The regional revitalization “Toyama Model” through Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration

Project Summary

We, e-solutions, has been promoting a smart city “Toyama Model” which is collaborated among Toyama City (local government), local businesses, and University of Toyama, and aiming for the regional revitalization.

Regional revitalization is one of the important themes in Japan
In local cities, there are concerns about the expansion of expenditures, such as increased medical expenses due to the aging of the population. At the same time, there are also concerns about declining revenue due to lower consumption caused by the declining birthrate and outflow of population, and declining business competitiveness due to a shortage of consumers and workers.
As this trend accelerates, it will lead to a decline in the level of government services and the withdrawal or downsizing of public transportation systems. As the result, the vicious cycle is expected that will lead to further population outflow from the local cities. Therefore, regional revitalization is considered one of the important themes in Japan.

The regional revitalization “Toyama Model” through Industry-Government-Academia Collaboration
We define regional revitalization as the creation of “industry,” “employment,” and “tax revenue” in a local community. In “Toyama Model,” Toyama City took the lead in setting up a system to accumulate various data such as vehicle traffic, weather, congestion, and share it with local companies.
Since then, Toyama City, local companies, and University of Toyama have played a leading role in promoting the utilization of data. Activities aimed at “transferring public services from the local government to local companies,” “creating new services through the collaboration among local companies and the university,” and “fostering data scientists” are being carried out through the industry-government-academia collaboration.
Furthermore, through these activities and “policy recommendations from the university to the local government,” we are promoting concepts that will reduce expenditures by reducing the burden on the local government and improving efficiency and increase revenues through the growth of local businesses and their human resource development and retention.

Aiming for regional revitalization in many regions through the horizontal expansion.
“Toyama Model” is highly regarded by many other local governments because it aims at regional revitalization (expenditure reduction and revenue increase) with the local community taking the initiative. Since many of the issues faced by local governments in Japan are common, we intend to horizontally expand the services and know-how developed through “Toyama Model” to other local governments.