The NIKKEI Smart City Consortium, hosted by Nikkei Inc., Japan’s most influential financial newspaper publisher, had its 4th Symposium of FY2013 on March 4th and 5th, 2014, at NIKKEI Hall in Tokyo.
Michi Kohno, President and CEO, served as the coordinator of a sum-up panel titled “The Creation of Smart Cities and City Management”, which took place at the end of the two-day symposium.
The panelists are: Professor Takao Kashiwagi, Extraordinary Professor of Tokyo Institute of Technology, Professor of Tokyo City University, and a member of Strategic Policy Committee, Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; Mr. Masato Nobutoki, Board Director of the Municipality in charge of the Future City Initiative by Cabinet Office, and Supervisory Director of Climate Change Policy Headquarters; and Professor Miki Muraki, Professor of Department of Urban Environment Systems, Graduate School & Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University.
The panel started with the discussion on the increasing importance of city managers as orchestra conductors as Smart Cities are getting into “general Probe” as a whole from the demonstration projects as the part practices. Professor Muraki introduced examples in UK, and Mr. Nobutoki proposed a new way of social system engaging local governments and industry based on his experiences in the City of Yokohama, while Professor Kashiwagi envisioned the paradigm shift caused by the change in cash flows under the regulatory reformations.
The panel discussions were reported on NIKKEI paper of March 28, as well as the web site of NIKKEI Smart City Consortium.