Category: Japan Trade Information

June 12, 2020

In September 2019, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) inaugurated a “Review Committee on Approaches to Making Investment in Health and Productivity Management Visible” in order to further encourage companies and other organizations to engage in efforts for health and productivity management. Since then, the committee has been holding discussions on companies’ investment in health and productivity management and approaches that companies should take to make the effects of such management visible.

Based on the results of the committee’s discussions, METI formulated “Guidelines for Administrative Accounting of Investment in Health and Productivity Management” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidelines”) as a reference for presenting a framework helping companies to effectively implement their health and productivity management and hold dialogues with external stakeholders involving various markets such as capital markets and, on June 12, 2020, released the Guidelines.

Background to the formulation of the Guidelines

As important elements in the process of advancing health and productivity management, companies should not only manage employees’ health as an obligation under the Industrial Safety and Health Act and other laws and regulations, e.g., regular medical checkups and stress checking, but also: conduct additional efforts for encouraging employees to maintain and improve health, which are necessary for companies and other organizations to solve challenges in business management, e.g., improvement of labor productivity; make smooth a plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle inside the companies and other organizations; and convey information on these efforts to external stakeholders.

The government, thus far, prepared some guidelines for future directions of efforts for health and productivity management, e.g., the “Guidebook for ‘Health and Productivity Management’ of Companies,” which is a revised first edition formulated by METI in April 2016, and, since FY2014, it has been conducting the Survey on Health and Productivity Management and a program for recognizing outstanding companies and organizations for their health and productivity management. In addition, against the backdrop that the private sector is requested to execute leadership in further activating companies’ efforts for health and productivity management, the government formulated the Guidelines, wishing to help companies meet such request in the future.

Outline of the Guidelines

Following the conventional efforts, e.g., the Survey on Health and Productivity Management, the Guidelines explain approaches to internal management that companies and other organizations need to take in order to more continuously, efficiently and effectively implement health and productivity management through their creativity and ingenuity for employees and other staff. Moreover, the Guidelines present common points of views that companies and other organizations should introduce in holding dialogues on the current situations of their efforts with external stakeholders.

The Guidelines adopt quantitative and monetary indices to help companies become aware of expenses for advancing activities and effects brought about by the activities through administrative accounting approaches. The definitions of health are broad and these quantitative and monetary indices are not sufficient to represent all of the definitions. However, METI believes that making the definitions “visible” by the indices will help not only individuals but also organizations make reasonable decisions and take sensible actions for enhancing health consciousness. Moreover, making these indices “visible” will foster common understanding and awareness of health among stakeholders having different standpoints, e.g., employees, business owners, communities and societies and shareholders, and this may contribute to companies’ dialogues with such stakeholders.

The Guidelines target companies that have already started efforts for health and productivity management and are yet seeking approaches to effective analyses and assessments as main users thereof. Companies and other organizations are expected to enjoy advantages based on the following perspectives by making use of the Guidelines in preparing a report on administrative accounting of investment in health and productivity management.

1. Internal function: Companies are able to more continuously, efficiently and effectively implement health and productivity management; and
2. External function: They are able to appropriately hold dialogues with external stakeholders concerning the current situations of their efforts for health and productivity management.

Effects brought about by the formulation of the Guidelines

METI expects that making use of the Guidelines, companies and organizations will voluntarily, proactively and flexibly engage in health and productivity management and gain appropriate recognition from a variety of markets, in particular, capital markets, and thereby the idea of health and productivity management will further disseminate and be established as one of Japan’s corporate cultures.

June 12, 2020

In light of the fact that cyberattacks targeting the weaknesses in supply chains of large enterprises and SMEs have been increasing and becoming more sophisticated, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) organized characteristics of recent cyberattacks and specific case examples thereof and compiled directions of future efforts for addressing cyberattacks into a report. Based on these directions, METI will embark on coordination between stakeholders, e.g., industrial players, in order to specify and implement cybersecurity measures across entire supply chains.

