YOKOHAMA’S MAJOR INDUSTRIESMOBILITY
Hotbed of innovation in next-generation
mobilityTourists visiting Yokohama might soon be able to move fromone sightseeing spot to another on self-driving minibuses. The
latest of a growing number of next-generation mobility field tests
conducted in Yokohama, the pilot program announced by thecity in partnership with NTT Docomo Inc., Japan’s top share mobile phone operator, and Mirai Share Co., Ltd., a smart mobility
startup, involves a fleet of 10 on-demand, artificial intelligence(AI)-driven minibuses that shuttle tourists between sightseeing
spots in the Minato Mirai 21 and Kannai Districts. The programis scheduled to start field testing in October 2018. Using this service, tourists will be able to easily hail self-driving minibuses
from an app on their smartphone.

The City of Yokohama has become a hotbed of open innovation
projects involving Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence(AI), robotics etc., and has recently seen a number of exciting developments spearheaded by the IoT Open Innovation Platform
Yokohama (ITOP Yokohama), the city’s digital innovation platform, and major industry partners. In particular, Yokohama is
now recognized as one of the leading cities to host various fieldtests involving self-driving technology, due to a combination offavorable factors: the city’s long-held tradition of public-private
sector collaboration and its well-established automotive industry
cluster.

NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD., often cited as the face of theYokohama automotive sector, has taken a leading role in collaborating with the municipal government in mobility-relatedexperiments. As an effort to encourage low-carbon emission
transportation, NISSAN MOTOR and the climate change policy headquarters of the city have collaborated since 2013 to fieldtest Choimobi Yokohama, an eco-friendly miniature vehicle withzero CO2 emissions. Since March of 2017, these vehicles havebeen chauffeuring Yokohama residents through an experimental
roundtrip car-sharing (hourly car-rental) program. In December
2017, NISSAN MOTOR and DeNA Co., Ltd., a mobile portal ande-commerce website provider that also owns the local professional baseball team Yokohama DeNA BayStars, announced that theywill be starting field tests in the Minato Mirai 21 District for Easy
Ride, a smart mobility ride-hailing service that deploys a fleet ofself-driving cabs. Their goal is to launch full-fledged service inthe city in the early 2020s.
DeNA has also been working with the municipal government
since April 2017 on a project to resolve local traffic challenges using driverless vehicle services and AI, and the Kanazawa Zoo inthe southernmost district of the city has been running a driverless
bus service as a field test. The city of Yokohama has proudly hosted more than 300 pilot projects in the past 10 years with various
industrial partners, attesting to its true passion for innovation andcollaboration.

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A thriving automotive cluster gearing up forcollaborative opportunities
Yokohama has long been a center for automotive and automotive parts industries. Major establishments of leading Japanesecompanies, such as NISSAN MOTOR’s global headquarters andlaboratories, Mazda Motor Corporation’s R&D center, Panasonic Corporation’s Automotive Sales Division and Panasonic ITS
Co., Ltd. which develops car electronics and navigation systems,
are all located in the region. Thirteen of the world’s 30 top international automotive parts suppliers or their subsidiaries, suchas Robert Bosch GmbH, Continental Aktiengesellschaft, ZF
Friedrichshafen AG, and Adient plc have also chosen Yokohama
as the location for their Japanese headquarters or research institutions. These companies are engaged in R&D in the fields ofIT, new material and batteries, in order to play an active role ininnovative motorization, automation, and Mobility as a Service(MaaS) developments. NISSAN MOTOR has established its Mobility Service Institute adjacent to its Yokohama headquarters,and DENSO CORPORATION its Agile Development Centernear Shin-Yokohama station. France-based Faurecia’s Japanesesubsidiary announced in 2018 that it will open a technology development center in Yokohama to accelerate its joint development
efforts with Japanese auto-manufacturers.

Efforts are underway by many of these top automotive companies to identify and form partnerships with promising venturebusinesses in the region and to spur open innovation with non-automotive industries. These auto-makers are hoping to better position themselves in the era of Industry 4.0 by taking in the latest
technologies being developed by these venture firms, namely inareas such as AI, new materials, and robotics. ITOP Yokohama,
the city’s IT innovation platform, supports collaboration among
venture businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs),
major companies, universities and research institutions by providing spaces for networking, knowledge exchange, and joint humanresources development.

