The proposal by Keio University entitled “Creating a Co-mobility Society” has been selected by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to receive initial funding for the FY 2007 “Creation of Innovation Centers for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research Areas” program. This program was established under the FY 2006 Science and Technology Basic Plan (third term) as a scheme to form research and education centers based on large-scale competitive research funds. These funds are targeted to promotion of innovation in areas of advanced and important interdisciplinary research, through the cooperation of industry, academia, and government. The aims of the program are two-fold; firstly to provide a solid and most advanced environment for junior researchers, and secondly to form a R&D location that will produce future applications in industry, science and society. The total research period is 10 years, with the provision that there will be assessments after three and seven years to determine whether the research merits a further continuation.
Of the 26 proposal applications submitted to MEXT from organizations nationwide, nine were selected; Keio University was the only private university to have its application selected.
The aim of Keio’s project is to create new, multi-faceted communities based on the convergence of real living space and information spaces, and a new type of mobility systems to provide easier access in the real space. What we call the “Co-mobility Society” refers to a comfortable, safe and creative living and communication space in which all people—young and old alike- would be able to live and communicate with each other.
So far, community research has been limited to either a small scale local communities, or virtual communities existing only on networks. Many of the traditional regional communities have disappeared and what remain lacks adequate access to information and to transportation means. The “Co-mobility Society” combines advanced information systems support with new information controlled mobility system to form a new and multi-faceted community mode that will provide practical solutions for improving various difficulties and problems of daily life, for instance, in education, care for the elderly.
A salient feature of this project is that it is carried out by a partnership by Keio University and by companies who are leaders in information, telecommunications, broadcasiting and mobile technology. Participants from industry include KDDI Corporation, NEC Corporation, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd, and Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co., Ltd. Keio University has recently established the “Co-mobility Society Research Center” on campus. The Center, with cooperation by these leading companies and by the Graduate School of Science and Technology, the Graduate School of Media and Governance, the Faculty of Business and Commerce, the Faculty of Letters among others, is committed to the successful and truly interdisciplinary effort to promote the project.
