Japan Startup Ecosystem with Shibuya Government

Transcript

hi everyone's uh uh this sessions uh we want to talk about uh how blockchain Technologies or like AI Big Data can uh help City governance um that we are interested in and then uh so my name is Yoshi I'm work for the shivia city um and today uh we have a great panels uh thank you so much for showing up in the although it was last minutes but uh uh so uh maybe uh uh so we have uh from the sh City we have Akiko uh uh and then uh we have Tak he's uh uh maybe some of you attended but uh

he he was running the finding the common uh this week and then uh Professor you know where uh he's from Tokyo University uh so uh maybe uh start start with the introductions from each of the panelists okay maybe hi everyone I'm U Akiko from shya city government and I'm in charge of culture and also tourism and Industry including uh welcoming many startups from outside of Japan uh together with tasak kasan we organized startup support system and uh yeah I'm looking forward

to discuss various uh things about uh sria thank you hi um I'm taka um actually my affiliation is kind of the Civic Herer so it's kind of just citizen of the Tokyo also I was running the conference which is the funding the common to uh before the day of the Edon uh which is basically focus on the uh digital public goods and the digital democracy so right now we have our a public goods in the for example CIA CIA have a park museum

or Library something like that that's the actual public goods however Imaging in the uh digital words actually we are using like a Twitter or Instagram for the uh T up something like that that's all of the things is provided by commercial company so what's the relationship with the a government and the digital public goods maybe we have to go to the a website which is the provideed by government or local government uh that's provide the information for the our life but nobody care about this public goods and some of

the non profit organization is trying to uh making the information more useful than government one but uh the government don't have a way to distribute money or allocation Capital to the uh 2D NPO or something like this are proba Goods so now I'm interesting about that area uh also I'm little bit uh into the crypto industry which is mainly the Govern for example like uh maybe some of you know about gitcoin which is the one of the crypto project that's already distribute a 19 million use dollar to the earm ecosystem developers after that

I'm very surprised about that kind of the mechanism and I'm trying to uh implementing in the Roa area so that's I'm working on thanks thank you thank you know hi I'm takuo in know way I'm a project assistant professor at the University of Tokyo and I'm very honored to be here and when yiran has asked me a couple of days ago that I will be added as a panelist today I was uh you know like a bit surprised because I'm not you know like a clip to Industry people or like even tech people I'm I'm a researcher at the University and my research topic is uh City Planning but um my main concern is like um how to

understand uh people are thinking or perceiving about their cities um through using the uh volunteered geographic information like uh text reviews on the Google Maps or like uh something you know like online platforms and I have been uh also trying to investigate in the planning theory that um how about how the public governance should be uh constructed under this digital era so uh yeah and also the decentralized and the pluralism de centrality and the pluralism will be uh two of the main concept in the future public governance in this era so uh from the point of view

of the urban planning as well uh this conference is really uh interesting so that that is why I am here today so and I'm really looking forward to hearing uh from you and also uh with you uh sharing this time with you thank you thank you very much so yeah uh so actually uh I didn't realize I have a uh sessions on ocon and then uh 3 days ago I called them and and just uh kind of forc them to come so that's that's I'm I'm so grateful that they they uh can come but uh uh I choose them because uh they they've been really doing interesting stuff for uh future government governments so I wanted to maybe uh uh

introduce what they're doing too but um uh so yeah maybe uh uh to to start uh maybe uh I want to hear about akik cosan's uh perspective I mean because uh we we two are actually uh five years contract and then we came from a different background we're not the proper uh employees so we see differently the city probably we have uh some uh uh hopes and also the frustrations and stuff so but uh how uh since you joined the city uh almost four years ago but uh how how did you see the uh City governance uh yes um let me introduce a little bit

about myself but uh I before I come into uh CIA city government I was working for at agency and I was like uh supporting many uh companies private companies and I realize uh maybe just the way to see the world is maybe a different uh from just looking at uh the uh Financial efficiency only so maybe I thought it would be interesting to to uh turn the job to uh government sector to to see to have a different perspective of the world and now we are here uh for four years and I realize there are many

exciting things that we can do as a government and also uh issues that uh what we can do to to uh create uh the good public goods in the uh government SE sector and there are many decision making process occurred uh when we do the projects and when the decision making process has always like a uh very tradition way to make decisions and uh at the same time I we realize it's important to have a conversation with the local um entities and uh we do the conversation and also the we do the

traditional way of decision making but uh it's very very difficult to make a right decision that's how I feel when we work in the government sector yeah yeah so uh I I'm on same page and then uh it's a I think now we are in a digital era but uh I think government itself hasn't changed for uh 60 70 years and then we we uh definitely need to adopt uh new technology to change the way but uh uh in terms of like a decision making uh you two uh have different uh expertise but uh uh what technology can uh transfer the current decision making

