This report was produced by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the Programme of Work of the OECD Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). The project benefitted from financial support from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan, in collaboration with the Japanese Digital Agency and its Cabinet Office.
The OECD Secretariat is grateful to Mr Naoki Takahashi, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and to the MLIT team, in particular Kakishita Yoshihiro, Ota Yoshihisa, Ohno Kazuya and Takenaka Koshin. It is also thankful to the representatives from the cities of Aizuwakamatsu, Takamatsu and Toyama, representatives from the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and NEC Japan, as well as members of the academia, Drs Noboru Koshizuka, Hiroshi Mano and Mihoko Sakurai, for sharing their perspectives throughout the policy dialogue.
This report was co-ordinated and drafted by Oscar Huerta Melchor, Policy Analyst, under the supervision of Soo-Jin Kim, Deputy Head of the Cities, Urban Policies and Sustainable Development Division, and Rene Hohmann, Senior Economist in CFE. Hiroko Suzuki, Senior Counsellor in CFE, provided useful comments and communication support with the MLIT. Hyehyeon Bark in CFE provided valuable research assistance in the early stages of the project. Ana Moreno Monroy, Head of the Statistics and Territorial Analysis Unit in CFE, and Barbara Ubaldi, Head of the Digital Government and Data Unit, Cecilia Emilsson and Jacob Arturo Rivera Pérez, Policy Analysts from the OECD Directorate for Public Governance, provided helpful insights and recommendations on early drafts. Special thanks are also due to Lucie Amour and Laura Nardelli for their administrative and logistical support. Eleonore Morena edited and formatted the report. Pilar Philip led the publication process.
The report benefitted from the experience of experts whose insights are gratefully acknowledged, especially: Dr Ian Opperman, Director of Connectivity Innovation Network, New South Wales, Australia; Mr Eddie Copeland, Director of the London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI), United Kingdom; Dr Enrico Daga, Research Fellow, Open University UK; Ms Ane Miren Ibañez, General Director of Bilbao TIK, Spain; Mr Sujae Lee, Director of the Big Data Division, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Korea; Mr Michiel van Dongen, Senior Policy Advisor, Directorate-General for Mobility, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Netherlands; Mrs Gudrun Schwarz, Division of Smart Cities, German Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building, Germany; and Mr Hugh Cole, Director of Policy and Strategy, Cape Town, South Africa.