Open data developments in Japan

Tomoaki Watanabe

Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM)International U. of Japan/ Creative Commons Japan/

Open Knowledge Foundation Japan Initiative

Internet Governance ForumOctober 22-25, 2013, Bali

A bit about myself

- Academic (full time): ICT policies, information society issues

(Senior Research Fellow& Associate Prof. at GLOCOM)

- Advocate (volunteer): open licensing(Creative Commons Japan; executive director for its

host organization CommonSphere)Open Knowledge Foundation (Co-founder)

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Menu

OverviewI. National Policy DevelopmentII. Major ProjectsIII. Policy Performance

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An Overview

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Japan’s major developments- National strategy adopted (June 2012) - Decent support from the political leadership (Jan. ‘13) Emphasis on economic effects- Decent institution for the execution Newly created gov’t CIO close to the matter Pub-priv joint conference for implementation; Priv-led, pub-supported forum- Civic sector growing - National data portal soon to launch- Many pioneering projects- Discussion ongoing on: evaluation, standards, etc.

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Early Trials

-Ministries of… Internal Affairs &Communications 　 Econ. Trade& Industry　 Environment-Other Agencies Reconstruction Agency Japan Meteorological Agency Geospatial Information Authority of Japan National Diet Library Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

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What’s ahead/ Challenges

Expected- Gov’t-wide practice Revisit the licensing- Improved markingShort-term- Evaluation / measuring impact- Involving major companies & B2B playerLong-term- Gov’t operational reform- Comprehensive catalogue

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Recipe for Innovative First-mover

Strong support from political leadershipPublic official(s) who gets itInstitutional arrangement

Participatory policy-making

Vibrant civic& private sector

Collaboration in data release, licensing, reuse, promotion

Big Splash, High-awareness, Greater use, Extensive networking, Unexpected successes

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Recipe for Smart Second-mover

Careful cost-benefit analysis Identification of high-ROI areas

Efficient, low-risk, smaller-scale, less waste and less surprise successes

Japan may be shifting its approach from second-mover to first-mover model.

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National Policy Development

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A brief history I

<setting agenda>- 2010.5. “A New Strategy in Information and Communications

Technology” adopted by National IT Strategy Headquarters- (open-by-default + reusable)<discussing details>- 2011 - 2012.6 national open data policy discussed at

eGovernment TaskForce- (policy objectives, org. arrangement, roadmap)<adopting>- 2012.6. “Open Government Data Strategy“ draft- 2012.7. adopted by National IT Strategic Headquarters

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A brief history II<implementation>- 2012.12 - present E-government Open Data Conference of Working-Level

Personnel: technical standard, high-priority data area, legal and licensing issues discussed. working towards a trial version of national open data catalogue/ portal

<implementation documents>- 2013.6. A roadmap to move eGov open data forward- 2013.6. A guideline for government agencies on basic principles of how to publish

data to promote reuse.<political change>- 2012.12 Prime Minister Abe took office- 2013. the new Abe Administration quickly endorsed open data *- 2013.6. “Forging the World-Leading IT Nation” & “The Japan Revitalization

Strategy – JAPAN is BACK”*emphasis on economic effects; open data+ big data

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Sources available in English

- “A New Strategy in Information and Communications Technology” (May 2010) http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/policy/it/100511_full.pdf

- “Open Government Data Strategy” (July, 2012)http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/policy/it/20120704/

text.pdf- “Japan Revitalization Strategy - JAPAN is BACK” (June, 2013)http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/keizaisaisei/pdf/

en_saikou_jpn_hon.pdf

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IT Strategic Headquarters

A cabinet level entity Chaired by the Prime Minister Members include ministers and experts

Previous Administration by a then-new party 2009.9. new strategy 2010.5.

Current Administration by another new party2012.12 new strategy 2013.6.

