Summary of Research Findings

Cities in Japan are facing various issues such as population decrease, ultra-aging society, and financial constraints. Under the circumstances, “smart city” initiative is garnering attention to ensure sustainability of the city function going forward. Smart cities aimed at in recent years have characteristics such as (1) emphasis on transversal data linkage, (2) promotion by collaboration among industry, academia and government, and (3) participation of enterprise in close relationship with the municipality concerned. 
Today, smart city challenges are planned and developed all over the country, and it is assumed that during 2020s many cities will deploy systems and the movement is likely to spread. However, for successful development of smart cities throughout Japan, it is important that such initiative involves cross-border attempts and trials not dependent on subsidies. 

Noteworthy Topics

Healthcare ICT Services for Municipalities Projected to Spread in Early 2020s

In this research, of all healthcare ICT services for municipalities (B2B2C service, with local government conclude contract with service providers and residents use the service for free), projection is made on a total number of introduction cases for digital mother and child health handbook service and remote health/medical consultation service. For 2020, 480 cases are estimated, and it is projected to reach 1,130 cases by 2025 (235.4% compared to 2020).
Digital mother and child health handbook is a service which can be used to view checkup results, record day-to-day growth of child, and subscribe to local pregnancy/child raising related news via devices like smartphones (to be used concurrently with paper-based mother and child health handbook). Installation of the service at municipalities has been increasing significantly in the last 1-2 years, and high growth is projected to continue during early 2020s. 
On the other hand, remote health/medical consultation is a service that provides “online health/medical consultation” via smartphones etc., as referred to in the “Guidelines on the Proper Conduct of Online Medical Consultations” by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Some companies mainly provide services for individuals (B2C), while others provide mostly for enterprises/municipalities (B2B2C). Although development of remote health/medical consultation services for local governments is on the rise, the number of municipalities that actually introduced the service is still very limited as of 2020. Nonetheless, as startups already entering the market anticipate expansion of cases and as multiple large companies entered to provide the service or are in preparation of entering, a number of municipalities adopting the services are expected to multiply in early 2020s. 

Research Outline