Questions/Answers

In 2015, the number of street crimes and intrusion crimes per 1,000 people population in Kakogawa City was the third worst in Hyogo Prefecture. There were lot of requests toward the city office, claiming a more peaceful environment. Based on this situation, Kakogawa City did set up the so called “Mimamori cameras” around school roads and schools to ensure the safety and security of the city. “Mimamori” is a Japanese vocabulary made of two meaning, to watch over and to protect. It often used in public services in Japan to strengthen the value of communities. With the setting up of cameras it ws possible to create an environment that helped in preventing crimes by creating a territory. In addition, in case of crimes, police could use the data to resolve incidents at an early stage.

Kakogawa City (population: 262,207 people) is promoting initiatives based on the safety and security of the city so that the child-raising generation can choose. Improve citizens' satisfaction and quality of life by installing “Mimamori Cameras” throughout the city, monitoring aging communities, solving local problems, and maintaining a peaceful environment for raising children I aim to make it.

Attaching a display sign indicating “Mimamori Cameras” on the school road, raises crime prevention. Japan is said to be a very safe country and it is not special for a children to carry a school bag and walk to school instead of being accompanied or picked up by their parents to or from the school. In citizen attitude survey conducted in 2014, the percentage of citizens who were satisfied with safety measures, such as watching over children and patrols, was as low as 51.3%. In addition, the number of incidents and accidents involving children nationwide was on the rise, so the need for ensuring safety in the region, including when going to and from school, has increased. At that time, the rate of crime per 1,000 people in the city was the highest among the local governments in the prefecture. This was a major issue as the city was promoting the improvement of crime prevention in the region, the improvement of the environment for crime prevention, early resolution of incidents and accidents and ensuring the safety of children.

Since there are no special legal regulations in Japan for shooting and recording with cameras in public spaces, in September 2017, Kakogawa City established the “Ordinance for Installation and Operation of Kakogawa City Monitoring Cameras”. This enabled the city to install and operate approximately 1,500 security cameras. The ordinance aims at “deterring crimes, ensure early resolution of incidents and other matters, and secure the safety of citizens' lives.” The ordinance restricts the provision of data only for the following purposes : ① When there are instructions in accordance with laws or regulations, ② In case of urgent and unavoidable conditions for the to protection of life, body or citizens property. ③ When receiving formal requests from the police for criminal investigations

Before the camera was installed, the number of violations of criminal code in Hyogo Prefecture exceeded the number of violations of criminal code per 1,000 people. In November, for the first time since the camera was installed, the number of recognized crimes fell below Hyogo Prefecture. If an accident occurs and you receive an application for image data from a research organization (such as the police), the case will be properly inspected according to the procedures specified in the regulations. Approximately 430 cases have been reported one year after surgery. It was very useful for the early resolution of accidents and accidents. In recognition of this initiative, in February 2019 Kakogawa City won a prize at the 3rd Advanced Development City Competition held by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan.

Currently, we are using these social infrastructures to provide support for crime prevention for children and elderly people who may be missing.

Cameras are installed to improve crime prevention awareness and protect the safety and security of the community. The crime rate per 1,000 people before the installation of cameras was higher than that of Hyogo Prefecture. As an example, comparing the number of cases in September 2018 and September 2019, it is clear that in 2019, the number decreased by 240 or more from the previous year. In addition, the aging rate in Kakogawa City is 29%, it is an urgent task to cope with the increasing problem of the elderly population such as medical care and welfare. As the local community is in general becoming weaker and more people are getting isolated, we believe that ICT-based monitoring services will be able to address those issues, generating a sustainable society.

After the start of operation in October 2017, the installation of 900 cameras, centered on school roads, was completed in March 2018. By March 2019, an additional 575 Mimamori Cameras were installed around the parks, bicycle parking lots and intersections of major roads. In order to support citizens, including children and elderly people who need nursing care, in terms of crime prevention services, for the first time in Japan, the camera was equipped with a BLE tag detector that can receive Bluetooth signal from "a Mimamori service". When a child or elderly person, holding a BLE tag, passes near the camera, the location information is sent to parents and family members. In cooperation with the city official smart phone app watching function, a BLE tag detection function in a mobile application is used to promote watching activities by application users. (up to now there were about 12,800 downloads with about 3,450 users) When setting up the Mimamori cameras, we held “open meetings” at 12 venues in the city and the mayor himself explained to citizens the need for such installations. In the questionnaire, on 617 participants (of which 523 responded to the survey) during the open meetings, 99.2% responded positively toward this effort.

