No. 869: The Tokyo Olympics is the place to exhibit Japanese state-of-the-art technologies (April 14, 2015)

Technology:

A total of 1,000 Japanese high-tech companies are expected to participate in the project proposed by the Japanese government to exhibit Japanese state-of-the-art technologies in conjunction with the Tokyo Olympics scheduled for 2020. The Council for Science, Technology and Innovation affiliated with the Cabinet Office of the government will start recruiting public companies for the project by the end of April. The project covers nine fields: automated driving, automated translation, hydrogen society, assisting disabled people, weather forecast, monitoring system, imaging technology, injection surveillance, and long-lasting plants.  

The Tokyo Metropolitan government will introduce the next-generation city traffic system that permits interactive communications between vehicles and traffic lights for automatic traffic management. The bus rapid transit (BRT) will be introduced for the means of transport between the city center and the Olympic arenas. The traffic light will turn green as a bus approaches for on-time operation, and the bus stops at a bus station in centimeters and as close to the station as possible to let users of wheelchairs and baby carriages get on and off without any difficulty. The terminal of the speech translation system that supports several languages including English, Chinese, and Arabic will be available at airports, arenas, and sightseeing spots. 

 R&D on automated driving is under way

at Toyota's Research Center

In the field of hydrogen society, hydrogen produced by the electricity created by renewable energy across the country will be transported to Tokyo by large tankers. The hydrogen will be stored in hydrogen stations in Tokyo and used for fuel-cell vehicles plying between the city center and Olympic arenas. A monitoring camera system based on sophisticated analysis technology will be developed to pinpoint suspicious individuals and sick people promptly. To prepare for patients with an infectious disease, detection technologies and systems for information collection and analysis will be developed. Support robots to help disabled people watch Olympic Games and assist Paralympics athletes with their training will be developed. A weather forecast technology to forecast torrential rainfalls and a biotechnology to allow flowers to live longer in summer will be developed. 

 Walking support robot "Active Gear"

Government agencies responsible for the nine fields will figure out necessary budgets. A research agency reckons that the Tokyo Olympics has an economic ripple effect totaling 20 trillion yen, while new industries based on technology innovation will have an economic effect totaling 5 trillion yen.