town development using ICT, local governments' top responses in order were "safety and security areas (controlling crime, strengthening disaster resilience, etc.)" (52.3 percent), "healthcare and nursing, caregiving, social welfare, education, and other lifeline areas" (40.5 percent), "wish to implement under a consistent policy without regard to individual areas," (37.2 percent), and "industry areas (agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, tourism, local industries) and employment areas" (28.6 percent).

### b. Vertical expansion of ICT town development promotion projects

The ICT Town Development Promotion Council, set up by MIC in January 2013, is working in three areas: expanding and accelerating ICT Smart Town projects at key sites in order to widely deploy ICT Smart Towns by around 2018; aiming to realize by 2015 a common platform that will manage things, times, locations, and everything else with IDs for broader regional cooperation and public-private cooperation; and studying the establishment of systems and global development policies in order to broadly disseminate outcomes gained from pilot projects. In February 2012, the ICT Town Development Promotion Council set up a deployment working group. This working group is studying, at a more specialized level, policies for widely deploying successful models and specifications for a common ICT town development platform. The Council also launched a common ID use and application working group in December 2013.

### c. Implementing local pilot projects

MIC is running pilot projects under the ICT Town Development Promotion Project to pave the way to actualizing ICT Smart Towns. For FY 2012, five projects were selected in Mitaka in Tokyo, Kashiwa in Chiba Prefecture, Shiojiri in Nakano Prefecture, Toyota in Aichi Prefecture, and Fukuroi in Shizuoka Prefecture. Twenty-eight local pilot projects, including these five, were carried out in FY 2012 and FY 2013.

Under the FY 2013 ICT Town Development Promotion Project, two pilot projects were run: the ICT Town Development Platform Formation Project (led by Mitaka in Tokyo), which aims to broadly coordinate, share, and deploy the outcomes of the FY 2012 ICT Town Development Promotion Project, and the Citizen Disaster Information Distribution Model Project Using Open Data and Ubiquitous Technology (Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture), which aims to prepare for large-scale disasters in the greater Tokyo area. And as we move from testing to implementation of new town developments using ICT, we are working to export the results internationally.

## (2) Safe and secure town development

### a. Disaster-management initiatives

The results of the local government survey show that local government initiatives using and applying ICT for disaster response and disaster management are relatively well developed. The most common disaster-management initiatives that local governments are currently either running or participating in / cooperating with are “disaster-information email” (71.9 percent) and “collect disaster information with cameras, sensors, and other devices” (47.0 percent). In contrast to current initiatives, the top disaster-management initiatives that local governments are planning or studying for future implementation are “sharing disaster-information maps” (26.3 percent), “sharing information with people most at risk during disasters” (23.0 percent), and “disaster information acquisition and restoration requests” (22.9 percent).

MIC will tap into the FY 2013 supplementary budget to undertake a program to fortify regional ICT that consists of two parts: (1) projects to establish regional public networks and associated systems; and (2) projects to establish disaster-response information stations and related systems. The objective is to further the establishment of public wireless LAN and the fortification of networks, along with constructing an information-communication ecosystem where residents can reliably obtain disaster and relief information from local governments during disasters.

The Basic principle for building strong and flexible (resilient) nation, the Declaration to be the World’s Most Advanced IT Nation, and other government policies put a very high priority on the construction of means to collect and communicate information during disasters. MIC, for its part, has promoted the nationwide expansion of practical public information commons since 2011. The Ministry also launched the Study Group on Approaches to Common Platforms for Communicating Information during Disasters in March 2014, which is studying issues hindering the nationwide expansion of public information commons and solutions that should be promoted in order to further expand and develop public information commons.

### b. Crime prevention initiatives

In the area of crime prevention, the local government survey found the most common crime prevention initiatives that local governments are currently either running or participating in / cooperating with are “crime prevention email” (63.7 percent) and “sharing crime prevention maps” (14.5 percent). In contrast to current initiatives, the top crime prevention initiative that local governments are planning or studying for future implementation is “protecting children and students” (6.2 percent).

### c. Tourism initiatives

In the area of tourism and sightseeing, the local government survey found the most common initiatives that local governments are currently either running or participating in / cooperating with are “providing tourism information with other regions and organizations using influential Websites” (32.6 percent) and “generating and providing tourism information using multifunctional terminals and other devices” (22.8 percent). In contrast to current initiatives, the most notable tourism initiative that local governments are planning or studying for fu-