1. Background

Multiple companies in Japan uncovered that they have received sophisticated cyberattacks since January 2020. Moreover, cases of cyberattacks that might cause a leakage of corporate information have ceaselessly been reported.

As METI recognizes these situations as serious cases, on January 31, 2020, METI issued a letter of request titled “Alerts to Companies in light of Recent Cases of Cyberattacks and Request for Submitting Reports thereon” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report Request”) requesting, through industrial associations, that companies holding sensitive information inspect their own security measures and submit a report on a possible leakage of important information that may be caused by cyberattacks, if any, to METI by February 14, 2020. As a result, METI received a little less than 40 reports by the closing date of submission.

Moreover, in FY2019, METI started the Project for Demonstrating Measures for Supporting SMEs in Conducting Post-Accident Measures Involving Cybersecurity (Cybersecurity Support Ranger Project), an initiative for supporting companies, with1,064 SMEs as participants, in taking initial responses after the occurrence of cyberattacks against the SMEs. Through this project, METI has been uncovering the current situations of cyberattacks against SMEs.

The report shows METI’s recognition of characteristics of cyberattacks and specific case examples, which were uncovered through reports submitted by companies in accordance with the Report Request and the results of the demonstration project mentioned above. It also presents directions of future efforts for addressing cyberattacks.

2. Overview

(1) Recent situations involving cybersecurity: Continuous responses to cyberattacks which are becoming more sophisticated daily, will become key

In response to the issuance of the Report Request, METI eventually received a little less than 40 reports, but no report was submitted on any leakage of important information caused by cyberattacks (except one case under ongoing inspection, which METI found after the closing date of submission).

Meanwhile, the details of the submitted reports and recent cyberattack-related cases uncovered that cyberattacks are continuously becoming increasingly more sophisticated, and this fact shows that it is more and more important for companies to continuously inspect the current situations of their cybersecurity measures.

The report presents three characteristics of recent damages to companies affected by cyberattacks: “increasing sophistication of targeted cyberattacks”; “cyberattacks against the weaknesses in supply chains”; and “continuous occurrence of damage caused by unauthorized logins,” and it provides explanations of these characteristics.

(2) Case examples of cyberattacks to which Cybersecurity Support Rangers responded: Current situations where SMEs are also targeted by cyberattacks are highlighted anew

In advancing the demonstration project in which 1,064 SMEs participated, alerts were issued to 910 cases in total in eight areas across Japan. Out of these alerts, Cybersecurity Support Rangers decided on 128 cases as potentially serious cases and  responded to them, and for one of these cases, in particular, the value of damage that may be caused by the cyberattack was estimated to be nearly 50 million yen if the company failed to respond.

The report explains characteristic case examples to which Cybersecurity Support Rangers responded, such as use of old OSs and use of private terminals, use of Wi-Fi services at hotels and cyberattacks against supply chains.

(3) Activities that companies are required to fulfill for ensuring security of entire supply chains

Responsibilities that companies should fulfill are not limited to securing continuity of their own businesses. These responsibilities are considered diverse: responsibility for ensuring security of supply chains, social responsibility that companies should bear, such as proper management of sensitive information on technologies which companies are required to appropriately control under laws and regulations due to the potential serious impact of such information on any security environment.

The report presents three actions that companies should take to fulfill these responsibilities: (1) close information sharing between entities sharing the same supply chains; (2) submitting reports to METI in cases where a leakage of sensitive information on technologies is concerned; and (3) announcement (of cyberattack-related cases) if appropriate.

In parallel with this, the report also recommends that Japan should hold discussions on approaches to making SMEs’ efforts for cybersecurity measures visible in order to fortify cybersecurity measures across entire supply chains, including SMEs.

Based on these directions of future efforts, METI will enhance dialogues with industrial players, hold discussions on details of specific efforts and strive to lead the results to campaigns for promoting cybersecurity measures under a public-private cooperation framework.

June 10, 2020

On May 18, 2020, the Council on Promoting Partnership Building for Cultivating the Future held a meeting and agreed to introduce a new framework called a “Declaration of Partnership Building” and to help large enterprises and SMEs to build mutually-beneficial relationships. Related ministries and agencies will work together to further encourage management and owners of many businesses to prepare and announce Declarations of Partnership Building.

