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Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication System
Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division,Fukuoka Prefectural Government
Japan

The Problem

The municipal community wireless system is a conventional system equipped by municipalities in order to protect residents' lives and properties from disasters. This system is used to transmit disaster information including evacuation instructions issued by a municipal administrative office to local residents promptly and accurately when disasters hit the area. Although the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government has been urging local municipalities to equip the municipal community wireless system, only 34% of the municipalities in the prefecture equipped the system by the end of 2004 because the cost to develop the system was very expensive and large scale disasters had seldom hit the prefecture so far. As a result, the percentage of municipalities which possess the system in Fukuoka Prefecture was ranked at the bottom two, the 46th among all 47 prefectures in Japan. To facilitate more municipalities to equip a proper wireless system has become an important and an urgent issue not only in Fukuoka Prefecture but throughout Japan, because the scale of natural disasters hitting the nation had become larger; international relations in East Asia had become more tense; and a newly enforced national law obligated municipalities to give alarm and provide proper evacuation guidance to residents in case of armed attacks or terrorist acts.

Solution and Key Benefits

 What is the initiative about? (the solution)
As lowering the cost of the system was quite important in order for more municipalities to build their own wireless communication systems, the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government developed a creative alternative system called "Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication System" in August 2005. For the infrastructure, the new system uses the existing digital mobile wireless network, "the Multi-Channel Access wireless communication network", which is used for various business systems such as a taxi dispatch system across the nation. This new system enables municipalities to develop a functionally equivalent system at 1/3 or less the expense by utilizing marketed commodities for its parts while the conventional system requires custom-ordered expensive equipment. As many municipalities adopted this new system as their communication tool with local residents in case of disaster, the rate of the municipalities possessing the system increased drastically from 34% in 2004 to 60% in 2008, and 70% in 2009. Furthermore many more municipalities throughout Japan also adopted Fukuoka's system. Through this development of the new system, the social environment in Fukuoka Prefecture to protect residents' lives and properties in case of disaster has been highly secured. Illustrative benefits of the system include followings: 1) When Nogata City was flooded in July 2009, flood warnings and forecastings during night-time were frequently conveyed to local residents who lived nearby a big river over the system and could help prevent further damage to the community. 2) When a resident went missing in a community, the person's missing information was conveyed to local residents over the system. The person was found safe by neighbors shortly after the information was circulated. 3) When gasoline was mistakenly sold as kerosene at a gas station, the warning on mistakenly sold gasoline was conveyed to local residents over the system and could help prevent a fire from occuring.

Actors and Stakeholders

 Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
The Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division proposed to form a council comprised of academic experts, telecommunication equipment manufactures, and the Fukuoka Prefectural Government in order to develop the new system. The Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division took the initiative in developing the system while receiving useful advice and free equipment provided from other council members. The system is mainly composed of PCs, MCA radio transmitters, and control software. Employees at the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division developed the control software of the system and contributed to lowering the cost of the whole system. As a result, many municipalities in Fukuoka Prefecture adopted the system to build their own wireless communication systems.

(a) Strategies

 Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
 a.      What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
Two major purposes of the initiative were to develop a new convenient communication transmitting system at reasonable cost and to encourage more municipalities to adopt the new system and build their own wireless communication system with local residents in case of disaster. The Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government, academic experts at universities, and telecommunication equipment manufactures formed a council, the Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication System Promotion Council, to achieve the purposes in January 2005. For equipment comprised in the system, marketed commodities were used instead of expensive custom-ordered equipment. In order to reduce the system cost, employees at the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division developed the control software by themselves. The new system was completed in August 2005. After that, 13 municipalities in Fukuoka Prefecture have adopted the new system for their wireless communication system with residents.

(b) Implementation

 b.      What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication System Promotion Council was formed in January 2005. For the first time in Japan, Nogata City in Fukuoka Prefecture was selected as a model city which adopted the Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication System for its community wireless system. Nogata City started the service for its residents in August 2005. The council proved that the MCA wireless network can be connected with J-Alert and a house-to-house receiving system in the experiment conducted in March 2007. Finally the Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication System was revised to transmit information not only from each municipal office but also from the national government through J-Alert directly to each house-hold in March 2009.

