Robotics Tsukuba and Regional Innovation

Robotics Tsukuba is a city initiative that integrates with national and prefectural initiatives and, I think, is at the forefront nationally in promoting local innovation. Please see the Robotics Tsukuba pamphlet at http://www.slideshare.net/AlanEngel/robotics-tsukuba.

A few aspects that may be of interest:

1) Robotics Tsukuba is an initiative by Tsukuba City to make the city into a real world testbed for robotics commercialization. It draws from major university and national robotics program and is adding several key innovation components.

2) While the initiative is municipal, it fits with national and prefectural strategic priorities and initiatives. The city administrator responsible for this program was seconded from METI at the request of Tsukuba's mayor. For a city to go outside its boundaries for this kind of expertise is rather rare in Japan. (Robotics is a significant part of the 5-year policy that came out of the Ibaraki-ken Science and Technology Promotion Council.)

3) For the city to focus on this kind of specific industry reflects a rather insightful strategic choice. Like personal computers in the 1970s and early 1980s, robotics has room for entrepreneurial participation at all levels, from kids inventing in their bedrooms to nuclear disaster engineers inventing in specially designed laboratories to start ups developing for JAXA's space program. Tsukuba has completed its first generation as a science city; the robotics initiative will help crystallize otherwise amorphous gains in education, popular scitech awareness and international interaction.

4) Tsukuba is poised to become Japan's first exurban headquarters city, similar to Princeton and Irvine in the US, and to Cambridge and Oxford in the UK. A new expressway to be completed in FY2012 will make Tsukuba more convenient to Narita Airport than is Tokyo. Having two major intercontinental hub airports spaced only 60 km apart has to be a plus for the whole region; Heathrow-Gatwick, 40 km apart, and JFK-Newark, 34 km, are the only other comparable pairs.

Other locally focused initiatives.

1) Ibaraki Prefecture: The prefecture's science and technology policy (http://www.pref.ibaraki.jp/kikaku/kagaku/senryaku/pdfs/H23ibarakishishin.pdf) parallels the national policy. There are four localities of concentration; Tsukuba for cross cutting high tech and advanced science, Hitachi for electrical industry, Tokaimura for nuclear and J-PARC beam line, and Kashima for petrochemical. It also covers the prefecture's own R&D centers, scitech education and public education.  

2) Ken-O-Do Expressway: The prefecture, cities and towns along this developing transportation corridor are cooperating to develop high tech industrial parks, education, technology support, and industrial relocation support. Its website is http://www.ken-o-do-ibaraki.com. Its administration is coordinated out of Tsukuba Center, Inc. (TCI). (Note: TCI is an incubation center built chiefly as a prefecture intitiative with additional investments by Joyo Bank and others. )

3) Tsukuba-Tokatsu-Chiba Network: This is a cooperative effort between Ibaraki and Chiba Prefectures (http://www.ttp.or.jp/network/img/H23-NWpanf.pdf). Its administration is split between TCI on the Ibaraki side and  Tokatsu Techno Plaza (http://www.ttp.or.jp/index.html) on the Chiba side.

4) General Special Zone Law (http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/tiiki/sogotoc/kettei/index.html). This law creates special regulation zones aimed at accelerated innovation. For example, Segways and other mobility robots are currently not allowed on Japanese streets. Robotics Tsukuba successfully applied to create a special zone in Tsukuba in which Segways are experimentally allowed. The expected outcomes are regulations that will expand these robotics to the rest of Japan. The General Special Zone Law is being implemented at the Cabinet level. Robotics Tsukuba was one of the first Special Zones.