Purpose

Aiming to make large enterprises and SMEs co-exist and co-prosper, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency (SMEA) inaugurated a Council of Eminent Persons on Value Creation Companies (chair: Mr. Mimura Akio, Chairman, Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry), and on February 2020, the council compiled an “interim report” presenting approaches to making individual companies’ efforts visible through their own “voluntary-based action declarations.”

Moreover, the Emergency Economic Measures for Response to COVID-19, on which a Cabinet Decision was made on April 20, 2020, stipulates that Japan should develop a system to promote the introduction of appropriate trade practices among companies, along with other actions, in order to prevent SMEs and small businesses from bearing the burdens of worsened business environments resulting from impacts of the novel coronavirus disease and other factors.

In response to these goals, the government inaugurated a Council on Promoting Partnership Building for Cultivating the Future consisting of representatives from the business circles and the labor organizations as well as related ministers as members.

At its first meeting held on May 18, 2020, the council held discussions on the following issues:

1. Preventing SMEs and small enterprises from “bearing burdens caused by unfair trade conditions” and continuing to advance efforts for encouraging companies to introduce appropriate trade practices, while taking into consideration impacts of the novel coronavirus disease; and
2. Encouraging companies to build new partnerships involving efforts for increasing value added across supply chains and open innovation across business scales, groups and borders, and others.

Based on these discussions, the council affirmed that Japan should introduce: a framework called a “Declaration of Partnership Building” in which individual companies voluntarily declare that they will engage in Items (1) and (2) above; and a listing system of current companies that have issued their declarations, including details of their declarations.

The government, in cooperation with the Council on Promoting Partnership Building for Cultivating the Future, will advance efforts to encourage more and more companies to announce their Declarations of Partnership Building, aiming at August 2020 when many companies will negotiate their trade conditions for the latter half of FY 2020.

Preparation and announcement of the Declaration of Partnership Building

Individual companies are requested to use the online form to submit a declaration that they have prepared through the portal website, which is operated by the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Organizations. In response, the association will post the submitted declarations on the website.Reference: Council on Promoting Partnership Building for Cultivating the Future

This council consists of the following members: the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry; the Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy; the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare; the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Chairman of the Keidanren; Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and President of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO).

June 5, 2020

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Japan Machinery Federation (JMF)  hold the Ninth Robot Awards in collaboration with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), and METI and JMF started the call for  applicants for the program on April 7, 2020. However, due to the impacts of the novel coronavirus, the call for applicants will now be extended. The period of the call will now run from June 5^th (Fri) to August 31^st (Mon).

Outline

The Robot Awards program is an initiative aiming to facilitate the development of robot technologies and the social implementation of robots in Japan. This program will recognize outstanding companies and other organizations engaging in efforts for pioneering use, research and development, human resource development and other actions involving robots and other advanced technologies which are expected to significantly contribute to creating new markets in the future.

Inaugurated in FY2006 as the first awards program, the Robots Awards has been held once every other year since FY2008, and this will be the ninth program this year.

METI and the JMF have been calling for applicants for the Ninth Robot Awards program since April 7 (Tue.), 2020, and were scheduled to close the call on June 5 (Fri.), 2020. However, they decided to extend the period of the call until August 31 (Mon.), 2020, as they have received correspondence from potential applicants that due to the coronavirus, they cannot complete sufficient preparations for filing an application in due time. In line with this, the winners of the Minister’s Awards and other awards will be finalized in early 2021.

