Uhuru Selected as a Major Operator in “Super City Framework” for 4 Regional Governments

Uhuru Corporation (“Uhuru”, headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Takashi Sonoda) is pleased to announce that it has been selected as a major business operator candidate for the following 4 regional governments after applying to the Cabinet Office’s call for participants for the Supercity-type “National Strategic Special Zones” target regions, which was announced in December 2020.

Summary of the Regional Governments (Alphabetical Order)
Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Pref.
Nobeoka, Miyazaki Pref.
Semboku, Akita Prefecture
Susami, Wakayama Pref.（Image of Cross-Domain Data Linkage)

An important consideration for Super Cities is that, because they are expected to operate permanently, there needs to be a way so that local IT companies or even the residents themselves are able to develop their own solutions to issues that arise.

Since the dawn of IoT, Uhuru has contracted with regional governments and local groups around the country to hold ideathons and hackathons to problem-solve unique regional issues with residents’ participation utilizing “enebular”, an internally developed non-coding service to democratize IoT development. In addition, a basic concept and characteristic of smart cities is that various developer companies and residents participate in projects, and one necessary component in constructing smart city, is the “Smart City Architecture”, which is fundamental to design and evolution, and helps realize the relationship among the various elements of smart city. Uhuru has know-how in constructing “Smart City Architecture” from our participation in the Data Society Alliance (DSA) as a founding member. Furthermore, bringing Super Cities to fruition requires an “Interdisciplinary Data Linkage Platform”. Again, Uhuru is participating in these projects as a founding member of DSA.

Based on the above know-how, Uhuru has been preparing to bring Super City to reality, providing overall design and service applications, and promoting the construction of the necessary “Data Linkage Platform (City OS)” to collect and organize the various cross-sectional data. Uhuru was selected as a major business operator candidate based on our know-how and technological capabilities in cutting-edge services, in particular with respect to the fields of tourism and disaster mitigation; primary industry (agriculture & fisheries); medical & health; and education.

Going forward, Uhuru will utilize the know-how we have heretofore cultivated in IoT sensing technology and business development to adapted to the times to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and promote low-contact economy, while advancing new business based on linking the data created among those fields. In order to ensure sustainability through the development of these new businesses, Uhuru will contribute to the mid- to long-term regional economic revitalization not only by providing technology, but also through efforts like the formation of citizen develper community to optimally address regional issues, bringing Super City to reality with each of these regional governments.

Schedule

About Super City

A measure promoted by the Cabinet Office, utilizing the National Strategic Special Zones System while horizontally connecting competitive private sector companies with regional governments, with the goal of bringing the world’s most cutting-edge Japanese-style urban development model to reality through bold reforms and linking advanced information and communication technology and services.
(Please refer to the Cabinet Office website for details)

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.
URL: https://uhuru.co.jp/en/