Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima City, and SoftBank Corp. signed an agreement last July 2, promoting comprehensive collaboration to achieve Society 5.0 and develop a smart city in Higashihiroshima and surrounding areas. Society 5.0 portrays a future society that balances economic advancement and the resolution of social issues by utilizing diverse technologies.

The purpose of the agreement is to contribute to global and regional development by promoting the realization of Society 5.0 and smart city concepts and their overseas deployment through creating an environment for innovation, academic research, human resource development, and industry-government-academia collaboration.

Under the founding spirit of "a single unified university, free and pursuing peace," HU aims to practice "Science for Sustainable Development," including the achievement of carbon neutrality by 2030, through a virtuous cycle of the international promotion of various initiatives and local development. Furthermore, to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and realize Society 5.0, HU promotes initiatives for global development through collaboration with Arizona State University in the United States and local governments in Japan. The agreement will accelerate this goal and lead HU to become a university with a world-class research and education environment adapted to the post-COVID era.

In the Fifth Higashihiroshima City Comprehensive Plan, formulated in 2020, Higashihiroshima City has set out a vision for its future as "an international academic research city rich in nature that takes on the challenges of the future." Using advanced technologies such as AI and big data to develop measures to solve local issues, the city will work together with HU to promote the "Town & Gown" concept, aiming to create a "friendly city of the future" through collaboration with businesses and universities.

SoftBank has positioned the achievement of the SDGs as an essential management matter and identified six themes as key issues. One of these is "building a society and industry based on DX," which focuses on using ICT (Information and Communication Technology) to revitalize local communities. SoftBank is working to solve social issues and create new value through collaboration with local governments and other entities in each region, using the technologies and services owned by its group companies.

Under the agreement, the three parties will promote innovation by combining their respective human resources, knowledge, data, and technology to set an example to other municipalities and overseas. Specifically, Higashihiroshima City and HU will consider collaborating with MONET Technologies Corporation — a company from the SoftBank Group — and others on a project aiming to realize retail MaaS (Mobility as a Service) in self-driving cars.

The project envisages distributing coupons for restaurants and commercial facilities in Higashihiroshima City and surrounding areas on the car's display — and determines the customer remitting effect by gender, age, and other attributes — to revitalize and create liveliness in the area.

In the field of health care, the three parties will use a variety of data related to daily life, medical care, and nursing care and work towards the improvement of preventive medicine and healthy life expectancy, as well as considering the use of online medical examinations. We will also promote initiatives that utilize technology and data in disaster prevention, public administration, and tourism.

1. Matters related to the Smart and Greenification of Hiroshima University's Higashi-Hiroshima Campus
2. Realization of Society 5.0 and smart city concept in Higashi-Hiroshima City and surrounding areas
3. Support for the creation of innovations necessary for the realization of Society 5.0 and smart cities.
4. Academic research necessary for the realization of Society 5.0 and smart cities.
5. Education necessary for the realization of Society 5.0 and smart cities.
6. International development of Society 5.0 and smart cities
7. Creating new business models by utilizing digital infrastructure (5G, mobility, digital twin, etc.)
8. To aim at the early social implementation of new models of lateral cooperation of services (such as retail MaaS on and off campus, participatory data use by students and residents, promotion of public health and local medical information, digital disaster prevention, tourism MaaS, etc.) using data coordination platform.
9. Other matters approved by the three parties