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eGov Task Force

Under IT Strategic HeadquartersMembers: Experts

Decision chain: eGov TF -> Plan Committee -> HQ

Drafted National Open Data Strategy, which was subsequently adopted by the IT Strategic HQ

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eGov Open Data Conference of Working-Level Personnel

under IT Strategic Headquartershas two working groups – 1) technical standards

and 2) legal issues and promotion of use

Decision chain: the Conference -> IT Strategic HQ (after a reorg. - the plan committee is gone)

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Gov’t CIO

- Newly created post (May 2013), first of its kind*- Responsibility includes: eGov related strategy – formulation, execution evaluation of IT investments others

*CIO posts have existed at individual agencies, but not for the whole of the national government

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Other Policy/ Gov’t Developments

- Yokohama Open Data Solution Development Committee (Dec. 2012)

- Conference for Promoting the Use of Big Data& Open Data - Cities of Takeo, Chiba, Nara, Fukuoka (Apr. 2013)

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Some of the relevant web sites

- IT Strategic Headquartershttp://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/policy/it/index_e.html - Gov’t CIO (new!)http://cio.go.jp/ (not much English yet)- Prime Minister/ Cabinet’s major decisionshttp://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/96_abe/documents/

index.htmlhttp://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/96_abe/decisions/

index.html

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Major Projects

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MIC’s early works1. Open data sharing /reuse experiments in real time

transportation data, geological data, disaster data and other areas, leading to API standards (2012-)

2. Open Data Promotion Consortium – backed by MIC http://www.opendata.gr.jp/ (2012-)

- Committees on technical and legal issues; promotional events – hackathon with Japan Meteorological Agency’s data; a symposium; awarding notable efforts and achievements

3. Making its ICT White Paper and statistics of ICT open data (2013)

- the permission for free secondary use is indicated as a general rule

- numeric data does not bear any copyright - provided in csv format (in addition to Excel) 21

METI’s pioneering programs

- Post 3.11 Earthquake actions: 1. Awards for power saving-related apps

(summer of 2011)- Others:2. A website for sharing infographics3. OpenData METI – a trial version of an open

data catalogue/ portal (Jan. 2012) - http://datameti.go.jp

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Other Programs

<data reuse>- Reuse of geospatial information (a cabinet level

entity) *- Reuse of govt-administered statistics through a

consortium (MIC) *- Hackathon on database of recovery assistance

programs (open API)- JST hackathon* (not necessarily “open” data, but preceding open

data)23

Other Programs

<local level>- Pioneer in data catalogue and app dev. City of Sabae (Fukui prefecture) and a local engineer- data catalogues/ portals launched by: Pref. Shizuoka, Cities of Chiba, Muroran, & Aizu-

Wakamatsu- International Open Data Day : 8-city participation in

Japan- Open Spending/ Where Does My Money Go spreading;

other similar visualization tools developed

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Other Programs

<civic sector>- Open Linked Data Challenge- Urban Data Challenge; International Space App

Challenge- Many hackathons & other collaborative events- Open Spending, Where Does My Money Go , C-

KAN localization efforts- Many groups& orgs formed or worked on open

data space

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Active Civic Sector Players<NPOs and others>OKF JapanOpen Street Map Foundation JapanLOD InitiativeCode for JapanCreative Commons JapanJIPDEC (part industry assoc. in nature?)

<Academic> U. Tokyo Keio U. (esp. SFC) NII Mitsubishi Research Institute GLOCOM

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Policy Performance

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Policy Objectives

- Improving Transparency, Trust - Participation & Collaboration- Improving Economy & Government

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How to provide data

- machine-readable- allow commercial use- easily publishable data first

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Other notable policies

2014-15 – period for intensive efforts in open data space

2013. trial version of the national open data portal/ catalogue to be launched

2015. To be on par with other top level countries in terms of amount of data published (10K data sets).

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Tasks aheadBetter understanding of…- Existing needs for data, format, licenses- Potential legal barriers for reuse - Reasons for not opening (cultural, procedural, others) - License pros and cons- Impact measurement/ EvaluationCoordination- Technical formats- License- Search- International/ InterlingualPromotion/ Outreach- Involving major companies and B2B players- Domain specific experts& practitioners- Incentive for gov’t agencies

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Tasks ahead

Mid- to Long-term- Comprehensive catalogue- Gov’t operational reform- Strategic use in int’l relations

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earlier challenges

- Political support: weak- Government resistance: the same as other countries, or

more risk of too little data- Public awareness: weak- Relevant civic sector/ tech communities: limited risk of too little reuse

difficult choice between “big splash” to give impetus or “small start” to avoid wasting efforts

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Increasingly important questions

- Measure economic benefits - How? - Measure cost?- Cost-benefit analysis (how precise?)- Or just some anecdotes of success?

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Thank You!

Email: watanabe at glocom dot ac dot jp

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License

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- This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported- This work is licensed under CC-BY 3.0 Unported

Just to clarify, there is no copyright notice, no URI associated with the work. The original author is Tomoaki Watanabe, and the title of the work is “Open data policy developments in Japan”

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