Professional services company Accenture and Japan’s University of Aizu are conducting joint research to develop a standard API marketplace for smart cites in Japan.
 
The project also includes studies on how to use a smart city operating system or digital platform for smart cities to use AI in public services and promote citizens’ behavioural changes, focusing on Aizu Wakamatsu city, Fukushima, as a model case.
 
“Since its opening in 1993, the University of Aizu has been fostering world-class ICT talent and conducting research on ICT that contributes to the sustainable development of Japan and the world,” said Toshiaki Miyazaki, president of the University of Aizu. “Through this joint research, we will work with Accenture, one of the world’s leading consulting companies, to improve Japan’s competitiveness.”
 
An API marketplace is a channel for sharing and disseminating standard code for creating and linking software. The planned site will help local government, companies and other local stakeholders develop and benefit from new data linkages and integration between smart city and industry initiatives.
 
With the advice of the University of Aizu, Accenture will develop the API marketplace on the cloud environment of the university’s ICT laboratory (Lictia). 
 
“The Japanese government is promoting a standardised smart city architecture for the good of society, in particular to support sustainable development in urban areas,” said Shojiro Nakamura, co-lead of the Accenture innovation centre in Fukushima. “Creating standards for applications and data is key to our efforts to support work in individual cities and a nationwide smart city framework, as well as central to our collaboration with the University of Aizu to promote regional development.”
 
Accenture is a Dublin-based professional services company, providing services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. It has 509,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.
 
Opened in 1993, the University of Aizu is a public university and the first university in Japan to specialise in computer science and engineering.