Open Symposium for The Initiative for Life Design Innovation

An Open Symposium for the Initiative for Life Design Innovation (iLDi), “Data Science: A Future Society Connecting People,” was held on Thursday, March 9, 2023. This hybrid event took place at Knowledge Capital Congrès Convention Center in Osaka with a virtual audience in parallel, attracting 183 participants in total.

Note: OU’s proposal “The Initiative for Life Design Innovation (iLDi)” was selected for the 2018 Society 5.0 Realization Research Support Project sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). This proposal aims to enhance quality of life by a Personal Life Records (PLR) database. OU established a hub for iLDi in the Institute for Datability Science.

Presided over by KOTERA Hidetoshi (Deputy General Manager, iLDi), the symposium began with greetings from OU President NISHIO Shojiro (Executive Director, iLDi) and special guest MORI Akinori (Director-General, Research Promotion Bureau, MEXT).

In part 1 of the symposium, after YAGI Yasushi (Director, iLDi) introduced the activity of iLDi, UEDA Naohiro (Counselor to the Digital Agency Deputy General) delivered a speech entitled “The Digital Agency’s Vision about Data Utilization -- Focusing on Trends in Medical Digital Transformation,” speaking about the advantages of the expansion of the use of Individual Number Cards, commonly known as My Number Cards.

In part 2, after a short talk session about 13 projects of iLDi and 16 projects selected for OU’s 2022 Grand Challenge Program was held, the results of these projects were presented through poster exhibits. Also, a tour to experience exhibits at The Lab on the 2nd floor of the Knowledge Capital was held.

Presenters and participants exchanged opinions at the poster exhibits, sharing results of projects for the final year of the first stage of iLDi.

In part 3, moderated by HIGASHINO Teruo (Deputy General Manager, iLDi), the topic “Creating a Society to Utilize Personal Life Records (PLR) to Live a High-Quality Life” was discussed by the following panelists.

Panelists

• KUDOH Katsuyuki (Counselor, MEXT)
• UEDA Naohiro (Counselor to the Digital Agency Deputy General)
• HIGUCHI Tomoko (Assistant Director, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
• TERADA Masato (Director, Enterprise Business Management Division, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) West Corporation)
• KANAZAWA Shigeko (Director, Research Institute for Culture, Energy and Life, Osaka Gas Network, Ltd.)

The panelists discussed data handling techniques and data collection in terms of solving problems in distribution and utilization of data.

Emeritus Professor and Former President of Wakayama University TAKI Hirokazu gave a general assessment, commenting on the results of the initiative and his expectations for the initiative. Finally, Executive Vice President ONOYE Takao (Deputy Director of iLDi) gave his closing remarks, ending the symposium on a positive note.

This symposium, in which the decision was also made to advance iLDi to the second stage, provided a perfect launch pad for promoting the initiative.

You can view the website for the Initiative for Life Design Innovation of the Institute for Datability Science by clicking here.

Panel discussion
On stage from left: Director Yagi, Counselor Kudoh, Director Terada, and Director Kanazawa
On screen from top: Ms. Higuchi, Counselor Ueda

Attendees participated in an interactive session