Smart City Week endeavors to create a vision for the kind of urban development needed in cities, taking into account current social issues and specific solutions in addressing these. The overall aim of Smart City Week 2014- Social Innovation, is to bolster new Japanese industry and facilitate progressive future trends.
Representatives of national and local governments of Japan and other countries seeking to develop smarter cities, as well as corporations with numerous ideas on how this can be achieved will attend the conference and interact with each other through various conference and networking opportunities.
So what is a ‘Smart City?’ Four cities in Japan – Yokohama, Toyota City, Keihanna City and the City of Kitakyushyu are all currently involved in different Smart City projects. This means they have an aim to provide sustainable growth within their city, through healthy economic activities that reduce the burden on the environment while improving the quality of life of the residents. Specific information on the different projects and what it is to be a ‘Smart City’ can be found here.
Japan can be seen as a leader in addressing urban development issues and Smart City Week serves to showcase Japan’s solutions to the rest of the world.