uh process um let's say uh previously we only have a uh uh for example like a radio or TV which is um BR delivery for the people like One the mayor uh is start to talking about their manifest then we could be provide that information by the newspaper ready and TV something like that however now we have a AI which is also called LM uh could be summarized um each people's uh opinion

so we could be the correcting all of the citizen opinion uh to the mayor so that's the a huge Paradigm change I think because uh normally their information or opinion is just uh like a top down way however now we have our some of the technology too or great voting system uh which is work on the your smartphone or tablet uh even the um other people don't have a smartphone but we have a platform to Gathering kind of the com income or something like that

um even the com income we we have a um desktop PC so that's the reason why um I'm very working for and excited to Aver AI Technologies or broad listening technology because it could be like a bottom up our conversation we have thank you thank you and then uh you know since you you've been doing a kind of similar thing what the talk just as a researcher of the city planning I have been looking into how the decision making in the public sector has been done uh traditionally and um previously um the decision making was uh supposed to be

done by the bureaucrat or the professionals or expertise who has expertise inside the government uh by uh collecting enough datas to uh make uh right and effective decisions but gradually uh the focus has been shifting to the uh importance of the collaboration or the communication uh in this Paradigm um which was developed during the 1970s or ' 80s uh the derivation the concept of derivation was uh put on emphasis and in that Paradigm um people are getting together in the same room to have discussions to uh produce a one um conclusions but uh in

this model uh there has been some concerns that uh in that setting uh people people have a different uh kind of powers to uh can uh that they can be you know enforced so like that so Implement so uh the outcome of the discussion are very biased uh sometimes so uh that is another problem in the second Paradigm of the um decision making in the public sector so uh the discussion has been you know uh during the 20s and uh 2000 and 2010s that uh more like uh plural or multiple um you know like producing multiple con conclusions not only one but um many

would would be a future of the new paradigm of the uh public sector decision making so and the with uh that kind of approach can be done with the help of the emerging Technologies so um that some kind of there are some kind of digital democracy tools and also um one more point is very important that uh traditionally uh some uh people are represented by the other people the so the problem of the representativeness is uh very big issue now uh as uh people have a very different you know like perspectives and diverse backgrounds so

uh uh no one can fully represented by the other person so uh the um you know like the Paradigm in the ' 80s or '90s uh people can be you know like represented by the one who are attending the arena of the public decision making but that situation has changed so uh we sometimes use the term collective intelligence uh in that uh people can express uh their own perspectives or opinions uh freely to the uh table of discussion and the technology has enabled that uh how to you know organize those kind of uh

decision making so this is uh kind of the movement that occurs uh recent days yeah that is my point it's interesting but uh uh do do um unfortunately as a city government we haven't actually used that technology yet and I think there is a issue to to U how we can adapt uh those kind of Technology into our decision making process right now loud person has the the uh the decision always so well I I shouldn't be saying that it's always

like that but uh it's tend to be like that and U hasn't been changed for maybe 30 40 years yeah so uh is there any uh example maybe we can look forward to do the collective intelligence and then like uh uh build a make a Decisions by using technology and different way there a other countries World um let's mention the good example uh which is anot takahiro who is one with the candidate of the Tokyo election the Tokyo election was cursed at like two weeks go uh one of the candidate named anot takahiro who

is from the AI engineer um he is first time to be a candidate of the election uh he used kind of the AI based a broad reasoning system so basically representative democracy is the one of the candidates is going to the representive one of the uh category or one of the opinion however uh and then we only could be selct one the person as a a candidate however uh Anno is trying to making the catch or seeing the figure out uh the people's opinion the what's the category

people say for example like a child um social Ware services for their child or uh scar something like that so the Anno is the first person um is U to try and figure out the people's opinion uh with the AI enhanced Technologies which is a great example to figure out how the presentive people uh could be see or figured out understand what the people want to do or wouldn't do so that's the um great things I think that's a great example example and then it's very

recent case but uh you do you know any other uh example of the uh collective intelligence and make decisions uh yes yeah as many of you might know but uh in the in the field of public um governance uh Ty Taiwan Taiwanese Taiwanese I know Administration has you know like are many examples of doing a very Tech uh oriented and Tech Le uh initiatives and in my you know like field uh of urban planning um there are some cases in the

midwestern us that in the shrinking cities they have a very you know like new type of doing uh making pring um Master plants or comprehensive plants by using uh many tools and many new type of land use regulations and the you know like a set of um rows and regulations so and yeah this is very interesting and and as Japan is also you know like has many shrinking cities so this new type of Technologies can enhance how you know like um cities in a different situation than the previous uh you know like evolving phases can utilize those kind

