Current Situation in Hokuriku and Smart Society

On the other hand, the population of the Hokuriku has been declining since peaking around 2000 due to the declining birthrate and aging population. In addition, depopulation is progressing in some municipals. Furthermore, over the past half century, after the agricultural, industrial, and information societies, we have rapidly changed to the smart society, a human-centered society where safety and security through sustainability and resilience and well-being can be achieved for each individual. With these changes, there has been an increase in social infrastructure that is lacking in functionality and outdated. At the same time, there has also been an increase in infrastructure that has deteriorated and become dilapidated due to long-term use in severe environments. As a result, the safety of citizens' lives and economic activities is being threatened.

SIP

In these backgrounds, the Cabinet Office Council for Science, Technology and Innovation has taken on the role of control tower to tackle social issues that are truly important to the public and world-leading issues that can contribute to the revitalization of the Japanese economy through management that transcends the boundaries of government ministries and traditional fields. The Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) was launched in FY2014. The first term had been run for five years up to FY2019, and the third term is running for five years from FY2023, and issues related to measures to combat the aging of infrastructure mentioned above have also been set.

First Period Initiatives

In the Hokuriku region, the project 'Development of a total management system based on elucidation of the mechanism of early deterioration of concrete bridges and evaluation of material and structural performance,''proposed by Professor Emeritus Kazuyuki Torii of Kanazawa University as the principal researcher, was adopted for the first term of the project 'Infrastructure maintenance, renewal, and management technology.' This led to the development of new technology for economical and rational maintenance methods to efficiently maintain road infrastructure in the Hokuriku region, which suffers from serious early deterioration due to chloride attack and alkali-silica reaction (ASR), under the severe environments of a shortage of human resources, technical capabilities, and financial resources (budged).

Educational Institution Collaboration

Even after the activities of the first SIP term, the group has continued to strengthen collaboration among higher education institutions by adding young faculty members who have taken up positions at universities and technical colleges in the Hokuriku region, and has promoted research aimed at solving issues related to the maintenance of road infrastructure in municipalities.

Outlook for Third Term

In addition, research on the sophistication and efficiency of technologies and mechanisms for road maintenance in municipalities in the Hokuriku region, as well as human resource development and utilization for their implementation, was selected for the third term SIP project, 'Establishment of a Smart Infrastructure Management System.' The theme includes not only manufacturing and creating things, but also human resource development, and we are working to solve the problem through industry-government-academia collaboration, seeing it as an opportunity to contribute to regional revitalization. We are also actively using social media and the mass media to raise awareness of the need for road maintenance among citizens who normally use roads, so that they can see it as something that concerns them personally.

Request for Cooperation

We would like to ask for the understanding, support, and cooperation of this research project not only from those in the civil engineering and construction industry involved in road maintenance and the transportation industry that utilizes the roads, but also from local residents who want to make the Hokuriku region a pleasant place to live for their children and grandchildren, and from tourists and business people who visit the Hokuriku region repeatedly.