International Seminar
"Building smart communities in TOHOKU together with the World: collaborating with and spreading to the international community"
March 1, 2013
(Japanese)
On Thursday, February 28, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held an International Seminar at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs entitled, "Building smart communities in TOHOKU together with the World: collaborating with and spreading to the international community," jointly with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of the Environment.
This seminar was held almost two years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and one year after the International Energy Seminar "Smart community proposals for reconstructing the disaster-affected areas"* held in Fukushima City on March 2, 2012. The International Seminar aimed to follow up on efforts for community building in the disaster-affected areas and the dissemination of these efforts to the world. It also aimed to discuss what sort of initiatives could be undertaken by the international community in responding to common challenges for both the disaster-affected areas and the world to create sustainable communities.
(note) Please see the following link for a summary of the results of the International Energy seminar ( http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/energy/seminar120302.html).
Ahead of this International Seminar, three panelists from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) attended an international workshop on building smart communities hosted by MOFA in Minamisoma City and exchanged views with Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai and the municipal officials as well as relevant companies. This visit by the IEA and IRENA was realized following the offer of more concrete support for reconstruction by these organizations who visited the city in 2012, taking the opportunity of the aforementioned International Energy Seminar. Mayer Sakurai talked about his passion for building community as follows: the keyword of building community is the ‘people,’ we need to attach a high importance to the people’s heart and feeling in transforming our community and to place these people at the centre of this transformation. The panelists also visited and observed Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture, and discussed about building smart communities with companies as well as university professors and students of the disaster-affected areas, including at the Next-generation Energies for Tohoku Recovery Project Symposium at the University of Tohoku.
1. Keynote Speech
Mr. Ichiro Nagoshi, Deputy Mayor of Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, delivered a keynote speech on the progress and future direction of the smart community projects that the city was undertaking forward in collaboration with the private sector. These projects include the ‘Miyako City Smart Community Project’ and the ‘Miyako City Blue Challenge Project,’ the latter of which is a reconstruction model project centering on the establishment of wood-based biomass facilities for the generation of electricity, heat and hydrogen energy.
2.Panel Discussion I
The current progress and future direction for creating smart communities in the disaster-affected areas: Building on the observation of the areas by international organizations and the keynote speech from Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture
Firstly, the representatives from Minamisoma City and Miyagi Prefecture introduced the state of their reconstruction efforts and the specific smart community projects. The representative of the IEA proposed that the disaster-affected areas could focus more on the importance of reducing energy-loss as the most stable energy source, in addition to building an integrated energy system and diversifying energy sources. The representative of IRENA commended that he was able to observe a significant reconstruction progress in Minamisoma City compared to his visit to the city in the previous year. He also provided advices on Japan’s potential, including the disaster-affected areas, for accelerating the deployment of renewable energy and on specific measures for realizing the potential. Then, the panelists discussed about the next step for building smart communities as well as its challenges and possible solutions.
Moderator:
Kazuyuki Tohji, Chair of the Environment Science Department, Tohoku University
Panelists:
Jean-Francois Gagné, Head, Energy Technology Policy Division,
International Energy Agency;
Dolf Gielen, Director, IRENA Innovation and Technology Centre;
Ichiro Nagoshi, Deputy Mayor of Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture;
Naoki Hayakawa, CEO,
Sho Okuno Architect & Associates Co., Ltd.
(Partner in the Minamisoma Smart Community Network);
Yoichi Horigome, Chief Engineer,
Environmental Industry Promotion Unit, Environmental Policy Division,
Environment and Livelihood Department, Miyagi Prefecture
3.Remark by Mr. Shunichi Suzuki, Senior Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs
On behalf of MOFA, Mr. Shunichi Suzuki, Senior Parliamentary Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs explained about the background and objective of this International Seminar as well as MOFA’s passion and missions for reconstruction.
4. Panel Discussion II
Link together and work together with the world for community-building: Contributions to reconstruction of the disaster-affected areas and creation of future communities around the World
In the first half of Panel Discussion II, the US and Denmark presented their bilateral cooperation for building communities in the disaster affected areas. In response, the panelists from the disaster affected areas expressed their sincere appreciation for all the support extended from the international community. They also spoke about their intention to follow the examples of community building in other countries, including those for rebuilding a small village and for addressing the aging of the population. Moreover, the participants from diplomatic missions in Tokyo commented that the experiences and efforts by the disaster affected areas would be all important for the international community and therefore sharing them would continue to be appreciated.
The latter half of Panel Discussion II was about how to share the wisdom towards the creation of future communities around the World. Firstly, UNEP and UNIDO introduced about the global challenges of community-building discussed at Rio+20 and the relevant commitments made by Japan and the international community. Kitakyushu City explained about its cutting-edge smart community model as well as its efforts for sharing the model with the Asian region. Then, the panelist, including the representative of the IEA, exchanged views on the important perspectives, the current efforts and the challenges of sharing the wisdom.
Moderator:
Yosuke Mochizuki, Director of Nikkei BP Cleantech Institute
Panelists:
Jessica Webster, Minister Counselor for Economic and Science Affairs, the Embassy of the United States to Japan;
Jesper Thomsen, Deputy Head of Mission, the Embassy of Denmark in Japan;
Matthew Gubb, Director,
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC);
Takeshi Furutani, Director,
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
Investment and Technology Promotion Office, Tokyo;
Taihei Shibata, Director responsible for Smart Community projects,
Future City Promotion Bureau, Kitakyushu City;
Ichiro Nagoshi, Deputy Mayor of Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture;
Naoki Hayakawa, CEO,
Sho Okuno Architect & Associates Co., Ltd.
(Partner in the Minamisoma Smart Community Network);
Yoichi Horigome, Chief Engineer,
Environmental Industry Promotion Unit, Environmental Policy Division,
Environment and Livelihood Department, Miyagi Prefecture
Dolf Gielen, Director, IRENA Innovation and Technology Centre;
John Dulac, Energy Analyst, Energy Technology Policy Division, IEA
5. Summary and Closing Remarks
As the summary of Panel Discussion I, Professor Toji pointed out that the most important is to build a community that is ‘attractive’ for residents who are the users of the community and that what seems ‘attractive’ greatly differs by community. Based on this point of view, he proposed that the disaster affected areas actively take forward community-building by making the most of support and cooperation from other countries, which themselves are pursuing various models of building community, and thereby lead community-building around the world.
Mr. Mochizuki suggested, as the summary of Panel Discussion II, that it would be crucial to progress from the stage of “sharing knowledge” to the stage of “sharing experiences” and that access to the information necessary for building communities (such as language barriers) should be improved through the development of IT.
At the end of International Seminar, Mr. Komiyama, Director, Smart Community Policy Office, Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Department, Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Mr. Kamitani, Senior Policy Coordinator, Climate Change Policy Division, Global Environment Bureau, the Ministry of the Environment delivered closing remarks as co-hosts of the International Seminar. They expressed their hope to keep supporting the community-building of the disaster affected areas in the future, while they mentioned about the importance of smart community in reconstruction and introduced the Ministries’ relevant domestic policies and bilateral cooperation.