In this article, we draw the opinions of two of tech's finest in varying fields.
Dr. Shinya Yamamoto, is a serial entrepreneur and an investor. He's the Founder & CEO of Link & Innovation Inc., and is a well-known startup mentor, leading the digital innovation field.
The other contributor is Mr. Kimihiro Nakamura. Mr. Nakamura plays an active role in the Digital Technology Promoting Group of Nikken Sekkei Ltd and also works with the Tokyo University Green ICT Project and also works at Smart City, News Picks Expert.
These two, being at the forefronts of their fields; we can savor the opportunity to learn the curves of technological advancements and how it's structured to improve the country.
This begins with an inquisition on the value of healthcare-date in Smart City from Dr. Yamamoto
"I believe that one major goal of Smart City is to expand the realization of Well-being for more people. We believe that the role of healthcare-data is to realize the importance of Well-being and to achieve a healthy life." Mr. Nakamura summarized.
Since there is no longer any doubt that the promotion of Smart City is a major mission of the nation and society to which we should aspire. We must also consider that it could lead to the destruction of existing social infrastructure and corporate business models, and is inevitable to avoid a social dilemma of innovation on a national scale.
Therefore, based on the consensus of the people, it will be necessary for industry-government-and-academia to come and work together to redesign new social infrastructures and make decisions. I believe that revision of laws and ordinances at the appropriate time will be the key.
In light of this, Dr. Yamamoto asked if there are particular or specific advantages for Japan with these obvious objectives.
In Mr. Nakamura's response to the advantages, he mentions that the key to success in implementation of Smart City is the Digital Transformation, DX in the industry of construction and real estate.
"The difficulty that is unique to Japan in construction and real estate industries is that the people are too earnest and talented. By general contractors, difficult construction sites are managed with precision with the excellent workers. However, it is necessary to precisely manage individuals' abilities by the use of digital technology. This applies not only to the construction phase, but also to the post-construction phase of building operation. Without progress in the digital utilization of buildings, there will be no progress in the digital utilization of cities, which are collections of buildings" He continues.
Mr. Nakamura said it was important for everyone to acknowledge that digitalization is coming into force due to the crisis of labor shortage. With the declining birthrate and a large generation aging, carpenters and building operators and managers may experience the consequence the most. Therefore, the use of digital technology will progress either way as being crucial to the survival of the industry as a whole, and the Digital Agency is taking the lead in revising the law for this purpose. However, one of the difficulties unique to Japan is the Galapagosization of the Japanese market, which means an isolated development branch of a globally available product.
He was further pitched on the competition amongst the domestic companies in the already saturated Japanese market, to which Mr. Nakamura explained that-
"Japanese domestic companies cannot avoid competing with each other within the limited and saturated Japanese market. As a result, there are many cases where private companies form their own specific rules and corral the market. so, hopefully, Japanese companies join forces together to open up its possibilities and cultivate overseas markets."
He closed this point by reiterating that without Smart City and Large scale digitization, this leap might not be possible.
To also get some insight from Dr. Yamamoto, he was quizzed with the possible challenges that could be expected in the launching of the "Japanese SBIR, the Small Business Innovation Research"
And to further know, what sort of discussion could arise in study groups concerning the "Reviewing the Japanese SBIR System."
Dr. Yamamoto started the address by stating the revision of Japanese SBIR became a trigger for the 10 trillion-yen fund that will start in the next fiscal year, and is the first cross-ministry grant policy initiated by the Cabinet Office. While the large scale of fiscal stimulus is amazing, the following are his main concerns. He mentioned that those discussions weren't initiated by him at the 2019 review meeting.
"There is an overwhelming lack of entrepreneurs and startups. An urgent training and education of talented individuals is needed to develop the mindset. The government administrative side is severely lacking human resources for reviewers and guides with diverse experience, perspectives, and advanced expertise. Cross-disciplinary producers with expertise in science and technology are needed." He explained
Dr. Yamamoto pin points that the continuous challenge of success and failure of university reformation is parallel. There are too few numbers of foreign entrepreneurs, researchers, and engineers in Japan which culminates in the lack of diversity and variety in domestic resources.
In most cases, it is likely that grants will be paid after the event rather than paid in advance which means that family members and relatives will most likely not be allowed to receive salary payments, etc.
Since this was a factor that can influence the average Japanese, it was important to ask Dr. Yamamoto on his advice, if any, for business touch-points that could work between "DICT" and "Japanese SBIR"- the future prospects for DICT and its relative high affinity with the Smart City building initiatives.
"DICT is a new community that I have been committing to social experiment and research on. We are co-creating an innovation platform with industry, government and academia together, along with domestic/international, through workshops, events, and gatherings.
The first six months after opening have been quite successful, and we are now in the Phase 2, expanding bases to Miura Coast, Miyakojima Island, and the foot of Mt. Fuji. We are training entrepreneurs via DAO through workshops of business and entrepreneurial experiences." He submits.
Dr. Yamamoto further elucidated that they'd already started collaborating with the iU, Information Management and Innovation Professional University while utilizing overseas resources through industry-government-academia collaboration.
"We envision a touch-point with a 10 trillion-yen fund". He concluded.
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of techtimes.com
