On August 29th, the "Industry-Government-Academia-Citizen Co-Creation Forum," an event aimed at local governments, companies, educational institutions, and others, was held by Future Design Shibuya and Commune Co., Ltd.
The "Industry-Government-Academia-Citizens Co-Creation Forum" is an event where people from various organizations, such as local governments, companies, and educational institutions, come together to discuss ideas for tackling social issues from a variety of perspectives and the potential of the region, and think together about how to strengthen collaboration and turn it into action.
Here we report on what happened on the day.
"Industry, Government, Academia and Citizens Co-Creation Forum"
https://co-creationforum2408.studio.site/
Special Session 1
Universality and locality of industry-government-academia-government collaboration: Thinking in Shibuya through Fukuoka's practice
＜Appearances＞
Shuhei Ishimaru (Secretary General of the Fukuoka Regional Strategy Promotion Council)
Taichi Goto (Representative Director of Region Works LLC)
The Fukuoka Regional Strategy Promotion Council (FDC) is made up of the Fukuoka region's government and businesses, and is responsible for the formulation and promotion of various regional strategies, including strengthening international competitiveness. Shuhei Ishimaru is the current Secretary General of FDC, which is said to be a pioneer in Japan's industry-academia-government-private collaboration organizations. Taichi Goto was Secretary General at the time of FDC's establishment, and later was involved in the launch and operation of Future Design Shibuya, which carries out various projects to promote policies in Shibuya Ward.
In this session, Goto posed questions to Ishimaru, and the session served as an opportunity to explore the nature of collaboration between industry, government, academia and the public, comparing the examples of FDC and Future Design Shibuya, and the regional characteristics of Fukuoka and Shibuya.
FDC was established in 2011. It was launched with the aim of solving urban issues and growth by working with 17 cities and towns, with Fukuoka City at the center, in a wide-area collaboration on a metropolitan basis, and working with various stakeholders other than the government, such as private companies. "Fukuoka City is the center of the region. About 70% of the metropolitan area's economy starts from Fukuoka City. However, when you consider people's mobility, such as commuting to work and school, and the state of industry, there are many issues that cannot be solved by a single municipality such as a city. So FDC was born out of the need to work on a wide area basis in collaboration with surrounding metropolitan governments," says Ishimaru.
Members include startups, large corporations, economic organizations, universities, and even local governments from outside the region. Particularly in the early stages, the organization actively worked to create opportunities for business, such as laying the groundwork for being selected as a MICE (an acronym for Meeting, Incentive Travel, Convention, and Exhibition/Event), and in recent years has been leveraging its member networks to expand into a variety of areas, from open innovation to supporting overseas companies.
Ishimaru emphasizes that what is important is to "formulate strategic policies that are linked to government policies and then thoroughly execute and implement them."
The Fukuoka region is home to many startups. Fukuoka City in particular was selected as a "National Strategic Special Zone" through a joint proposal with FDC. FDC sometimes works in conjunction with government policies to create an environment that allows startups to incorporate new ideas and values into their businesses, including bold deregulation.
One example of deregulation is online medical consultations. "We've been hearing about it a lot since the COVID-19 outbreak, but in fact, in Fukuoka City, at the suggestion of the FDC, deregulation of online medication instructions was proposed, and it was already possible before COVID-19. Then, when issues of the 3Cs and distancing became an issue, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare rolled out this deregulation nationwide," says Ishimaru.
Goto's question to Ishimaru was, "Linking with policies is important. What should we do in Shibuya?" He also touched on the differences between Shibuya and Fukuoka in terms of the environment, concentration of urban functions, population size, and human mobility, as well as the ease of project implementation and community. He asked, "The decision-making process, speed, and values are different between the public and private sectors. How do we get them to move in the same direction?" and "How can sustainability and metabolism be achieved within an organization?"
Ishimaru also stated that "new turnover is necessary, including for me," and suggested that now that FDC is on track and has begun to produce a variety of results through collaboration between industry, government, and academia with a macro perspective, the next Secretary-General should not be someone with a career like himself, but someone who can collaborate with the remaining private sector, for example, someone who can foster a citizen community.
In response to the term "citizen community," Goto said, "In the midst of the industry-government-academia-citizen collaboration, the private sector tends to be overlooked. In particular, industry-government collaboration appears to be progressing to a considerable extent in many cities, but the relationship with citizens is difficult to see." With that in mind, he asked, "How should we change?"
Ishimaru said, "We need to create an environment where the thoughts and activities of citizens can seep out more into city development. Fukuoka City already collects a lot of citizen feedback and conveys it to policy-making, but I think we need activities and schemes that allow even more citizen participation." He continues, "The public should fundamentally be based on citizens. I also think we should rethink the fact that we have deliberately separated the public and private sectors and defined the private sector as the fourth stakeholder (industry, government, academia, and citizens)."
The archive can be viewed here.
https://commune.co.jp/seminar/20241007_6619/
