March 6, 2020 Announcement of Winners of 2020 ICT Regional Revitalization Award 2020

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) makes an appeal for a wide range of initiatives of local governments, community groups, private enterprises, etc. utilizing information and communications technology (ICT) based on the free creativity and ingenuity of each region to solve diversified regional problems. MIC gives ICT Regional Revitalization Awards for excellent initiatives.
In this connection, MIC received a number of applications, reviewed them, and selected award winners.

1. Award winners

1. Grand Prize: Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications Award

ICT Solution App for Fire Brigade Devised by Fire Brigade Members
Implementing entity: Information Development Bureau
Implementation area: Sukagawa City, Fukushima Prefecture and Koden Town, Fukushima Prefecture

2. Outstanding Performance Award

Open Data Disaster Prevention Portal―Town Care
Implementing entity: dataCRADLE
Implementation area: Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture

3. Cow Chasing with a Drone―Sky Cowboy

Implementing entities: Tomiya Town Public Corporation, Toyotomi Town Large-scale Grassland Ranch, Soya Agricultural Improvement and Dissemination Center’s Soya Northern Branch, AIRSTAGE Inc., and NTT DOCOMO
Implementation area: Toyotomi Town, Hokkaido

4. Student Revolution Using Smartphones"

Implementing entities: JSS NSG College League/FSG College League (33 vocational schools) and JSS Corporation
Implementation area: Niigata (Joetsu, Chuetsu, Shimoetsu), Koriyama, Fukushima

5. Incentive Award

Establishment of Evacuation Centers using the LPWA Network and Understanding of the Situation
Implementing entities: Mifune Town, Kumamoto Prefecture
Implementation area: Mifune Town, Kumamoto Prefecture

6. Next-generation Citizen Collaboration Platform―My City Report

Implementing entities: My City Report Consortium
Implementation area: Chiba City (Chiba Prefecture), Otsu, Shiga, Kaga (Ishikawa Prefecture), Wakayama, Higashihiroshima (Hiroshima Prefecture), Hanamaki, and Iwate

7. First in Japan! Smart Livestock Raising Led by Local Government

Implementing entities: Kimotsuki Town (Kagoshima Prefecture), Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Division, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department, Kasima Pref., JA Kagoshima Kimotsuki, Farm Note Co., Ltd., and NTT Docomo, Inc.
Implementation area: Kimotsuki Town, Kagoshima Prefecture

8. Achievement of Employment and Increase in Fishermen’s Income by New Industry in Land Aquaculture in Kamieuchi Village!

Implementing entities: Hokkaido Kamieuchi Village
Implementation area: Kamieuchi Village, Hokkaido

9. Efforts to Reform Work Styles Utilizing ICT Technology

Implementing entities: Kawaba Village (Gunma Prefecture), Maebashi City (Gunma Prefecture), and RFJ Corporation
Implementation area: Kawaba Village (Gunma Prefecture) and Maebashi City (Gunma Prefecture)

10. Promotion of EBPM―Construction of a New Vacant House Survey Model Utilizing Big Data

Implementing entities: Maebashi City (Gunma Prefecture), Center for Spatial Information Science (University of Tokyo), Teikoku Databank Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (Super Smart Local Government Research Council)
Implementation area: Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture

The announcement and commendation ceremony of the ICT Regional Revitalization Award 2020 was initially held at the Regional ICT Summit 2020 (co-hosted by Nikkei Inc. and Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM) the International University of Japan). With consideration of the purpose of the Basic Policy for Countermeasures against New Coronavirus Infections (February 25, 2020), the on-site screening of applicants will be changed to a remote screening method, the presentation videos of each organization will be released at the following URL:
https://events.nikkei.co.jp/r_ict2020/

2. Overview of ICT Regional Revitalization Award 2020

To resolve various regional issues (e.g., a population decline, aging population, declining local economy, shortage of doctors, and disaster response) for regional revitalization, various excellent initiatives utilizing ICT (information and communications technology) are made in each region based on the free creativity and ingenuity of the region.
Since fiscal 2014, MIC has been appealing and awarding case examples of initiatives that are expected to expand horizontally nationwide, cross-cutting case examples of initiatives, and those where wide-area cooperation is expected between regions.
Ten winners have been determined after the screening of a panel of experts based on the presentation videos of the organizations. These entered the final screening from among the applications for the ICT Regional Revitalization Award 2020 that were accepted until January 15 of this year.