Future schedule

• August 31 (Mon.), 2020: Closing the call
• Around January and February 2021: Finalizing and announcing the winners of the Minister’s Awards and other awards

June 4, 2020

On June 4, 2020, the Special ASEAN Plus Three (Japan, China and the ROK) Economic Ministers’ Virtual Conference Meeting on COVID-19 Response was held and the Ministers issued an “ASEAN Plus Three Economic Ministers’ Joint Statement on Mitigating the Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Outline

On June 4 (Thur.), 2020, the Special ASEAN Plus Three (Japan, China and the ROK) Economic Ministers’ Virtual Conferencel Meeting on COVID-19 Responce was held via video conference. As a representative of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Mr. Tanaka Shigehiro, Vice-Minister for International Affairs, attended the meeting on behalf of Mr. Kajiyama Hiroshi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.

At the meeting, the ministers held discussions on cooperation to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 and to recover the economy as well as other issues, as an effort in response to the Special ASEAN Plus Three Summit on Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19) held on April 14, 2020, via video conference.

Following the meeting, the ministers issued an “ASEAN Plus Three Economic Ministers’ Joint Statement on Mitigating the Economic Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

Key points of the joint statement

• The ministers reaffirmed the importance of keeping the markets open to strengthen the resiliency and sustainability of regional supply chains;
• They agreed to refrain from taking unnecessary measures that may affect the smooth flow of essential goods such as medicines;
• They affirmed that measures restricting cross-border movement of goods and services will be targeted, proportionate, transparent, temporary, and consistent with the WTO rules;
• They recognized the importance of facilitating essential movement of business people across borders without undermining efforts to prevent the spread of the virus and other actions;
• They underscored the importance of facilitating cross-border transfer of information and data by electronic means as well as to strengthen consumer and business trust in the digital economy and support ongoing negotiations on electronic commerce at the WTO; and
• They will remain committed to the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement in 2020 and working together to resolve India’s outstanding issues, as mandated in the Joint Leaders’ Statement on the RCEP issued in 2019.

June 3, 2020

Concerning indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services, whose demand is growing in Asian countries, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) issued a new international standard for such services, aiming to achieve appropriate temperature control for refrigerated delivery services. This issuance is expected to help service users to appropriately assess the quality of indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services provided by Japanese distribution companies, enhance international competitiveness of such companies and contribute to healthy development and expansion of markets for such services overseas.

Background

As people’s lifestyles are becoming more diverse and the scale of e-commerce (EC) markets is growing, an increasing number of households and other consumers in Asian countries, mainly China and ASEAN economies, but also in other countries, have been demanding parcel-based deliveries of fresh foods, perishable goods and other products through indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services. With this trend, Japanese distribution companies have been embarking on business development in Asian countries, in particular, their major cities, to meet the expectations of private consumers and other customers, both of whom demand safe and secure delivery services. Meanwhile, some delivery service companies operating overseas are likely to fail to provide appropriate temperature control for refrigerated parcels, and this low-quality service undermines consumer trust in delivery services for refrigerated parcels, and therefore, there have been increasing concerns over this situation that may cause bottlenecks for market expansion in such countries.

In these circumstances, Japan submitted a proposal to the ISO for the development of a new international standard for the purpose of helping service users to appropriately assess the quality of indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services, secure consumer trust in such services and enhance the international competitiveness of Japanese distribution companies.

Outline of the international standard

The newly issued international standard, ISO 23412*1 (indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services – land transport of parcels with intermediate transfer), stipulates requirements for operations to achieve appropriate temperature control in land transportation of refrigerated parcels that accompanies with intermediate transfer of such parcels during transportation. Highlights of the international standard are as follows:

• Definitions of indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services;
• Construction of transport networks;
• Handling methods for refrigerated parcels;
• Conditions for service providers, refrigerated vehicles, cold stores and ice packs;
• Operational directions and manuals;
• Provision of education and training to staff members; and
• Monitoring and improvement of indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services

This international standard was developed at ISO/PC315 (indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services), a committee established in accordance with Japan’s proposal. By undertaking the roles of the Chairperson and the Secretariat, the core positions that direct the committee, Japan exercised leadership in developing the international standard and the ISO issued it on May 28, 2020, as a new international standard.**

Expected effects

Dissemination of the international standard is expected to help service users to appropriately assess the quality of indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated  delivery services provided by Japanese distribution companies, which are able to deliver parcels while maintaining a predetermined temperature from loading to destinations and through several intermediate transfers, and also to help such companies to fortify international competitiveness. Moreover, the international standard is also expected to contribute to healthy development and expansion of markets for indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services overseas.
 
