Last year, an election for the student council at Namiki Secondary School in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, drew national media attention. Outspoken candidates? Juicy campaign scandals? Not at all. The contest was, by all accounts, a decorous and incident-free affair.
Instead, the press found novelty in how the students voted: online, via smartphone.
Remote electronic voting for public office is forbidden in Japan, whose election law requires voters to cast ballots on paper, in person at supervised polling stations.
Read more: Tsukuba city aiming to change perceptions of electronic voting in Japan
SkedGo is working with mobility platform Shotl on the project, which aims to bring demand-responsive transport and mobility-as-a-service to Nōgata in the Fukuoka prefecture.
Mobility technology provider SkedGo is launching a proof-of-concept demand-responsive transport (DRT) and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) project in the Japanese city of Nōgata in the Fukuoka prefecture.
Read more: Japanese city Nōgata launches smart mobility proof-of-concept
Japanese trading house Mitsui and telecom operator KDDI have launched a company to develop digital platforms for so-called smart cities.
The project will offer a platform for municipalities and businesses to develop next-generation transportation systems and commercial facilities.
The companies say it can be used to operate self-driving buses and optimize customer traffic.
Read more: JP: Mitsui, KDDI team up on 'smart city' platform
Japanese developer Mitsui Fudosan is focusing on community-based urban development in "Kashiwanoha Smart City" in Chiba Prefecture, where medical and research institutions are concentrated.
A new accommodation facility that closely links a hotel and a hospital will open in July. The company is targeting foreign and domestic visitors for medical purposes.
Read more: JP: Kashiwanoha: Smart city in Chiba is aiming to become a town for good health
A futuristic smart city called Woven City is being built at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. Labelled a ‘living laboratory’ for new technologies it is being developed by Toyota subsidiary, Woven Planet, and will be the world’s first programmable city.
As well as being a testing ground for smart solutions it will also become home to 2000 residents who will get the chance to live somewhere that is being designed to allow humans and nature to live their best lives.
Read more: Inside Japan’s smart city of the future - Woven City