of Technologies interesting so I guess uh uh to implement uh like those new challenges by Technologies uh we might need uh some uh infrastructures I guess uh digital infrastructure I don't know I would say and then uh uh I think we have to try some of the new things uh by ourself I mean c City really want to jump in Taco but uh uh uh T you recent uh did a um uh code coding uh and then uh maybe that's one of the things we want to kind of try but uh uh can you share the

experience yeah so maybe I'm only the one with the protest to the government so uh I wish basically the government should be focused on the our governance not kind of the execution how however the current or almost government is um they F to working uh to the execution Rec for example some of the people is trying to um upright the schip or Ware Services the government officer just doing day by day and the month and month so uh that's it I think however I wish

the notion of the should be focus on the how to governance how to uh what What's the rationality of the governance should be I wish to the government so uh one of the uh work of the government is supporting the public goods however the current public purchases is so closed from the h citizen we cannot see actual information what's the criteria to appr right it so that's the reason why uh we cannot see the actual how how to involve to the a government or how to involving the governance uh with the government so

uh as I'm representing like a product manager uh which is called a digal matching donation um which organization was fored from the uh digital agency government of Japan uh they are trying to making the experiment um for example like a quadratic funding uh as I mentioned about gitcoin in the my introduction gitcoin is one the uh public goods project they are trying to distribute uh resources to the digital public goods in the ism ecosystem so the qf uh quadratic funding is one of the mechanism to uh

distribution um uh sorry the resource allocation so that's kind of like a similar to the crowd funding alsoo the donation matching so let's say for example the isan foundation give the um uh s user as a matching Po and then um some of the public gets project for in the gitcoin platform like a crowd crowd sour a crowdfunding platform and then the citizen as a Isam member or the people just praying the Isam could be donating your favorite project then um the marching fund is going to be

distribute for the uh each this prob good each Project based on the a quadratic formula so the main uh achievement is we can distri contribute money uh the project which is have a bunch of supporter than one with supporter which are donated by welfare people so that's the most important things of the Quad funding it's could be it looks like a uh crowdfunding as a auction and the Democratic way the combined one is a quadratic funding so uh quadratic funding is one the

mechanism so it's uh toally the open source it's just mathematics way so we've Implement in the um digal so that's the our experiment also that's support to the donation by fiat currency I mean like a donate uh available to donate by credit card Japan Yen us something like that so that's the uh our experiment recent we done and uh we achieved to the uh distribution for the for example like a nonprofit organization or kind of the Civic Tech project open source project I think that's uh show the Insight uh how the future the government should be do that

thank you thank you it's very interesting it's not only uh we can fairly uh distribute uh um financial support but uh uh also same time for the government perspective uh we can kind of understand that what people one so that's really uh great uh project we might want to tackle on and then uh now I want to little bit uh uh jump into the innov is uh research project but uh uh before it's it's a place based branding but it's very interesting topic for Shibuya uh and then maybe before that akan can you share your Insight about the uh your perspective and City

perspective toward uh recent development City development it's we have like a once or 100 years development happening in sh you know if you see the CIA station it's always construction spinning but uh how how how do you akan maybe can you share the your thoughts for um maybe uh the audience maybe has uh uh experience to be in Japan many times or maybe like this is the first time I don't know but uh probably You' SE shuya city as uh under construction uh right now and uh it's been going on for a long long time it's maybe like 20

years time uh and uh it's still continuing and the decision making process uh to what to build and what kind of building should be there and all that uh is maybe decision basic uh t to structure is decided by the government but at the same time once we have a partner uh the developers will decide what to make so of course we would like to control some of the area which should be public uh but it's very difficult uh to control the the uh public uh companies

to to build the you know uh how do I say the financially um balanced uh buildings so uh it's a controversy and it's very difficult to control and I think this this uh problem and issues is really common among uh big cities so I really would like to adapt the the different kind of decision making uh system to to uh have a public spaces in the city yeah so uh I guess uh some concern is we are losing uh characteristic or cultures and stuff but uh uh you know since it

your research uh uh projects might uh help us to can you explain the place B yes yeah yeah I'm not sure what I can say about the development in Sha but yeah anyways it is very important that the uh yeah kind of decision making in the urban planning or Urban Redevelopment will be done in a more like you know new type of public governance in the future and um one of the uh initiatives I have explored was the uh called place-based planning and in this type of planning um we or the government or the community

themselves are looking into what kind of values or meanings uh each places are having and what kind of meaning are you know like perceived by the local legents or the uh people who visit the city so um to understand what kind of uh values were you know existing in the specific place and it is very useful to uh you know like use uh volunteered geographic information uh which uh can be available online to uh as a background information of the in the discussion of the uh

