TMG Sewerage Bureau Aims to Make Tokyo a 'Smart Energy City'

JFS Newsletter No.182 (October 2017)

Image Source: YouTube / Rainbow Heart by Tokyo Metropolitan Government

Sewage systems play an important role in making our lives safe and comfortable. According to its website, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) Bureau of Sewerage oversees three kinds of facilities: sewers for collecting and carrying waste water, pumping stations for pumping up waste water on route to the water reclamation centers so the sewer pipes do not have to go too deep underground, and water reclamation centers for purifying waste water.

Waste water discharged from households or factories is collected and carried by sewers, purified at the reclamation centers and discharged into rivers or the sea. In urban areas with many artificial structures, where little rain water permeates into the ground, sewage facilities also take an active part in preventing flooding.

Operating these sewage facilities requires much energy, which leads to large greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reduce GHG emissions with the hope of bestowing a comfortable global environment to the next generation, the TMG Sewage Bureau came up with a global warming prevention plan for operating its sewage system, "Earth Plan 2004."

The performance of these facilities still has room for improvement, but the improved facilities will require even more energy. On March 10, 2017, the bureau announced its "Earth Plan 2017," aimed at both improving facility performance and reducing GHG emissions at the same time. This month's JFS Newsletter introduces the TMG Sewerage Bureau's efforts to make Tokyo the world's leading smart energy city.

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Nara Medical University Launches Medicine-Based Town Research Institute

Image by klimkin.

Nara Medical University announced on October 12, 2016, that it has launched the Medicine-Based Town (MBT) Research Institute. As a concept, the aim of MBT is to contribute to local community and industry development by investing medical experience and know-how into all other industries so that residents can live more comfortably in the context of Japan's aging and shrinking population. In collaboration with Nara Prefecture and Kashihara City, the university has also committed to revitalizing the towns and people of its region by making use of vacant buildings in an Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings to connect healthcare services and tourism.

The founding of the MBT Research Institute follows a series of events related to MBT: In May 2014, the Cabinet Office of Japan selected MBT as a leading model for regional revitalization. In May 2015, the national government recognized MBT as a core component of Kashihara City's local revitalization plan, and in June 2015 the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry subsidized the plan. In September 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications commissioned Nara Medical University to survey MBT-related projects.

The MBT Research Institute aims to achieve the following by executing its plans.

1. Contribute to an integrated community-based healthcare system in Nara prefecture that covers urban and rural areas.
2. Contribute to reductions in medical and long-term care costs by introducing a follow-up system for patients with pre-symptomatic diseases and those discharged from the hospital.
3. Attract recognition to the area around the university as a center for medicine-based industry creation. Use this recognition to develop the university's latent strengths, to attract more industries and further development existing industries, and, as a result, to turn Kashihara city and Nara prefecture into model cases of regional development.
4. Share and apply the knowledge, know-how, activities and achievements gained from MBT domestically and internationally.