LY Communications

A First for Japan: Full-function Provision, From Preparation Against Disasters Through to Recovery Support, Available Within Fukuoka City’s Official LINE Account seamlessly

LINE Fukuoka Corporation (“LINE Fukuoka”; Location: Hakata Ward, Fukuoka; Representative Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer: Noritaka Ochiai) today held the LINE SMART CITY DAY FUKUOKA 2019 conference—its first conference concerning the topic of smart cities.

LINE Fukuoka aims to leverage LINE’s technology to create a richer, more convenient and future-oriented city (“Smart City”). With the establishment of LINE Fukuoka in November 2013, and the concluding of the “Comprehensive Partnership Agreement on Community Collaboration Projects” with Fukuoka City in August 2018, we have been promoting the smart city development of Fukuoka City as a partnership between government, private business, and city residents.

LINE SMART CITY DAY FUKUOKA 2019 was our first conference to report on and make announcements regarding the acceleration of smart city we have built together. Today, we hosted speakers including the mayor of Fukuoka City, as well as one of the architects of Taipei’s smart city and other guests, and we also announced the start of full-function provision of “Evacuation Action Support” (避難行動支援). Additionally, we also announced the plan behind this new sharing of information between the Taipei City and Fukuoka City official LINE accounts.

The summary of today’s event is as follows.

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1) Keynote
A Smart City that Begins with Fukuoka
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During the keynote, Director and COO Yusuke Suzuki appeared on stage to talk about the approach taken by LINE Fukuoka and Fukuoka City. Following the conclusion of the “Information Provision Fortification Tie-up Agreement” between LINE and Fukuoka City in October 2016, LINE Fukuoka has been using the official Fukuoka City LINE account set up in 2017 to carry out various verification testing. Currently, the account has over 1,630,000 friends (as of November 11, 2019). In response to this trend, and in order to further promote the smart city development of Fukuoka City, today LINE Fukuoka announced the start of full-function provision of “Evacuation Action Support” (避難行動支援) within the official Fukuoka City LINE account, which makes it possible to use the feature during an actual emergency.

■ Start of Full-function Provision of “Evacuation Action Support” (避難行動支援) including “Disaster Mode”  in the Official LINE Account for Fukuoka City
Japan’s First Example of Seamless Support Within an Official LINE Account Through Normal Periods, Disaster Periods, and Recovery Support
—Service start: From November 14, 2019

The Evacuation Action Support feature within the official Fukuoka City LINE account consists of two modes: ”Normal Mode,” which helps users prepare for disasters during normal periods, and ”Disaster Mode,” which supports evacuation action during disasters. From September 4th this year, we released the “Evacuation Action Support” function, operated a test version (Phase 1 of verification testing). We then gathered comments from users through a questionnaire and trial sessions.
Building on user comments, we made improvements to both “Normal Mode” and “Disaster Mode” of test version.Full-function is available from today and “Disaster Mode” can be used during actual disasters. (Phase 2 of verification testing) As a result of this process, it is now possible for us to provide Japan’s first system using official LINE accounts that provides, in a single official LINE account, seamless support from preparation during normal periods, to evacuation action support during disaster periods, through to the reporting of problems in the city during recovery support.

Please see our press release (https://lycomm.co.jp/en/pr/news/2019/111415) for details.

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2) FUKUOKA NEXT: Working Toward Society 5.0
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The next to appear on stage was Mr. Soichiro Takashima, Mayor of Fukuoka City, who spoke on the topic of Fukuoka City’s endeavors toward becoming a smart city. Mr. Takashima spoke about further promoting the smart city growth of Fukuoka City through the combined urban development efforts of the local government, private businesses, and city residents. In addition to discussion of the changes in the lifestyles of Fukuoka City residents since the start of work with LINE Fukuoka, he also spoke about his anticipation for initiatives by LINE Fukuoka and other increasingly dynamic private businesses.

