Here is a list of local municipalities that submitted entries for COG2021
Click on the links to read more about the local issues of the municipality and relevant data. Citizen/student teams will look for ideas and solutions based on these issues and the relevant data.

Issues submitted by local municipalities

Hokkaido	Muroran City
Tohoku	Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture; Aizuwakamatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture
Kanto	Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture; Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture; Chiyoda, Bunkyo, Meguro, Setagaya, and Tama Cities, Tokyo; Yokohama City and Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture
Hokuriku	Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture
Chubu	Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture
Kinki	Nagahama City, Omihachiman City, Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture; Osaka City, Suminoe Ward, Osaka City, Toyonaka City, Osaka Prefecture; Toyooka City, Kakogawa City, Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture
Chugoku	Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture; Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture
Shikoku	Takamatsu City, Kagawa Prefecture; Yawatahama City, Ehime Prefecture; Tosatyou, Kouchi Prefecture
Kyushu	Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture; Tamana City, Kumamoto Prefecture
Okinawa	Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture

A request to local municipalities that apply

Please respond to inquiries from citizen/student teams submitting their ideas in STEP 2 and engage in friendly communication with them. The Final Public Review will also evaluate the degree of collaboration between the parties.

Evaluation Period

January - March 2022

Evaluation Criteria

• ・Details of the idea, reasons for the idea, and procedures for implementing the idea (document review and final public review)
• ・Collaboration between citizen/student and local municipality (additional survey and final public review)

Evaluation Procedure

(1) Document Review (January 2022)

Ideas submitted by citizens/students will be reviewed and selected into the following categories:

1. A. Finalist
2. B. Semi-Finalist
3. C. Poster
4. D. Site Up

(2) Additional questions for Finalists (February 2022)

Citizen/student teams selected as finalists and their respective local municipalities will be surveyed for additional information on the status of collaboration between the parties, which will be used as material for the Final Public Review.

(3) Final Public Review Event and Award Ceremony (March 6, 2022)

We will announce details of the event format, including whether to hold the event online, along with the final program (refer to (1)) in February, 2022.
The finalists will be judged and awarded based on their presentations and the open Q&A session with the judges.

(4) Parallel event - Semi finalist mini-presentation and poster exhibition

We will also consider whether to hold the semi-finalist mini presentations and poster exhibition online.

(5) After Contest

We will announce the results of the online voting and strive to make the event more lively. Do look forward to it!

(6) Announcement of results

After the Final Public Review, we will publish the results on the website as soon as possible.

Recommendations for Improvement and Follow-up

The Secretariat will conduct this after the Final Public Review event.

Evaluations will be conducted on two aspects: the submitted ideas and the collaboration between citizens/students and the local municipalities.

Evaluation of ideas

(1) Subject of Evaluation

The following points will be the subject of evaluation

1. 1. The Idea Explanation Form submitted by the applicant
2. 2. The presentation at the Final Public Review (citizen/student teams using Power Point slides)

(2) Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria is as follows:

1. 1. The content of the idea
2. 2. The rationale and the supporting data behind the idea
3. 3. The implementation process of the idea

Please check the Citizen/Student Application Form, available on this website for more details.

Evaluation of Collaboration

(1) Subject of Evaluation

We will evaluate the extent of collaboration between citizen/student teams and their respective local municipalities.

1. 1. The results of the additional survey conducted as review material for the Final Public Review on the teams selected as finalists and their respective municipalities.
2. 2. The presentation at the Final Public Review (affiliated local municipalities using Power Point slides)

(2) Evaluation Criteria

The evaluation criteria is as follows:

1. 1. The status and extent of information disclosure on issue-related data (including the responses to inquiries)
2. 2. Support for the active efforts of citizens/students during the idea formulation stage
3. 3. Willingness to collaborate with citizens/students when the idea matures and moves on to the implementation stage
4. 4. The status and extent of open communication with citizens/students regarding ideas

Application Period (Closed)

June 1, 2021 - August 31, 2021

Application Details

• • Local issues that you would like to consider with citizens/students (discovered from the perspective of citizens)
• • Publicly available data, information, and materials related to the issue ("public data")

Application Requirements

Local municipalities (department in charge)* that meet the following requirements

1. (1) Aiming to become a regional platform for data and knowledge sharing
2. (2) Willing to work with citizens/students who play a leading role
3. (3) Participation of the department in charge of the policy measures and the department in charge of issue-related data
4. (4) Participation of general departments such as planning, public relations, citizenship, and data management (recommended)

In addition to a single municipality, a coalition of neighboring municipalities or a coalition of municipalities with common issues is also possibleavailable.

