CICC TOKYO DAYORI vol.90

CICC moved its office in July last year. It will have been almost one
year since we moved to our current location in Nihonbashi-Kobunacho in
Tokyo.　The literal English translation of Nihonbashi-Kobunacho is
“Bridge of Japan - Town of Small Boats”. It is a business district
about a 20-minute walk from Tokyo Station with the Nihonbashi River
flowing nearby.

From around 1720 during the Edo period (1603-1868), this area was a
landing place for small boats to unload their cargo on the Nihonbashi
River. During this period, water transportation played the most
important role in transportation. A large amount of goods from all over
Japan gathered to the port of Edo, and the nearby Nihonbashi area was
very busy as a fish market.

In the 1960s, Japan's rapid economic growth led to motorization and the
construction of expressways. In Tokyo, many expressways were built where
canals and waterways were reclaimed, but the Nihonbashi River was not
reclaimed, and an elevated Metropolitan Expressway was built over that
river.

Nearly 60 years after their construction, expressways are aging.
Nihonbashi is a beautiful bridge with a long history, but the view is
not good because of the expressway above. The Nihonbashi River was not
well utilized, with the highway shadowing the river and making it
completely dark.

In the 1990s, during Japan's economic downturn, businesses and residents
of the area of Nihonbashi felt a sense of crisis and began working on
the "Nihonbashi Revitalization Plan" in an effort to restore the
commercial bustle to its former glory.

One of such projects is the riverfront revitalization plan. The elevated
expressway running above the river is to be converted to an underground
road, and the riverfront is to be improved.　The total project cost is
approximately 320 billion yen. 1.1 kilometers of the 1.8 kilometers of
the road over the Nihombashi River will be moved underground, and the
elevated road will be removed in 2040, restoring the blue sky over
Nihombashi for the first time in 77 years.

Linking the past, present and future, Nihonbashi is undergoing a
sustainability transformation.

FYI : History of Nihonbashi
https://www.nihonbashi-tokyo.jp/en/history/

Hiroko Kawabata(Ms)

<Topics of Government>

(1)“G7 Digital and Tech Ministers’ Meeting in Takasaki, Gunma” Held
https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2023/0430_001.html

(2)Results of the G7 Digital and Tech Ministers’ Meeting in Takasaki,
Gunma
https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/eng/pressrelease/2023/4/30_01.html

(3)Japan’s Initiatives for Interoperable Data Infrastructures Officially
Named “Ouranos Ecosystem”
https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2023/0429_001.html

<Topics of Industries>

(1)NTT and NEC collaborate to promote a decarbonized society
https://www.nec.com/en/press/202304/global_20230406_02.html

(2)Asahi Kasei and NEC establish analysis platform utilizing secure
computation technology for secure data collaboration between companies
https://www.nec.com/en/press/202303/global_20230328_02.html

(3)Hitachi Establishes New "Generative AI Center" to Accelerate Value
Creation and Improve Productivity in the Lumada business by promoting
the use of Generative AI
https://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2023/05/230515.html

(4)Hitachi Establishes the Third Corporate Venture Capital Fund for
Innovation in the Digital Domain
https://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/month/2023/04/230420a.html

(5)Supercomputer Fugaku retains first place worldwide in HPCG and
Graph500 rankings
https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2023/0522-02.html

(6)Fujitsu, Kyoto University, and Chordia Therapeutics launch AI trials
to discover biomarkers for new cancer drugs
https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2023/0517-01.html

(7)Fujitsu launches “Biodrug Design Accelerator” platform to
accelerate peptide drug discovery research
https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2023/0518-01.html