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3) Behind the Scenes of SMART TAIPEI
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Next, Mr. Damien Chin, the project manager of the Taipei Smart City Project Management Office, appeared on stage to give a behind the scenes discussion of SMART TAIPEI. Taipei is one of the world’s leading smart cities, ranked 7th of 102 global cities in the IMD Smart City Index 2019. The city is also very familiar with LINE, with approximately 880,000 people following its official LINE account (the city has a population of approximately 2,670,000 people). During his discussion, Mr. Chin talked about the current status of the smart city Taipei is developing, gave examples of how the city is using its official LINE account, and also gave an introduction to GO SMART, an international cooperation organization for smart cities. Additionally, he discussed his hopes for Fukuoka City and his anticipation for further cooperation.

■ Announcing the Plan to Using the Official Fukuoka City LINE Accounts of Fukuoka City and Taipei City to provide information:
World’s First Example of Cross-Border Use of Government LINE Accounts
Planned start: Spring, 2020
LINE Fukuoka are pleased to announce the plan to using the official LINE accounts of Fukuoka City and Taipei City. This will be the world’s first initiative to leverage official government LINE accounts across borders.
This initiative will use official LINE accounts to provide information about tourism to tourists and residents coming to Fukuoka City from Taipei City, and vice versa, with the goal of increasing the value of their stay.

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4) What Should Cooperation with Private Business to Accelerate Smart City Development Look Like?
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This session began with a discussion by Mr. Naoki Minakata (Senior Manager of LINE Fukuoka’s Smart City Strategy Department) titled “What Should Cooperation with Private Business to Accelerate Smart City Development Look Like?”, in which he talked about the value of co-creation between government, private business, and city residents, gave examples of work carried out together with private businesses to date, and more.

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5) Key Players Discuss the Future They Want for Fukuoka
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During this panel discussion, Mr. Minakata served as a moderator while guests from some of Kyushu’s representative private businesses—Kyushu Railway Company, Nishi-Nippon Railway, and Fukuoka Jisho—appeared on stage as panelists. With the growth of Fukuoka City’s population, increases in inbound tourism, and advanced initiatives that are attracting attention as the background, the panelists held a discussion titled “Key Players Discuss the Future They Want for Fukuoka,” and also talked about their outlook for the future. After the panel discussion, Representative Director, President, and CEO of Fukuoka Jisho Co., Ltd., Mr. Ichiro Enomoto appeared on stage.

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6) Examples of LINE Usage in Local Government in Japan
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This session began with an announcement by Mr. Naoki Minakata (Senior Manager of LINE Fukuoka’s Smart City Strategy Department) of the summarized page that introduced the cases of the acceleration of smart city and the flow of the introduction of LINE official accounts.

Following this, Mr. Nao Fukushima (Head of LINE’s Public Policy Department) gave examples from across Japan of how municipalities are making practical use of official LINE accounts. Furthermore, Mr. Masaki Tashiro of Kumamoto City spoke as a representative of one such municipality that has implemented an official LINE account, giving a discussion with examples of how the city has used its official LINE account, and the background of the implementation of LINE official account.

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7) LINE Utilization Trial Session Corner
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Outside the venue, at the square leading into the building, there was a corner for trial sessions of different services using LINE. This grouped together hands-on experiences of the official Fukuoka City LINE account (i.e. the infrastructure damage report system, the bulky trash pick-up request system, and the Evacuation Action Support service), Aikasa (an umbrella sharing service), and mobby (an e-scooter sharing service), with visitors representing municipalities and other guests taking advantage of the opportunity to try these services first-hand.

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8) Individual Consultations for Municipalities
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At a space adjoining the venue, we held individual consultations for municipalities that were interested in initiatives utilizing LINE. We received a diverse variety of consultations, with questions ranging from those about how to begin with starting an official LINE account, to those from holders of official LINE accounts who were unsure of how to leverage them.

===APPENDIX===
■ About Fukuoka City’s Official LINE Account
Launched in April of 2017, Fukuoka City’s Official LINE account sends its more than 1.63 million followers only the information they want. By customizing the account’s information category, residential area, and child’s age settings, users will receive only the information they really need in their day-to-day life, such as emergency information (evacuation recommendations, etc.), forecast information (PM 2.5, etc.), trash pick-up day notifications by area, and age-specific child-rearing information.