Issue Categories

(Cross-cutting issues are also allowed)

1. 1. Aging society, nursing care, medical care, and health
2. 2. Child-rearingChildcare, family, and education
3. 3. Urban development and transportation
4. 4. Environment and energy
5. 5. Disaster prevention and crime prevention
6. 6. Industry (primary, secondary, and tertiary) and work style reform
7. 7. Civic pride, tourism
8. 8. Smart city ・smart citizen (may be combined with other issues)
9. 9. Issues in view of the social changes that COVID-19 will bring about (may be combined with other issues)
10. 10. Others (e.g., initiatives not covered by the above categories)

If you want to emphasize the SDGs, please write them in the SDGs section of the application form.

Notes on Applying

(1) Regional issues and related data

• • Relevant data canshould be submitted by presenting the URL of the site where the data is located or by presenting the published paper media (preferably in electronic form).
  (The data does not have to be in machine-readable open data format as long as it is publicly available.)
• • You can propose any number of regional issues for a single municipality (department in charge).
• • Local muncipalities that have applied to COG in the past are also welcome. Different or the same proposal is fine.
• • There is no problem if citizens/students and the local municipality discuss and decide on the issues to be addressed in order to identify the issues from the citizens' perspective.

(2) Support for citizens/students who submit ideas

• • Please assist citizens/students who are submitting their ideas about issues and public data.
• • Please respond to any additional data requests from citizens/students who are submitting ideas to analyze the issues and formulate ideas to the extent possible.

(3) Announcement of the applicant municipality

Publication on this site will be made after the deadline at the end of August.

Application Procedures

1. Click on "Application Form PDF" to see the entire form.

This PDF will give you an overview of what municipalities need to know when they apply.

PDF file for checking the application form

2. You can choose either (1) or (2) below as the method of sending your application.

(1) Fill out and submit the Google application form below.

If you have more than one proposal, please submit an application form for each of them.
(You can revise your application once you have submitted it until midnight, August 31, the deadline for submission.)

Fill out and submit the application form.

(2) Fill out the application form and send it via the "Attach to Email" link below.

Please download and fill out the application form from "Download Application Form" below, and send it to the secretariat via email attachment from "Submit Application" below.

• 1

  Download the application form

  Download the application form

• 2

  Fill out the application form and send it to the Secretariat via e-mail.

  Apply

If the mailer does not start after clicking "Apply",
please input admin_cog2021@pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp into the mailing address and send directly.

Application Period (Closed)

Mid-September - December 20, 2021

Application Details

What we are looking for are ideas for social activities that will lead to solutions to the issues entered by the local municipalities.

• • We hope that citizens/students will actively engage in concrete activities to address issues as their own.
• • Make sure to think concretely about how to implement your idea.
• • In the course of developing your ideas, there are some things that require collaboration with the government.
• • It is essential that the sequential order of self-help, mutual-help, and public-help be firmly understood.

Application Requirements

A team of citizens/students who meet all of the following requirements (1) to (5)

(1) Team

A team of citizens/students who want to contribute to solving local issues from the perspective of residents*.
The perspective of the residents who will be the recipients of the ideas.
You cannot apply alone.

(2) Team members

Related in the following ways to the applicant local municipality:

1. A. Resident
2. B. Non-resident but commute to work or school in the municipality
3. C. People who do not fall into the above categories but have a strong enthusiasm for problem solving

(3) Team Leader

Applicants who fall into one of the following categories
Related in the following ways to the applicant local municipality:

1. A. Resident
2. B. Non-resident but commute to work or school in the municipality

In addition to the above, we will also accept applications from citizens/students who fall under the category A or B of the applicant municipality and are related to the idea of the application, provided that they are recommended by a citizen living in the applicant municipality.

