Uhuru and Ohsawa Lab of The University of Tokyo Commence Joint Research from the Viewpoint of Data Linkage and Collaboration, With the Aim to Realize Safe and Secure Tourist Spots

Uhuru Corporation (“Uhuru”, headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Takashi Sonoda) and Professor Ohsawa’s laboratory, School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo (“Ohsawa Lab”) have commenced joint research from the viewpoint of data linkage and collaboration at Shirahama Town, Wakayama Prefecture. The research, based on industry-academia collaboration, is aimed at ensuring safety and security at tourist spots under COVID-19.

Shirahama Town, Wakayama Prefecture is known as one of the leading tourist spots in the Kansai (western Japan) area accepting approximately 3.4 million visitors annually, and is promoting workation, a holiday style combining work and vacation. In Tanabe City, neighboring Shirahama, there is also the Kumano Kodo road, one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites where numerous inbound tourists visit.

Since opening an operation site at Shirahama Town, Wakayama Prefecture in October 2018, Uhuru has aspired to contribute to the revitalization of the tourism industry in Wakayama, one of the important issues of the prefecture and to bring smart city/super city to reality by creating problem-solving business using sensor data. From 2019, we have been collecting and analyzing real data on tourism in collaboration with sensor manufacturers.

Within this context, Uhuru has decided to commence joint research with Ohsawa Lab of the University of Tokyo possessing specialized knowledge on data linkage and innovation to collect more diverse data and to connect data with people beyond the frameworks of business circles and industries.

Given the demand to develop tourist attractions where visitors can enjoy travelling with a sense of safety amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, we will be conducting a study of aspects such as economic losses, social impact of the new norm and psychological impact of safety/security measures as a first move for this fiscal year. Based on the study, we aim to specify data missing in terms of building safe and secure tourist spots and to implement new business.

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About Uhuru Corporation

Based on our corporate philosophy “Create a sustainable society with technology and out of the box thinking”, Uhuru supports and promotes digital transformation (DX) and data utilization by businesses and society. We offer one-stop access to services such as consulting and system development based on our in-house products and solutions for edge devices and the cloud. To go beyond the framework of corporate activities and make DX for localities and industries happen, we are working on R&D in the domain of IoT + blockchain while advocating ways to introduce and standardize a system for trusted data distribution, an essential factor for smart cities and supply chains.
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