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will continue to collaborate with distribution companies, industrial associations and related ministries and agencies; support efforts for developing national standards and establishing authentication infrastructures targeting Asian countries, mainly China and ASEAN economies in which a demand for indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated  delivery services is growing; and further raise public awareness of the international standard.

Notes:

*1: Official title of ISO 23412:2020
Indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated delivery services – land transport of parcels with intermediate transfer

**2: This successful standardization is due to the achievements under the Project for Establishing New International Standards for Energy Conservation, etc. and Promoting the Dissemination of Such Standards (international standards development for energy conservation; international standardization category; international standardization for indirect, temperature-controlled refrigerated  delivery services), which METI has commissioned to a private entity.

June 2, 2020

The Preparation Meeting for Formulation of Strategies for Enhancing Material Innovation Power, a body jointly inaugurated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), decided on a report on its discussion results and METI hereby announces it.

In response to the increasing importance of substances, materials, devices, etc., collectively called “materials,” in terms of industries and innovations, the current situations where advantages of Japanese materials are facing a crisis and other factors, MEXT and METI started discussions toward enhancement of material innovation power in Japan in 2020.

As part of this effort, MEXT and METI inaugurated a Preparation Meeting for Formulation of Strategies for Enhancing Material Innovation Power (chair: Ohno Hideo, President, Tohoku University) in April 2020, and since then, the preparation meeting accelerated discussions on the issue above. Following its discussions held based on the occurrence and expansion of the novel coronavirus disease and other issues, on June 2, 2020, the preparation meeting decided on a report titled “Toward Government Strategies for Enhancing Material Innovation Power (Report Compiled by the Strategy Preparation Meeting)”, the outline of which is appended below.

With eyes on the Integrated Innovation Strategy 2020 and the Sixth Science and Technology Basic Plan, the report presents basic stances toward formulation of government-wide strategies for enhancing material innovation power, directions of future efforts and other issues.

June 1, 2020

Aiming to further disseminate businesses in which distributed energy resources are aggregated and the aggregated resources are used as supply capacity or adjustment capacity, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) revised the Guidelines for Energy Resource Aggregation Business.

Outline of the guidelines

The Guidelines for Energy Resource Aggregation Business feature negawatt trading, a system in which electricity utilities procure and pay for the amount of electricity saved by consumers under the demand response program (DR), and present basic policies for negawatt trading as a reference for energy resource aggregation business (ERAB) stakeholders (e.g., method of assessing the amount of controlled electricity). The guidelines were formulated in March 2015 and revised three times in September 2016, November 2017 and April 2019.

Background to and details of the revision

In June 2017, METI established a Working Group for Assessment of Demand Control under the ERAB Study Group. Since then, the working group has been discussing methods of assessing the amount of electricity generated through negawatt retailers’ remote control of distribued energy resources owned by consumers.

Based on expansion of negawatt trading, the progress in discussions on requirements involving markets, e.g., balancing markets and capacity markets, and other factors, METI revised the existing guidelines to clarify the position of the guidelines, further subdivide the categories of trade and stipulate other rules.

Key points of the revision

Clarifying the position of the guidelines

The revised guidelines are to rclarify the position of the guidelines into: guidelines working as basic principles to which aggregators and other businesses should refer in making contracts or stipulating rules between stakeholders other than market operators, which are necessary for such aggregators’ business operations. Following this, the related items stipulated in the guidelines are to be revised.

Further subdividing the categories of trade for the load-reduction DR and exemplifying use cases

Concerning the category covering businesses that grid operators procure negawatts (Category 2), the revised guidelines are to subdivide the category by procurement sources of negawatts and by the timing of receiving directions from the grid operators and also to exemplify use cases thereof (use case examples).