1. C. Former residents of the community
2. D. Workers in the region (not required to commute)
3. E. Study/research subject (can be past)

(4) Team formation

Any of the following are acceptable

1. A. A team of citizens only
2. B. Mixed team of citizens and students (*)
3. C. Teams of only students (*)

Students include high school students, vocational school students, university students, and graduate students.
(It is possible to add junior high school students and younger to the citizen/student team for reasons such as the need for a child's perspective.

(Note) Treatment of past application teams

There are no restrictions, except for the following
Teams that were subject to the final public review at the COG are not allowed to apply if the regional issues presented by the local government are the same as before.

Application file (application form and appeal flyer) and how to apply

When submitting your application, please send the following two types of files. If you send only one file, it will not be considered for evaluation.

(1) Application form required for screening (Download the prescribed form: docx file)

(2) Appeal Flyer for Website Publication (A4 single-sided only: PDF file)

< Application Form >

• • You will need to enter the nametitle of the idea, the name of the team, the content of the idea, the reason for the idea, supporting data, and the process to realize the idea.
• • The application form is divided into two sections: a public, open, section and a private, not for open, section.
• • Please read the "Notes" on the first page of the application form carefully to confirm the contents of your application. There are precautions such as the handling of intellectual property rights.
• • Please download the "Application Form" from the link below, fill out the necessary information, and then proceed to create the "Appeal Flyer for Website Publication".

Download the "Application Form".

< Appeal Flyer for Website Publication >

• • After completing the application form, please make a flyer that shows the following items (1), (2), and (3) at a glance.
• • The results will be published on the COG2021 website for reference during the review process and will also be used for online voting.

• (1) Make the main points of the idea you want to appeal to easy to understand.
• (2) The reason for this idea (with some very simple data to back it up)
• (3) A simple process to realize the idea.

• • Flyer size: One A4 sheet, single-sided only
• • Format: PDF file

The same precautions as the application form, such as the handling of intellectual property rights, apply. Please check it carefully and make a flyer.

How to Apply

Once you have the above two files, please send them to us by e-mail using the "Apply" link below.

• Send the completed Application Form and the Appeal Flyer for
  Website Publication to the secretariat via email attachment.

  Apply

If the mailer does not start after clicking "Apply",
please input admin_cog2021@pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp into the mailing address and send directly.

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Key Points of the Application Form

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(1) Contents of the idea
Please indicate in an easy-to-understand manner what your idea is for a social activity (service) that will solve a local issue. Please limit your entry to two pages.

Please write a very short description of your idea. In essence, please write "This is the main point of the problem that you want to solve as an application team!"
Then, write the "what" and the "who," "when," "where," and "how" of the idea.

(Reference)
It will be easier to understand if you envision a situation where this idea for solving a problem is implemented in a concrete way.
In order to generate good ideas, it is necessary to analyze and confirm the relevant data and to empathize with the people who will use the ideas through design thinking.

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(2) Rationale for the idea
In no more than two pages, explain why you are proposing this idea, giving evidence of the data that support it. This section confirms the necessity and effectiveness of the idea. Data broadly includes numerical data, such as statistics, and qualitative data, such as questionnaires, interviews, descriptions of experiences, related plans, and existing measures. Data should be clearly identified as to its source.

You will write the reason as to why you propose this idea.

Specifically, in order to support the content of your idea, as identified through the "what", "who", "when", "where", and "how" in (1) above, you will write down your thoughts on "why" you want to do this, referring to the data above.

(Reference) Reasons for proposing an idea and supporting data
Please look for data that clearly shows the current problem and the need to propose the idea.
Data (qualitative data is also acceptable) that shows the effect of the proposed idea on improving the current situation will also be considered.

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(3) Process to realize the idea
In two pages or less, please provide a general description of the process of realizing your idea, including the entity that will realize the idea, the approximate scale of the resources (people, goods, and money) needed to realize the idea and their realistic procurement methods, the process including the time frame for realizing the idea, and solutions to institutional constraints on realization, if any. In this section, we will check the feasibility of the idea.

The first step is to devise and write specific activities for the realization of the idea in accordance with the above points.

(Reference)
Realizing entity: The team that actually implements the idea and their motivation
Resources required for realization: Rough target of resources required in terms of human, material, and financial resources.
People: How many people are in the team and what are their roles?
Material: What are the SNS and other related facilities needed, and what are their respective procurement methods?
Money: How much money is needed and how to raise it?
Process including time frame for realization: Make a simple plan including a feasible plan, procedure for implementation, and brush-up.

