G-Space x ICT promotion council in March 2013, which conducted a study in this area and compiled a report in June 2013. In its report, the council set out three visions (targets): revitalizing the economy by creating new industries and services, establishing the world's most advanced disaster management systems, and revitalizing regional communities through advanced and leading models.

Based on the council’s report, MIC is now taking on the G-Space x ICT Project.

## Section 2 Promoting the Use of Open Data

### 1. Open data initiatives by the Japanese government

## (1) IT Strategic Headquarters initiatives

The IT Strategic Headquarters released the Open Government Data Strategy in July 2012 as an open data strategy for the Japanese government. To study specific policies and measures based on the Open Government Data Strategy, the IT Strategic Headquarters set up the e-Government Open Data Executive Meeting. This meeting is moving ahead with examinations of basic matters including (1) the establishment of the necessary rules and regulations to make use of public data, (2) the preparation of data catalogs, and (3) the creation of standards for data formats and structures.

On a related note, the Declaration to be the World's Most Advanced IT Nation states three measures to advance private sector access to public data (open data): (1) prepare and release a roadmap based on the Open Government Data Strategy; (2) review usage rules that permit the unrestricted secondary use of public data starting in FY 2013 and widen the release of public data in international standard machine-readable data formats; and (3) launch a trial version during FY 2013 of a data catalog site that provides guidance to and enables cross-sectional searching of public data released by ministries and agencies and begin full-scale operation of the site in FY 2014.

The G8 Summit in June 2013 adopted the G8 Open Data Charter and Technical Annex. In response to this policy paper, the Ministry CIO Liaison Committee, at its October 2013 meeting, agreed on Japan's Open Data Charter Action Plan. On December 20, 2013, the Cabinet Secretariat launched a trial version of the data catalog site, DATA.GO.JP.

## (2) Open Data Promotion Consortium initiatives

The Open Data Promotion Consortium was formed on July 27, 2012 with the objective of industry, government, and academia coming together to lay the groundwork for the realization of an environment conducive to open data distribution. The consortium is currently disseminating information on the significance and potential of open data along with examining technical specifications and secondary use rules for open data. It is also looking at approaches to licensing needed to implement open data schemes.

In addition, the consortium has created a common collaborative platform API for information distribution with the aim, by specifying construction methods, of simplifying the construction of applications and servers to register and use open data. The results of a pilot program are now being scrutinized ahead of a future revision to the API. It is also preparing to release the Open Data Guide (Version 1) that will summarize the necessary technical matters and knowledge pertaining to usage rules when converting public data held by organizations to open data.

The consortium also carries out various activities to develop and proliferate open data.

## (3) MIC initiatives

MIC is working to build an environment conducive to open data circulation by (1) formulating a common collaborative platform API for information distribution and translating it into an international standard, (2) enacting rules on secondary data use, and (3) carrying out starting in FY 2014 demonstration tests to make visible the merits of open data. MIC has made a public request for the development of applications that use public data converted to open data during FY 2013 demonstration tests in order to encourage the private sector to make use of public data. And it joined with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to hold an Open Data Use Case Contest and to develop ideas and applications that utilize public data to resolve various social issues.

Furthermore, as a test case of converting information held by administration bodies to open data, MIC released the Information and Communications in Japan White Paper / Information and Communications Statistics databases as open data on April 19, 2013. And MIC's Statistics Bureau, a core government statistics organization, in partnership with the National Statistics Center, is updating its provision methods of enormous and diverse statistical data records for the next generation, making efforts to enable sophisticated data usage, and spearheading government initiatives to be a top runner in promoting open data.