Streamlining approaches to compensation for negawatts in all negawatt trading

Concerning all negawatt trading falling under Category 1-(2) for DR that electricity retailers will use for achieving their goals set under the system for adjusting the eectricity amount between generation and consumption concerning planned amount or Category 2-(2) for DR that general electricity transmission/distribution businesses will use for supply-demand balancing, the revised guidelines are to clearly show methods of calculating compensation for negawatts for the case where aggregators should pay for kWh.

Ideal approaches to information sharing between electricity retailers and aggregators

The revised guidelines are to additionally stipulate details of information that electricity retailers and aggregators should share and the timing of the information sharing.

Revising time units subject to adjustment under the standard baselines on the date of trading

Concerning the time units subject to adjustment under the standard baselines on the date of trading, the revised guidelines are to unify such units to “six units by 30 minutes from 5 hours to 2 hours before starting DR” for all categories.

*Notes:

1. The Council on Study of Energy Resource Aggregation Business (ERAB) is a working-level body of members in the industry, academia, and government sectors. It aims to organize and discuss challenges involving ERAB, e.g., methods of assessing the electricity amount controlled under the DR program and cybersecurity measures. These are part of the efforts for development of a business framework in which businesses make use of a virtual power plant (VPP) (*3) and the DR program, and provide a variety of services related to: electricity adjustment, avoidance of supply-demand imbalances, electricity-rate cuts, avoidance of output controls and other measures to their customers, including electricity transmission/distribution businesses, electricity retailers, consumers and renewable-energy utilities. The council was established in January 2016.
2. Compensation for negawatts is the cost for adjusting the cost-benefit gap caused by DR between electricity retailers supplying electricity to consumers and negawatt retailers (aggregators).
3. VPP is a system in which distributed energy resources are remotely controlled through IoT technology to provide a function of power generation and adjustment similar to that of a power plant.

May 29, 2020

Aiming to review essential challenges in stagnation of innovations in Japan and to show future directions of R&D for groups of important technologies to which Japan should intensively input resources toward 2025 or beyond toward 2050, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) inaugurated an R&D and Innovation Subcommittee of the Committee on Industrial Science and Technology Policy and Environment under the Industrial Structure Council and, since then, the subcommittee held repeated discussions and compiled the results into a report titled “Industrial Technology Vision 2020.” Considering this Industrial Technology Vision 2020 as a catalyst, METI will strive to create a virtuous cycle of innovations.

Background

Japan needs to further create innovations in order to: take actions for achieving SDGs, shifting to the circular economy, and solving social challenges, e.g., measures for addressing disasters and infectious diseases; and enhance industrial competitiveness. Nevertheless, Japan has been facing sluggish situations in terms of innovations in recent years, while it has not prepared well for introducing the Society 5.0 policy, which was highlighted by the crisis caused by recent expansion of the novel coronavirus disease. Japan should, anew, tackle creation of innovations by not only ascertaining essential problems that Japan’s innovation systems confront but also identifying challenges to be solved from mid- to long-term viewpoints seen from industrial technologies.

Key points of the Industrial Technology Vision 2020

Based on this problem awareness and taking into consideration five global mega-trends and international trends toward 2050, the subcommittee tentatively identified essential challenges that Japan confronts and compiled future directions of industrial technologies toward 2050, goals that Japan should achieve by 2050, and other issues into the Industrial Technology Vision 2020.

• A key to allowing Japan to adapt to global mega-trends and dynamically respond to changes in order to achieve the Society 5.0 policy is diverse and organic innovations, and it is inevitable for Japan to shift to an intellectual capitalism-based economy, which efficiently makes use of knowledge capital.
• Toward 2050, Japan should present to people at home and abroad value in which it raises awareness of sustainable global commons (i.e., common asset among human beings in both cyber spaces and physical spaces) as well as enhancing its presence in efforts for creating innovation industries, namely integrating and networking technologies, human resources and other elements and creating ecosystems. Through these efforts, Japan will achieve international contributions.
• Placing eyes on these mid- to long-term goals, the report presents Japan’s future directions of three-layered actions:

