From Smart City to Society 5.0
Atsushi Deguchi
Abstract
This chapter overviews the history of smart city and smart community projects implemented in Japanese cities since Japanese national government had initiative through the subsidies and supports for the pilot projects promoted by municipalities following the Kyoto Protocol. It reviews that the original technologies of smart grids, microgrids, and smart house, which were created by integrating IT with the energy management system, have been implemented into the pilot projects of the first generation of smart community in 2000s under the condition that Japan has lagged behind in the electricity market liberalization compared with the EU and the USA. Sections 3.3 and 3.4 review the social background and the process for national government to promote the pilot projects and the energy-conscious policymaking in the local cities in Japan. It summarizes the achievements of the first-generation pilot projects for constructing CEMS-based smart community in 2000s, and characterizes the next-generation smart city models based on the energy management system implemented in 2010s with initiative by private sectors. Section 3.4 explains that Japanese national government has had initiative to activate not only the pilot projects but also policymaking in municipalities following the concept of sustainable urban development and the SDGs. Section 3.5 characterizes the trends of smart city in Japanese cases with the comparison of cases of the EU and the USA. It suggests on the directionality of the future smart city shifting from the top-down type with initiative by government or big companies to bottom-up type with citizen-oriented technology based on the concept of “Society 5.0.”