Besides the acceleration in partnerships with major auto-manufacturers, some of the emerging mobility firms in Yokohama are
attracting attention in Japan and abroad for their in-house technologies. For example, WHILL, Inc., a hardware venture business
which develops electric wheelchairs and other personal mobilitydevices, won the Best of Innovation Award at the 2018 Consumer
Electronics Show (CES). Another example is ITD Lab Corporation, a Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITECH) startup venture
specialized in the development of stereo cameras, an importantpart of self-driving and collision prevention systems for automobiles and drones.

Yokohama’s robust research community is also playing a crucialrole in furthering the competitiveness of the city’s mobility sector. TITECH and Keio University have campuses and laboratories
based in Yokohama that are conducting cutting-edge research onfuturistic vehicles and mobility. Yokohama National University(YNU) has established a Next Urban Laboratory that aims to foster collaboration between regional actors and promote research
projects in various interdisciplinary fields including mobility.
Nearly 40 organizations, including companies such as NISSAN
MOTOR, IHI Corporation, Komatsu Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd., local
universities, research institutes, local government offices and financial institutions have all joined this project as official partners.
Furthermore, YNU is a satellite member of a large-scale Centerof Innovation (COI) program called the “Center for Co-evolutionary Research for Sustainable Communities (C2RSC),” which isheadquartered in Kyushu University and jointly run by government, industry, and academia partners from around the nation.
The program conducts various R&D projects under the broad
themes of energy, mobility and civic service, and YNU operates asatellite COI focused on smart & multimodal mobility (SMMM).
The central aim of the YNU COI satellite is to conduct researchthat will lead to the development of a mobility solution that issustainable, safe, secure, and easily available, which will lay theground for building an inclusive city for all residents.

Initiatives
ITOP Yokohama: An innovation platform for collaboration and exchange, project implementation, and human resources development to spur the growth of new businesses in IoT, big data, AI, and robotics, while capitalizing on Yokohama’s existing manufacturing
and IT industries. In order to qualify for membership, companies/organizations/universities must be interested in engaging in open
innovation to design new products or services using IoT etc., and either already work with SMEs or plan to involve SMEs in theirprospective projects.

December 2018

References• Adient: https://car.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1030917.html• AI buses by NTT Docomo & Mirai Share: http://www.city.yokohama.jp/ne/news/press/201810/images/phpS9djli.pdf• Auto-manufacturers accelerating collaboration with venture firms: https://www.sankeibiz.jp/business/news/180725/bsa1807250500002-n1.htm• Choimobi Yokohama by Nissan & City of Yokohama: http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/ondan/ysm/choimobi.html• Denso’s Agile Development Center: https://car.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/1106899.html; https://news.mynavi.jp/kikaku/20180305-586894/• Easy Ride by ITOP, Nissan & DeNA: https://easy-ride.com/;https://easy-ride.com/?lang=en; http://www.city.yokohama.jp/ne/news/press/201712/images/phpt19Vg5.pdf• Faurecia Japan: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000002.000034009.html• ITD Lab: https://itdlab.com/en/; https://jp.techcrunch.com/2018/06/15/itdlab-fundraising/; ITD Lab provides safety to automobiles, industrial machinery and drones basedon the technology of EyeSight collision prevention break installed in Subaru vehicles.
• Mazda’s R&D Center: http://www.mazda.com/en/about/profile/rd/• Nissan Motor’s Mobility Service Institute: https://www.nissan-global.com/JP/NRC/HAMALAB/• Panasonic’s Automotive Sales Division: https://www.panasonic.com/jp/corporate/ais/profile/site_automotive.html• Panasonic ITS: https://www.panasonic.com/jp/company/pasits.html• Whill: https://whill.jp/news/20125; https://www.businessinsider.jp/post-174838• YNU COI Satellite: http://coi-tms.ynu.ac.jp/en/about/index.html; http://coi.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/project/index; http://coi.kyushu-u.ac.jp/• Next Urban Laboratory: http://www.chiiki.ynu.ac.jp/about/index.html

Copyright © 2018 Office of the City of Yokohama Representative to the Americas. All right reserved.
Phone 646-905-3758
E-mail info@businessyokohama.com
URL www.BusinessYokohama.com