The Japanese government will provide assistance to eight
cities that were heavily damaged in last year's earthquake and tsunami to
rebuild using "smart city" technologies that use IT to cut dependence
on traditional power sources. The Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry said it will provide a total of ¥8.6 billion (US$100 million) for
coastal cities in Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate Prefectures along Japan's
northeastern coast. The cities, which teamed up with major domestic companies
like Fujitsu, Toyota and Toshiba to apply for the project, now have until
September to submit final proposals for projects that are up and running by
March 2016. Japan is investing heavily in infrastructure projects that seek to
use advanced networking technology along with power grids to efficiently track
and control electricity use. Such infrastructure, which includes
Internet-connected power meters in homes, and giant electricity
"routers" that control where power is sent, is considered a key
building block before alternative energy sources like solar panels and wind
turbines can be used on a large scale. The project calls for the cities to come
up with plans for using such technologies in their local communities, with
budgets of at least ¥500 million. Those approved by the government can receive
up to two-thirds of the cost from government funds. One city, Kesennuma, which
has a large commercial fishing industry, proposed to implement a system to help
power its seafood processing plants. The island country has few natural
resources of its own and has increasingly relied on nuclear power until last
year's magnitude-9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunamis caused meltdowns at a
key nuclear plant. Since then nearly all of the country's nuclear power
reactors have been shut down for safety checks and many local communities are
against starting them up again, leading to government-mandated blackouts to cut
national electricity use.
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