has been in charge of international standardization
activities, mainly with ITU-R and related to International Mobile
Telecommunications (IMT). Since 2017, we have been involvedin standardization activities relating to High Altitude Platform
Stations (HAPS) providing IMT, referred to as High Altitude
Platform Stations as IMT base stations (HIBS). Currently, we are
studying use of frequencies below 2.7 GHz for HIBS in ITU-R
WP 5D, including sharing studies using other systems and any
associated regulations. This falls under WRC-23 agenda item 1.4,
which was established at WRC-19 based on proposals from Japanand other countries.
This was our first experience establishing a WRC agenda
item, and our struggles to make progress as a team, withdiscussion every day late into the night, is still a fresh memory.
The most challenging part was gathering support from other

Kentaro Sakata(main author)

countries and regions. We participated in ITU-R meetings andregional preparatory meetings and also sub-region meetingsand small workshops to meet face-to-face with delegates fromeach country. We explained why HIBS is an effective solution
for expanding mobile connectivity, and why frequency bands
for HIBS need to be expanded. This activity also taught us
how important it is to have a meeting of minds for work on
international standardization. Swimming in the Brazilian oceanwith meeting participants, and dancing till late at night at theAfrican sub-region meeting with members from various countries
still remain as good memories.
In the future, we plan to have further meaningful discussion
with the Japanese delegations and members from other countries
and regions and hope to reach the best possible conclusion toward
our WRC-23 goal of expanding the frequency bands for HIBS.
I hope all who have been involved in the discussion will continue
their guidance and support.

Croix.,Co.Ltd.

https://croix.asia/en/
Fields of activity: Considering that “Maintaining Mental Health is an important global issue for realizing SDGs,”

we are focusing our efforts on healing music for the human mind. In long collaboration withthe medical field, we are using technologies like AI and Big Data to develop unique healing
content, and actively expanding in regions like China, India and Africa. Continuing activity inthis area is promising for the future.

Changing meditation and sleep around the world		
We are very grateful to receive this ITU-AJ Encouragement
Award. We would like to express sincere thanks to everyone
involved at the ITU Association of Japan.
According to our company concept that “All of our conduct
shall be based on a conviction that we can change meditationand sleep around the world,” we continue to develop sounds andimages in collaboration with medical facilities, medical doctors
and other specialists, as well as subscription services and managed
treatment devices. These are provided to customers through threechannels: our “App & Online business,” our "Meditation & Sleep
Content business,” and our “Healing EC business.”

In the future, we plan to expand the current three businesses
and also build a well-being platform service that will link
everything required to achieve quality meditation and sleep, fromtravel and lodging, to housing, and even to insurance.
There are still many challenges to solve in realizing thebusiness concept for which we received this award, but we
intend to change meditation and sleep around the world, using
technologies created by everyone participating in the ITU andto take on a role of connecting the hearts and minds of people.
We hope for your continued encouragement and support in thisendeavor.

New Breeze Summer 2022

19

Next Generation DTTB (Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting) Task Force
DiBEG

https://www.dibeg.org/
Fields of activity: N ext Generation DTTB

Collaboration on next generation terrestrial broadcasting with countries
adopting ISDB-T

Since ISDB-T broadcasting service first started in 2003
in Japan, 20 countries have adopted ISDB-T. Meanwhile,collaboration with ISDB-T adopting countries has matured. In
particular, the relationship between Japan and Brazil, the first andthe second ISDB-T adopting countries, has deepened over the
decades.
Almost 20 years have passed since ISDB-T was standardized.
During that time, there have been various technical advancementsin the broadcasting field. Nowadays, countries that initially began
ISDB-T broadcasting service are starting to consider the nextgeneration broadcasting system, using new technologies. In Japan,
we have been studying advanced digital terrestrial broadcasting
systems since 2019, under the auspices of the Information andCommunications Council of the MIC. Similarly in Brazil, they
started the call for technical proposals for their next-generation

Kohei Kambara(main author,
taken at SET EXPO 2019)

terrestrial broadcasting system in 2020. As such, the Next
Generation DTTB Task Force has been working to harmonize
the next generation broadcasting technologies between Japan andBrazil.
Since 2020, activities have been limited to on-line
communications due to the COV ID-19 pandemic. The
time difference between Japan and Brazil is 12 hours, so
online meetings have been conducted at 8:00 am Japan timeand 8:00 pm Brazil time, or vice-versa. Although there areadvantages of working on-line, such as the ability to meet more
frequently, serious disadvantages exist when performing tests
or demonstrations using actual equipment. We look forward
to resuming real interaction, and accelerating collaboration in
the field of next-generation broadcasting technologies with ourcolleagues worldwide.

Japan Battery Regeneration, Inc.
https://jpn-bat.com/en/
Fields of activity: Battery regeneration

Reduction of Digital Divide & Contribution to the environment
We received an encouragement prize from ITU-AJ and feelgreatly honored. We’d like to express our sincere appreciation
for assistance we received from ITU-AJ, MIC and others. We
exhibited at ITU Telecom World 2015 in Budapest, and received
an Entrepreneurship Award. We also participated in ITU
Telecom World in 2016 (Bangkok) and 2019 (Budapest). We
submitted contribution documents to ITU-D Study Group in2016 and 2020 through ITU-AJ.
We have been working on ITU related topics based on thetheme, “Reduction of Digital Divide and contribution to theenvironment”.
We produce and market an additive (Super-K) for lead-acidbatteries, which can extend battery life and with which old,abandoned batteries can be regenerated and re-used. We haveexperience regenerating and re-using thousands of old lead-acidbatteries from telecom towers in Bangladesh. By regenerating old

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abandoned lead-acid batteries, those batteries can be re-used forconstruction of small-scale network systems, or re-used for offgrid communication systems in non-electrified regions such as
remote islands and rural areas. With such applications, we think
we can contribute for reducing the digital divide. Inappropriate
disposal of abandoned batteries is also a serious problem for theenvironment, and our technology can contribute to reducing
industrial waste.
We will keep working so our technology can be widely utilized
to reduce the cost and extend the life of batteries and to re-use oldbatteries around the world. We’d like to contribute to and support
SDGs in areas that preserve the environment by stopping mass
production, mass consumption and mass disposal, create clean
energy for everybody, and promote sustainable consumption andproduction.

Standards for Connecting the World ThroughTechnological Innovation- Nomination for the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau Telecommunications technologies have brought about the information society and promoted digital society around theworld, and are supporting the progress of digital transformation. Its impact on people's lives, industries and society has been
growing in recent years. ITU-T continues to play a role in ensuring technology evolution and its timely deployment throughout
the world. Mr. Onoe’s leadership will contribute greatly to the realization of a vision that brings inclusive, sustainable andreliable society through the worldwide spread of technology standards that result in the deployment of meaningful andaffordable broadband connections all over the world. Here, the Government of Japan nominates him for the Director of the
ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau and would like to seek your support for him.

Extensive International Experiencein Standardization and Management- Leading the evolution of generation forthe mobile communications network- Abundant experience in organization
management- Active in standardization organizations
and forums- Work on ITU related activities

Mr. ONOE has extensive experience in international standardization andmanagement. He has led the evolution of the mobile communications network
through standardization initiatives and global coordination, and is known as “theFather of LTE”. Mr.ONOE’s experience, capabilities and tested management skills
will surely be a driving force for ITU-T activities.

通巻百三十五号

定価一冊

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