Smart cities are one of the biggest potential markets for IoT development, and the recent introduction of new wireless technologies has significantly increased the number of services that can be offered. While Japan has been somewhat slow in adopting new smart city services, there has been a rapid increase in interest in smart cities in Japan since 2016. In fact, according to a recent ITR enterprise survey, public sector spending in Japan, including smart city spending, was the highest growing IoT segment of all verticals interviewed, with IT spending on such services expected to grow 892% between 2017 and 2020.
There are already some notable examples of smart city deployments in Japan which not only have the goal of increasing the efficiency of public services, but can also play an important role in solving social issues such as providing services for elderly citizens and focusing on revitalizing specific areas of Japan. A good example of this is SoftBank’s activities in Fujieda, Shizuoka. In Fujieda, SoftBank is working with the local government to make a LoRa network which will be used to not only provide services to citizens but also has the goal of encouraging local startups and promoting economic growth in the area. Similar projects are under way in Fukuoka with NTT West, and in Hokkaido with KDDI and Cisco. Such programs are expected to spread in the country at a rapid pace, especially during the run-up to the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympic Games.