INSIGHTS

2022.05.11

R&D DISCUSSION Vol. 39

Data-driven urban development that makes people happy [Part 1]

Taro Hitokoto Director of Neural Pocket Co., Ltd.

R&D DISCUSSION TOP

Q: You previously worked in the Urban Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, where you were involved in various urban development projects. What made you decide to join the ministry?

A: When I was a student, I majored in forest science at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Tokyo, and when I was choosing a laboratory, I found one that "also designs theme parks." I thought this sounded interesting, so I entered the lab, and found out that it was founded by Honda Seiroku (1866-1952), a forestry scholar and landscape gardener who designed Hibiya Park and founded the national park system. Since that was the case, I had to study parks, so I applied to be a park volunteer in my local Meguro ward, and that's how I got into this world.

Later, while I was a student, I discovered how interesting it was while volunteering and working part-time at various parks, and I began to think that I wanted to be involved in park-related work as well, so I joined the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as a landscape gardener specializing in park-related work. After joining the ministry, I had the opportunity to experience a variety of positions, and all of the work I was involved in was interesting, but the compact city policy I was involved in during my final four years was particularly memorable.

The compact city is a concept that aims to create a highly efficient and sustainable city by consolidating urban areas that have been expanding up until now, in light of recent environmental issues and changes in social conditions. To realize the compact city, the "Location Optimization Plan System" was established in 2014 to have each local government formulate location plans for residential functions, medical care, welfare, commerce, public transportation, etc., but when creating a location optimization plan, a wide variety of huge amounts of data are required more than when creating urban plans in the past. Therefore, my role at the time was to check the location optimization plans created by each local government and give advice on how to best utilize the various data at hand.

Traditionally, local government plans have been individually optimized, and when each plan is viewed in an integrated manner, it is possible that they are not very consistent. For example, if it becomes necessary to build a new elderly welfare facility, the welfare department will calculate the number of facilities required and build it there as soon as vacant land is found. At this time, since the demand for facilities has already occurred, urban planning discussions such as "Where should we build elderly welfare facilities?" may not be fully carried out. If welfare facilities are scattered in the suburbs in this way, the travel time of people involved in welfare will increase, resulting in social costs. Even when considering home care, the amount of work that one caregiver can handle is about twice as much in a city where it takes an hour to travel after one hour of care, compared to a city where it takes an hour to travel after one hour of care, in a city where it takes five minutes to get to the next visit. The location optimization plan aims to "solve urban problems such as labor shortages by devising urban structures."
Because this plan is the only opportunity for a truly comprehensive review that spans all departments of the local government, I told local government officials, "I want you to consider this plan as if you are responsible for the lives of all your citizens."

Q: In recent years, "green infrastructure" has become increasingly important in urban development. When did this concept first become widespread in Japan?

The term green infrastructure first appeared in Japan's policy in the 2015 "Second National Spatial Plan (National Plan)." The Second National Spatial Plan describes green infrastructure as "an effort to promote the creation of sustainable and attractive national land and regions by utilizing the diverse functions of the natural environment (provision of habitats and growth areas for living things, creation of beautiful landscapes, prevention of temperature rise, etc.) in both hard and soft aspects such as social capital development and land use."
This concept has been practiced in Europe and the US since the late 1990s, and is said to be roughly divided into the American approach, which focuses mainly on the amount of water stored in development areas, and the European approach, which considers water from a multifaceted perspective, including water quality, air, recreation (how people use it), climate change mitigation, ecosystems, etc. Current green infrastructure efforts in Japan are viewed from a multifaceted perspective, including disaster prevention and mitigation, regional development, and the environment [Figure 1], and can be said to be closer to the European approach.

The concept of green infrastructure was introduced at a time when attention was beginning to be paid to the stock effect (effects such as safety and security, and improved quality of life that are continuous and mid- to long-term from the time of construction as a result of the functioning of constructed infrastructure) amid discussions of "how to maintain, manage and update the nation's aging infrastructure."As a concept opposed to concrete structures (gray infrastructure) that deteriorate over time, green infrastructure began to be explained as infrastructure whose functionality improves with appropriate human involvement, in other words, "growing infrastructure."I think this was a major factor.

Another factor that led to the spread of the idea of green infrastructure within the ministry was the intensification of disasters. In response to a situation where the scale of disasters exceeds all expectations, the idea was changing from just thinking about how to capture water in rivers and sewers to thinking about capturing water in residential areas and roads, and reducing the amount of water flowing into rivers and sewers throughout the entire river basin. I think that green infrastructure was a good fit for this.

One of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's green infrastructure initiatives is an item called "Participation of Diverse Entities." The aim is to accumulate various know-how and technologies through the participation of local residents and private companies, and to utilize them in a multifaceted way. Through the concept of green infrastructure, it is clearly stated that the activities and actions of residents and companies can contribute to the "sustainability" of the region, which seems to be supporting new activities.

[Figure 1] Green infrastructure concepts and examples (Source: https://www.mlit.go.jp/sogoseisaku/environment/sosei_environment_fr_000143.html)
Continued in Part 2

PROFILE

Neural Pocket, Inc. Business Strategy Department Director

Taro Hitokoto

A word from Taro

Born in Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture in 1981, raised in Yokohama, and currently living in Ota Ward. Graduated from Kaisei High School in 2000, the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Tokyo in 2004, and completed the Graduate School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Tokyo in 2006 before joining the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. Engaged in urban parks, stadium and arena reform (Japan Sports Agency), productive green spaces, compact cities, and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism policy ventures. Retired from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in 2021 and joined Neural Pocket Co., Ltd. Serving as a member of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture Social Collaboration Committee, the Architectural Institute of Japan Editorial Committee, and Jiyugaoka Machidukuri Co., Ltd. J-SPIRIT Management Committee, he is also a member of the General Incorporated Association Minna no Koen Kaigokai and a founder of Kasumigaseki Teal.

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R&D

Update : 2018.09.21

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