Partly due to precious lessons learned from the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and in an intensive effort to recover from the disaster and reconstruct the devastated regions, there has been a growing trend recently in Japan toward the promotion of open data. In an interim report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) concerning "ICT Policy for Realizing the Networked Knowledge and Information Society" (July 25, 2011), the MIC Information and Communications Council proposed improving the open data environment to distribute information more widely and make it open to all people, industries, and fields. Meanwhile, the IT Strategic Headquarters announced the " Open Government Data Strategy" on July 4 2012.

Overseas, the EU made public the "Open Data Strategy for Europe" around the end of 2011. Under this program, it is planned to open a data portal for the EU, set up fair conditions within the Union, and provide support for developing data-processing technology. Currently, Britain, France, and other countries are launching an initiative to make public data more open and to use them more effectively. In the United States, the Obama administration pledged to aggressively promote open data in its May 2012 memorandum "Building a 21st Century Digital Government."

Data retained at public offices are valuable assets and resources. Nevertheless, they have not been used effectively. As in other countries, Japan should exploit these assets and resources more effectively not only to improve public services but also to enhance transparency, make corporate activities more efficient, and help create innovative services and businesses. A survey report submitted to the European Committee suggests that increasing open data in Japan will create a new market worth 1,200 billion yen and an economic ripple effect of 5,500 billion yen, based on GDP figures.

To promote open data, central and local governments must positively open their data to the public. They should formulate specific initiatives for this purpose. However, even if public offices disclose their data actively, the effects of such disclosure will be limited unless the public and businesses use them effectively to create new value and services. In addition, we need a system that seamlessly connects data held by public offices with those held by the private sector. Such a system should standardize a data format to facilitate the combination of public and private data, while promoting the distribution and use of data held by the private sector that have strong public characteristics.

Under these circumstances, Open Data Promotion Consortium was set up with the aim of helping industry, government, and academia jointly improve the infrastructure for building an open data distribution environment.

For the time being, the Consortium engages in the following activities:

1.Researching issues involved in open data promotion

• ・Discussing technical standards necessary for open data promotion
• ・Discussing licenses necessary for open data promotion

2. Promotional and educational activities for open data

• ・Distributing and sharing information on open data promotion
• ・Discussing new services created from open data promotion

Chairman

Hiroshi Komiyama (Chairman of the Institute, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.)

Advisor

Ken Sakamura (Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)
Hideyuki Tokuda (Dean and Professor, Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University)
Jun Murai (Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University)
Uchiyamada Takeshi (Vice Chairmen, Directors, Japan Business Federation)

Director

Yuriko Inoue (Professor, Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy)
Noboru Koshizuka (Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo)
Ichiya Nakamura (Professor, Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University)

Observer

Cabinet Secretariat
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
National Diet Library
Japan Business Federation
ASP-SaaS-Cloud CONSORTIUM

Bureau

Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.