decision making in the reop development planning so uh we have been focusing on the place-based planning and we are uh collaborating with local municipalities in Tokyo or private companies to uh enhance this kind of approach and yeah I from that experience I have been thinking that that there are three pillars important pillars in the public governance and uh one of them uh can be a technology because the tech with the help of Technology we can do many different types of uh experiments and uh kind of you discussions and the second one is the collective intelligence uh that I mentioned before because um you

know like many people can express uh their opinion uh before the decision were made made that is very important in this kind of you know like uh especially about the Urban Development because uh people they uh have to face with the you know like reality after the construction every day so yeah uh people can uh it is very important that people can express their feelings before uh that work was done and the third one third and last one is the social theories because uh you know like uh decentralization or the pluralism has been uh discussed uh for many years by the philosophical or uh

social sociologists you know like philosophers and sociologists so uh with the help of the historical background we can um you know make social acceptance of the technology or the social you know like um um we can make common understanding of what can be you know what are going on in the uh public sector or public governance uh with the help of those uh sees because it can organize our understanding of what are going on in the in front of my ey our eyes so uh with the help of technology and uh theories and the collective intelligence

we can make a more you know uh productive uh opportunities of discussion in the public sector including the development I really like the last part in know social C is it's it's really uh I I've been uh facing this challenges sometimes people don't understand you know Technologies and then uh you have to uh talk to them and then make them understand this is very important and then uh yeah so uh we have a seven minutes left but uh I want to uh talk about uh uh siia really want to be like uh a city for uh those uh people who

want to try new things and we want to try to change our regulations we want to do a test bet programs but uh uh aan you started uh uh like a events called tya this year and then this is something uh uh probably the the way of the uh kind of changing the situations but uh can you uh explain about D and what your thoughts I think it's very very difficult to change the the course of the development but I thought it would be interesting to to challenge like uh maybe events and maybe like uh um P type

of things to to to start with and uh to adapt those kind of technology and ideas from uh multiple stakeholders so I uh created one uh Community called uh creative top Tech Community and we invite the local uh stakeholders and government and also the cultural asset specialist to to organize the events called digia and we are having this events on February next year and hopefully you can come by uh Shibuya again all during that time but anyway uh to do the decision making during the the

event I thought it would be interesting to adapt those technology to to make uh the decision of the what kind of uh uh creators or uh the teams to join and also what kind of projects should be displayed in the the uh event to show case uh the Shia culture so I I would like to get to know more about quadratic funding to experience and adapt first and see how how things go I think challenge should be a small step but uh I think it's a big uh step ahead to adapt so uh uh T and then and in I maybe

uh we have 5 minutes left but uh if we we are not powerful but we allow you to do anything what you want to try in shya um let's say um the government should be um platform for the any stakeholder even the public sector or citizen the artists the everyone so I wish the the basically the government uh decision the theirself and we cannot involve to the um that kind of the decision making however um for example like a Quadra

funding is one of them because that's kind of the mechanism based governance which is not based on the um burocracy you know it's take a time and the money to figure out and uh we we wait the result to the decision but we cannot uh agree about that basically uh no yeah some time so yeah for example like a qu funding is one of this one of them to the uh Co creation as a contributing the city or our decision making so for example like uh which is R like crowdfunding but we

have to pay the money as a donation to The SK the game so I think like uh that's kind of the mechanism could be achieving uh as a platform uh to the government so that's my opinion okay thank you yeah great and I hope to have some kind of ecosystem with the uh kind of living la to implement or experiment many types of new emerging Technologies or emerging uh initiatives to be done in the uh Shibuya uh with the help of the government and also with the help of private companies and uh in that EOS

system uh it would be very good to uh that we can foster new type of um startups or Venture companies to implement faster than the you know like it is very it takes time to be institutionalized by the you know government or the especially from the nation government so uh it would be very good to have some kind of schemes to uh Implement many new and promising ideas uh quickly into the implementation and a Shibuya is very good place to uh do such a thing so yeah I I yeah I'm really happy if I can be a part of that

yeah thank you thank you maybe maybe we can um I really interested uh to um um visualize the historical background of Shibuya City culture because um it's usually ignored when we um create new things so I think it would be nice uh to have that kind of technology or maybe multiple things going on right now but it's not visualized there are so many underground activity in and I hope everybody to dig in but uh some people

cannot have a chance I think it would be great to have technology to visualize what's going on in Shia and what's in the back background of these cultures thank you thank you so I guess uh it's about time so uh I want to thank you all for being here building us I I think other coin is more blockchain techy events and this is this is is totally different and but uh we so appreciative that you are here and then uh if you are interested in uh hearing more about their project it's very interesting if you are interested in like a new city Tech uh governance uh they're the experts so please uh talk to

them after the uh sessions and then again uh thank you so much for being here and I look forward to talk more later thank you so much