The forum provides an opportunity to further strengthen the alliance between Japan and Australia (particularly in Victoria) in helping to facilitate social, business, and technological linkages.
The forum will bring together representatives from government and business, including the City of Melbourne, for the purpose of sharing insights into liveability, smart city indices and future cities.
The forum will focus on:
- How to achieve people-centric sustainable smart cities with liveability and regional wellbeing
- "City-to-city" collaboration to solve common social issues such as empowering depopulated and aged regions in rural areas for sustainable smart cities and zero emission societies utilising digital technologies and renewable energy.
RMIT's Associate Professor Melanie Davern, Director of the Australian Urban Observatory and Acting Deputy Director of the Centre for Urban Research (the Southern Hemisphere's largest comprehensive urban research group) will present at the event.
Her research interests focus on liveability, community, and individual wellbeing with specific expertise in the development and use of indicators as a measurement tool for policy development, program evaluation and community engagement.
Takehiko Nagumo, a Senior Industry Fellow of RMIT's Centre of Urban Design has worked with The Smart City Institute of Japan to adapt the liveable city indices developed by Professor Davern, which the Japanese Government is now implementing across 27 of their major cities.
RMIT Associate Professor Chris Berg, Co-Director and co-founder of the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, will present on The Digital CBD Roadmap for Melbourne, the vision for Melbourne to start moving towards a globally influential digital city. The report was released in November 2022.
The forum will also feature a joint presentation by Sumitomo Forestry Australia and NTT Urban Design about a net zero carbon building as a step toward the realization of a carbon-free society. The foothold for their joint project is a large-scale wooden office in Collingwood, with construction expected to be complete in August 2023.
Agenda
Program (planned: subject to change)
MC: Ms. Natsuko Ogawa, Co-Chair, Australia Japan Society of Victoria
Leading Australian Japanese M&A Partner at Ashurst
9:30–10:00: Opening Session
Opening Remarks: Professor Calum Drummond, RMIT Vice President and Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research and Innovation
Greeting: Yoshihiro Hirata, Senior Managing Director, Nikkei Inc.
Greeting: Takehiko Nagumo, Executive Managing Director, SCI-Japan
10:00–12:00: Academic Session
Theme: "Co-Creating Liveable Well-Being Cities" – Australia and Japan
Speech 1: Liveablility Indicators Insight in Melbourne
Speaker: Dr. Melanie Davern, Associate Professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) /Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor and Director, AUO (Australian Urban Laboratory), RMIT Centre for Urban Research Centre
Speech 2: Liveable Well-Being City Indicators – Japan's New Smart City Standard under the Digital Garden City Nation Initiative
Speaker: Takehiko Nagumo, Executive Managing Director, Smart City Institute Japan
Discussion: Global Alliance for Liveable Well-Being City Indicators
Panelists:
- Ms. Melanie Davern, Associate Professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) /Associate Deputy Vice Chancellor and Director, AUO (Australian Urban Laboratory), RMIT Centre for Urban Research Centre
- Takehiko Nagumo, Executive Managing Director, Smart City Institute Japan
12:50–15:00: Business Roundtable
Theme: Urban decarbonization with open Innovation toward sustainable and zero-emission society
Moderator: Ms. Natsuko Ogawa, Co-Chair, Australia Japan Society of Victoria Leading Australian Japanese M&A Partner at Ashurst
12:50-13:00: Video by City of Osaka
About 45th anniversary of Sister City relationship with the City of Melbourne and introducing EV Bus system for coming EXPO 2025
Session 1: Japan's Presentation
- Mr. Noriyuki Yanagawa, Representative Director, Smart City Institute Japan, Professor, Graduate School of Economics, the University of Tokyo, Director, Center for Real Estate Innovation Research (CREI)
- Mr. Koichi Nomoto, Managing Director, Sumitomo Forestry Australia Pty Ltd.
- Mr. Junichi Amano, Managing Director, NTT UD Australia Pty Ltd.
Session 2: Discussion: Japan-Australia Open Innovation
- State Government of Victoria (TBD)
- Ph.D Nobuyuki Ozaki, Professor, NAGOYA UNIVERSITY, Institutes of Innovation for Future Society, Global Research Institutes for Mobility in Society /Strategic Innovation Office ITS JAPAN Chairperson Committee for Shaping Mobility toward Livable Community
- Mr. Ian Lieblich, Head of ESG, EG
- Mr. Stephen Good, Japan Specialist, Artesian Investment
- Mr. Noriyuki Yanagawa, Representative Director, Smart City Institute Japan
- Professor, Graduate School of Economics, Director, Center for Real Estate Innovation Research (CREI), the University of Tokyo