J-Alert: nation-wide satellite-based warning system that allows the Fire Defense Agency of Japan to quickly inform the public of various threats, including natural disasters but also of military threats and terrorist attacks to local government.

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

 c.      What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
At the time this initiative was designed, fixing the MCA mobile station and using it as a radio station for a disaster prevention communication system by municipalities was prohibited by law. To overcome this obstacle, the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government persistently negotiated with the national government. And finally, the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government succeeded in convincing the national government to admit the system's effectiveness and to change the law. In order to make the project move forward, the council should develop the new system in a short period. Unfortunately, in March 2003 a big earthquake hit the western area of Fukuoka Prefecture and caused serious damage to the area. While working hard on the recovery operations for the damage caused by the earthquake, the employees at the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government worked night and day taking in the opinions from municipalities and work fronts, and they finished up the new system after making several modifications. When a municipality adopts the Fukuoka Community Wireless Communication system for its wireless communication system with residents in case of disasters, getting approval from the national government for issuing municipal bonds was also a challenging task to clear. After getting through several tough reviews from the national government by giving in-depth specifications, Fukuoka Prefectural Government succeeded in moving the national government to accept the system as an effective alternative to the conventional municipal disaster prevention radio communication network system. In the end, Fukuoka Prefectural Government got the approval in just one month, which was an exceptionally short period for the procedure, because the national government highly evaluated the system's function, performance, and the lower cost and encouraged the use of the system as an effective alternative system to convey information to residents throughout the nation.

(d) Use of Resources

 d.      What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
The MCA wireless network is a widely used network system throughout Japan. Fukuoka Prefectural Government found that the network was also available for the infrastructure of a wireless communication system in disaster and developed the new system by utilizing the MCA wireless network. Equipment needed to do R&D of the new system was provided by other council members at no cost. Employees at the Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division of the Fukuoka Prefectural Government, who developed and managed the Fukuoka Prefectural disaster prevention wireless communication system, devoted themselves to the initiative and their technological expertise was utilized for the initiative.

Sustainability and Transferability

  Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
This new communication system which utilized the MCA wireless network for disaster and crime prevention use in a local community was firstly used by Fukuoka Prefecture. But nowadays various municipalities throughout Japan have begun to adopt the same system. It is certain that this new system, which is using digital communication technology, can realize functions that users want. And functions users want are realized by the creativity and gifts of a system developer. And such functional expansions are expected to continuously make the system more convenient. The MCA wireless network is so generally used worldwide that this new system can be easily adopted in other countries as well. Although a municipal wireless communication system with residents is a unique one only found in Japan, the know-how of the system can be applied in many other fields by every country in the world.

Lessons Learned

 What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
By adopting the Fukuoka Community wireless communication system, more and more municipalities can develop their own communication systems with residents at 1/3 or less the cost of the conventional system. This new system is expected to accelerate the municipalities' development of the system and greatly contribute to securing the local residents lives and properties in Japan.
This initiative's success is due to the following elements. It was found that the existing communication infrastructure, the MCA wireless network, had an equivalent function as the conventional municipal community wireless system for disaster prevention use. The development was made without ready-made ideas about the communication system. Many academic experts and telecommunication equipment manufacturers cooperated in the initiative. The national government acknowledged the installation of the new system. Model facilities used in the experiment were opened to the public and many opinions gathered there were used to improve the system. The most valuable lesson learned is to never give up on what is possible.

Contact Information

Institution Name:   Fire Defense and Disaster Prevention Division,Fukuoka Prefectural Government
Institution Type:   Government Agency  
Contact Person:   Mayumi Matsui
Title:   Stuff , Administrative Management Plannning Div.  
Telephone/ Fax:   +81-92-643-3138
Institution's / Project's Website:   +81-92-643-3032
E-mail:   gyokaku@pref.fukuoka.lg.jp  
Address:   7-7 Higashi-koen, Hakata-ku
Postal Code:   812-8577
City:   Fukuoka City
State/Province:   Fukuoka Prefecture
Country:   Japan

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