• Enhancing innovation power by empowering “individuals”: Building systems and infrastructures for: accelerating investments placing “people” at the core as a source of knowledge capital serving as a foundation of innovations; and integrating knowledge capital (Layer 1);
• Breaking away from the existing closed business models and technocentrism and promoting open innovations: Prioritizing strategies which comprehensively connect all business elements from research and development to business development in order to commercialize newly-created technical seeds and sublimate them to social value (Layer 2); and
• Identifying fields to which Japan should intensively input resources to achieve the Society 5.0 policy (Layer 3); (A) digital technologies driving the intellectual capitalism-based economy, e.g., Intelligence of Things, human augmentation and next-generation computing bolstering them, (B) biotechnologies, a field having strong growth potentials as an innovation industry, (C) material technologies, a foundation of all fields and (D) energy and environmental technologies, a solution to all negative aspects of economy.
• Stagnation of innovations in Japan is a deep-rooted complicated challenge and overcoming this challenge will not be achieved only by using one, single panacea. Japan should integrally and comprehensively promote efforts of these three layers and put the gears of innovations into operation.

Japan’s first guidelines on performance evaluation of UAVs as an effort for permitting the Fukushima Robot Testing Field to make use of guidelines for UAV tests

Under the Roadmap for Aerial Industrial Revolution, showing an approach to achieving flights of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over people beyond visual line of sight, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) hereby announces Guidelines on Performance Evaluation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as an outcome of the research and development as part of efforts for achieving the goal “study on evaluation methods of safety and reliability of UAVs,” which is upheld in the roadmap.

1. Background

Recently, many industries use UAVs for a wide variety of purposes, e.g., spraying agricultural chemicals, aerial photography, surveying and infrastructure inspections. Furthermore, as UAVs allow people to quickly transport goods, without the need for specific landing areas or to shoot video from the air, there are expectations for UAVs as an industrial tool for solving social challenges, e.g., labor shortage and aging society with fewer children, and for creating new added value.

Realizing flights of UAVs over people beyond visual line of sight without a visual observer is indispensable for facilitating the diverse use of UAVs in a wider variety of industrial fields, permitting more and more people to enjoy UAVs’ convenience and making changes in industries, the economy, and society. Concerning challenges to be overcome for achieving these goals, The Public-Private Council for Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Promotion and Regulation compiled the Roadmap for the Aerial Industrial Revolution. This roadmap upholds the goal “study on evaluation methods of safety and reliability of UAVs” as one of its steps.

2. Outline of the Guidelines

As part of the METI Project for Achieving an Energy-Conserving Society in which Robots and Drones Play Important Roles, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (hereinafter referred to as “NEDO”), has been advancing study on and development of methods of evaluating the performance of UAVs for the purpose of allowing UAVs to fly over people beyond visual line of sight without a visual observer. This is in parallel with taking into consideration related overseas trends and taking advantage of test data and other information as results from making use of the Fukushima Robot Testing Field (hereinafter referred to as “RTF”).

NEDO compiled the results of the research and development under the project into Guidelines on Performance Evaluation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and METI hereby announces the Guidelines. The Guidelines are Japan’s first comprehensive compilation explaining standards for and approaches to evaluating the performance of UAVs in a uniform manner. They are expected to be utilized in a wide variety of fields as matters that companies should consider in, e.g., setting goals for performance levels in the process of development of the bodies of UAVs, stipulating indices for selecting the bodies thereof and operating UAVs. Moreover, as a material to be discussed, they will contribute to further designing of new systems to expand the use of drones in the future.

3. Fukushima RTF

As part of the Fukushima Innovation Coast Scheme, the Fukushima RTF was developed as a base in which experts are able to conduct not only tests of drones’ long-distance flights and operation control but also many demonstration tests of onshore, undersea and aerial field robots, and it opened fully in March 2020. The RTF offers well-organized related test facilities, which allow experts to conduct assessment tests and other experiments under the Guidelines, and also well-organized test environments with simulations of the sites where drones are actually used, e.g., test plant facilities and mock bridges.