In September 2017, Kakogawa City enacted the “Ordinance for Installation and Operation of Kakogawa City Surveillance Cameras” because there are no special legal restrictions on shooting and recording with cameras in public spaces in Japan. This allowed the city to install and operate approximately 1,500 security cameras. The purpose of the ordinance is to “deter crime, resolve incidents and other problems early, and ensure the safety of citizens' lives. In consideration of people's rights and privacy, “Mimamori Camera” has masks applied to entrances, windows and verandas, and certain specific areas are painted black.

Since there are no special legal regulations in Japan for shooting and recording with cameras in public spaces, in September 2017, Kakogawa City established the “Ordinance for Installation and Operation of Kakogawa City Monitoring Cameras”. This enabled the city to install and operate approximately 1,500 security cameras. The ordinance aims at “deterring crimes, ensure early resolution of incidents and other matters, and secure the safety of citizens' lives.” The ordinance restricts the provision of data only for the following purposes : ① When there are instructions in accordance with laws or regulations, ② In case of urgent and unavoidable conditions for the to protection of life, body or citizens property. ③ When receiving formal requests from the police for criminal investigations

By setting our initiative as a model case, “Safety and security monitoring network business” has launched in Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture of Japan.

Not much.

In order to support citizens, including children and elderly people who need nursing care, in terms of crime prevention services, for the first time in Japan, the camera was equipped with a BLE tag detector that can receive Bluetooth signal from a Mimamori service provider. When a child or elderly person, holding a watch tag, passes near the camera, the location information is sent to parents and family members. In addition to cameras, BLE tag detectors are also installed in city official cars, public facilities, post office motorcycles and delivery vehicles, enabling a wide-area of mimamori services. As a result, we have been able to supplement ICT technology with the traditional mimamori activities on school roads. In cooperation with the city official smart phone app watching function, a BLE tag detection function in a mobile application is used to promote watching activities by application users. (up to now there were about 12,800 downloads with about 3,450 users)Promoting monitoring activities by application users in a wide area by making the application open source.

Citizens, companies and local governments work together to fulfill the responsibility of improving local safety and preventing crimes. When installing the Mimamori cameras, we were able to determine the best installation locations by listening to people requests, police and criminology expert. The purchase of cameras were budgeted by local governments.

We will promote further social contributions by utilizing the strengths of each region, company and local government. In this Mimamori camera project, in addition to the conventional local crime prevention activities, Kakogawa City has installed cameras in a way that complements local activities. In particular, Kakogawa City has established its own regulations for the actual operation of these cameras and has promoted the installation of cameras under strict operation.

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Citizen awareness survey/Mail the questionnaire/Conducted for 3,000 residents aged 18 years or older living in Kakogawa City

In the questionnaire, we asked about the future direction of town development and satisfaction with safety measures.

In October 2017, after the Mimamori camera activities were carried out, citizens' awareness of safety was greatly improved and the satisfaction level for safety measures with citizens in the 2018 increased by 11.8%.

In order to reduce the number of crime, this initiative has started with the strong leadership of Mr. Yasuhiro Okada the mayor of Kakogawa city, who has decided on the installation of the cameras in the city. The implementation step included the cooperation not only with citizens, private companies, but also with Hyogo police which is the prefectural institution. This kind of cross-institutional collaboration was unprecedented so far.

Cameras are installed to improve crime prevention awareness and protect the safety and security of the community. The crime rate per 1,000 people before the installation of surveillance cameras was higher than that of Hyogo Prefecture. As an example, comparing the number of cases in September 2018 and September 2019, it is clear that in 2019, the number decreased by 240 or more from the previous year. In addition, the aging rate in Kakogawa City is 29%, it is an urgent task to cope with the increasing problem of the elderly population such as medical care and welfare. As the local community is in general becoming weaker and more people are getting isolated, we believe that ICT-based monitoring services will be able to address those issues, generating a sustainable society.

Initially this initiative was mainly for the children to go to school. We have learned that this initiative has our futuristic aspect too. In addition, the aging rate in Kakogawa City is 29%, it is an urgent task to cope with the increasing problem of the elderly population such as medical care and welfare. As the local community is in general becoming weaker and more people are getting isolated, we believe that ICT-based monitoring services will be able to address those issues, generating a sustainable society. Kakogawa city, together with Sogo Security Service Co., Ltd., which conducts a monitoring service business, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, which develops the MCI detection engine and George & Sean Co., Ltd., started a PoC project for the development of new services. Services that led, in August 2019, to the extension of healthy life expectancy and reduce social security costs. This PoC uses a mechanism which detects the location information of the watch tag of the Mimamori service, it analyzes the behavior data of the elderly person and the usage status data of home appliances by using artificial intelligence to detect mild cognitive impairment.