Each workshop aims to deepen understanding of smart city trends both in Japan and overseas, put them into practice, and explore the smart city Yokohama should aim to become.
This time we will report on the first event, which took place on November 11th.
Professor Sato, a visiting professor at Yokohama National University who served as the facilitator of this workshop, gave an overview of the program and explained what a smart city is.
What do you imagine when you hear the term "smart city"?
In Europe, wellbeing and inclusiveness have also become key words for smart cities.
Next, Professor Matsuyuki from Yokohama National University spoke about the transition of smart cities around the world, focusing on the transitions in Japan, the US and Europe.
Afterwards, there was an explanation about smart city policies in Japan.
It seems that Japan has a tendency to focus on fairly niche areas, such as the use of drones in mountainous areas.
The second half of the session will be a discussion among the students.
We will form groups with people who have similar interests in various fields related to smart cities.
We came up with ideas about what we would like to do regarding smart cities, the efforts that would be necessary to achieve that, and the players that should be involved.
The participating students actively exchanged opinions and enjoyed the workshop.
This workshop will be held over five sessions.
We will be reporting on the workshop in the future, so stay tuned!