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To arrive at a good idea, weplease use data analysis to discover and confirm the facts surrounding the issue, and design thinking to empathize with the owner of the issue and discover the underlying problem. Once this is discovered, you can move on to devising concrete ideas for solutions. Try thinking about all sorts of things.

Then, summarize the ideas that you think would be good to have and want to use, and summarize the content of the ideas, the rationale for the ideas, and the flow of realization with the overall story in mind. For more details, please refer to the later sections on data usage, design thinking, and work flow.

It is possible that digital apps that input and use data will be included as a means of implementing the idea. If you need additional local data, please contact the localmunicipal government in question in a timely manner. If not, please use data and materials within the available published rangedata.

We are looking forward to your active involvement - not simply petitions or attempts to get the government to act on your behalf (we welcome your ideas to actively solve problems).

However, there are some things that require collaboration with the government, and some things that would be better implemented by the government. However, the content of such activities will be enhanced if we first examine how much we can do ourselves. It is essential to firmly grasp the sequential order of self-help, mutual aid, and public assistance.

When the idea has matured afterwards, it is necessary to work out again the specific ways of collaboration between citizens and the government over its implementation.

< Form of Data Usage >

The use of data is generally for analysis of the issue or for input to an digital appapplication. In this contest, the use of public data (including documents) is acceptable, and is not limited to open data. Open data is data that has been released in a format suitable for machine reading readable format in the digital age (e.g. TXT, CSV, etc.) and is suitable for appapplication input.

On the other hand, there are two types of data to understand the reality of society: thin data - the facts of society, and thick data - the contexts and backgrounds that bring those facts to light. Use these types of data well to analyze issues and come up with ideas. Thick data is the gateway to the next stage of design thinking.

< Design Thinking >

When creating "things" such as buildings, cities, products, posters, and websites, people have traditionally tried to create things that are more sy empathetic to the users by looking at the finished product, for example, blueprints and models, repeatedly modifying them, and steering their usability and impressions. Design Thinking is a way to apply this method not only to products but also to services, and to design services that are more sy empathetic to people by touching upon the root of their issues. In layman's terms, design thinking can be described as "nice to have" and "nice to use" thinking for users. Please refer to this approach when you are considering ideas for solving local issues, and try to come up with ideas that will resonate with the people who will use them when they are realized.

< Design Thinking and Data Analysis >

Design thinking and data analysis are effective when extracting the underlying issues. It doesn't matter which comes first, but try to be aware of the good points of both and use them.

< The relationship between design thinking and experts >

In design thinking, the first step is to start from the perspective of the citizens and users, and then the perspective of the experts is to support them comes later.
In order to realize ideas, it is also necessary to check the supplier's point of view. Please note that experts (e.g., experts in the field of the issue, IT engineers) are not necessarily required for the team applications.

< Digital Technology >

You are already using digital technology in your daily communication and data visualization and analysis without even knowing it. When it comes to creating simulations and apps for specific purposes, it is difficult for citizens to do it alone, which is where engineers come into their own. In addition to increasing the digital sensitivity of citizens, meetinginvolving engineers is also important in promoting open governance. However, even if you don't have these engineers in your team, it can be fun to think about apps that might be nice to have, as incidental hints to realize your ideas.

< Where do you get your ideas? >

Use your intuition, inspiration, and associations during the idea generation phase. Use data effectively to support your explanation of the content of your idea.

< A sample of the work flow from idea creation to application. >

- Stage 1 / Extraction of underlying issues (Tools: Design thinking and data analysis)

We use data and materials to analyze issues, and then use design thinking to delve into the issues and extract the underlying issues.

- Stage 2 / Idea generation (tool: design thinking)

Generate specific ideas to solve the problem you have delved into through group work and workshops. Iterative desk research testing is also a good idea to develop ideas. We hope that the ideas will be attractive, new, and exciting, that people will want to put them into practice and use them in the future, and that the issues will be solved as a result.

- Stage 3 / Finishing the Application (Tool: Logical Thinking)

Please check the feasibility of your idea and summarize (1) the content of the idea, (2) the rationale for the idea with data, and (3) the process of realization with an awareness of the story. For more details, please refer to the application form.