Overview
Shibuya City's smart city initiative aims to build a data-driven urban governance model that improves quality of life through digital infrastructure, open data, and public-private-academic collaboration. The initiative integrates public and private data through shared platforms including the SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD, ArcGIS-based SHIBUYA OPEN DATA, SHIBUYA CREATIVE JUNCTION for consolidating urban spatial information, and Shibuya My Portal as a personalized communication platform. By providing tools that enable residents, businesses, and researchers to participate in solving urban challenges, it promotes civic engagement and co-creation. Key initiatives span urban data platforms, digital twin development using 3D city models, one-to-one tablet programs in education, on-demand transportation, and digital inclusion for the elderly.
Goals and Aspirations
Administrative Transformation. Shibuya City is working to transform from a traditional administrative organization into a strategic urban management entity. Through investment in administrative digital transformation, it pursues improved staff productivity, development of digital talent, and higher-quality, resident-centered service delivery. By leveraging diverse communication channels, digital administrative infrastructure, private digital channels, and analog touchpoints, to capture community needs, and by actively visualizing and sharing data and urban assets, the City is building an open foundation for city planning. In service delivery, it pursues "anytime, anywhere" self-service access to government tailored to individual residents, while working to bridge the digital divide through human-centered technology. Internally, it promotes EBPM (evidence-based policy-making), automates routine tasks with AI and RPA, and redirects the resulting capacity toward high-value work such as resident services and specialized policy planning.
Shared Data Infrastructure. This initiative aims to build a shared data infrastructure across the public, private, academic, and civic sectors, deepen common understanding of the City's current conditions and challenges, and enable service creation that addresses local issues. Through dashboards, it actively visualizes and publishes government-held data in intuitive formats, openly shares the state of and challenges facing the community, and encourages collaboration with external partners. The City is advancing urban digital transformation, including digitization of building and infrastructure information.
Social Connection and Co-Creation. Shibuya City fosters city pride and civic participation by enabling each person to engage and contribute in their own way. Using digital technology and data, it builds diverse mechanisms and opportunities for individuals and organizations to engage with the community at multiple levels, from low-barrier participation such as earning points through a community app or attending local events, to active involvement through submitting opinions, deliberation, and business proposals.
Collaboration with R&D Institutions. Through partnership with Shibuya Innovation Institute, an affiliated organization that positions Shibuya itself as a living lab to research, design, and implement solutions to sector-specific urban challenges, the City aims to mobilize resources from diverse stakeholders and return the value created to the community for the sustainable development of a co-creative smart city. It forms overarching management and implementation organizations that bring together existing communities, local consortia, startups, and local businesses to plan, execute, and deliver public-benefit services. It is also working to redesign institutional frameworks suited to the times, reviewing existing regulations, practices, and guidelines and proposing necessary regulatory reforms to the metropolitan and national governments to accelerate value creation and respond to social change.
Key Characteristics
Top-Down Government-Led Governance. While many smart city initiatives in Japan are developer-led and tied to large-scale redevelopment with a focus on land value appreciation, Shibuya City's initiative is led by the City government itself, with resident well-being at its center. The mayor and vice mayor personally champion the integration of digital technology and private-sector capabilities into government operations, and sustained top-down commitment enables cross-departmental coordination. Rather than a single department, a cross-divisional structure links disaster prevention, welfare, education, and other departments into a cohesive smart city effort. This government-led model ensures that technology choices are grounded in public benefit and equity rather than commercial returns, while actively incorporating private-sector expertise through an open innovation framework.
Activating Citizens as Co-creators. SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD publishes administrative data across fields including education, health, pedestrian flow, barrier-free facilities, and startup ecosystems, providing citizens with factual grounding for participation and feedback. The SHIBUYA CREATIVE JUNCTION platform aggregates public space and event information, addressing the challenge of managing diverse spatial assets across departments and public-private boundaries, while making newly created public plazas from redevelopment more accessible to citizens. The City's large base of cooperative resident monitors serves as a direct feedback channel for evaluating services and pilot projects, a distinct advantage of government-led smart city development.
Data-Driven Mindset and Workstyle. In Shibuya City's smart city promotion, the initial step was recognized as critical: using SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD to visualize data and cultivate among staff a data-utilization mindset of "using data to identify and improve issues," since awareness of data's value had not yet fully permeated the organization. Building on this shift in mindset, the foundation supporting the initiative is an advanced work environment. This includes flexible work arrangements such as telework and satellite offices, as well as the use of cutting-edge ICT tools, enabling more agile and efficient ways of working.
Stakeholders
Shibuya City Office (Organization). Shibuya City Office leads the smart city initiative through the Global Hub City Promotion Office, with the Urban Data Utilization Promotion unit at its core. The initiative was launched under strong top-down leadership from the mayor and vice mayor, who champion the integration of technology and private-sector capabilities into government. Shibuya City Office
Shibuya Innovation Institute (Organization). Shibuya Innovation Institute is a public-private co-creation platform that positions all of Shibuya as a living lab. It connects government, private companies, and other actors to conduct pilot projects in areas such as public space utilization and operation, well-being, and over-tourism countermeasures. It also operates startup support programs and incubation initiatives. Shibuya Innovation Institute
Akiko Miyamoto (Individual: Organizational Management and Strategy Lead). Head of International Urban Strategy at Shibuya City Office, she serves as the superior to Yuta Takahashi, who leads operational execution. She is responsible for overseeing the organization's overall strategy and direction.
Akane Kato (Individual: Early Strategy and Promotion Lead). Involved in formulating the "Smart City Promotion Basic Policy" and other initiatives, she coordinated diverse internal and external stakeholders from the ground up. She currently works at Shibuya Innovation Institute, supporting project planning and execution for public-private-academic-civic collaboration.
Yuta Takahashi (Individual: Current Operations Lead). Within the current Global Hub City Promotion Office, he is the central practitioner leading projects including urban data utilization, construction and operation of SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD, and SHIBUYA CREATIVE JUNCTION.
Technology Interventions
City Dashboard and Open Data Platform. Shibuya City operates an urban data platform integrating public and private data to support data-driven governance. SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD visualizes urban indicators across multiple domains including education digital transformation (tablet utilization), health and medical insurance data, pedestrian flow around Shibuya Station (Miyamasuzaka, Dogenzaka, Omotesando), barrier-free facility mapping, Hachi Pay business reports, and startup ecosystem data. The companion SHIBUYA OPEN DATA (city-shibuya-data.opendata.arcgis.com) publishes datasets for reuse by citizens, researchers, and businesses. Related URL (https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/contents/kusei/shibuya-data/, https://city-shibuya-data.opendata.arcgis.com/).
Creative Junction. A site that aggregates and centrally manages urban spatial information, including plazas and vacant lots created by urban development, event spaces, and parks, in collaboration with private companies, visualizing it on a map. Built to make the city more open through data utilization, it aims to serve as a matching platform connecting people who want to use spaces with manager information indicating where spaces are and who to contact to use them. Related URL (https://creative-junction.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/?lang=en).
Hachi Pay and Shibuya My Portal. Hachi Pay is Shibuya City's smartphone-based digital local currency app supporting contactless payments at local member stores. It integrates digital certificates from My Number cards for resident authentication and enables City-resident-exclusive campaigns and incentives. Shibuya My Portal is a personalized digital communication platform providing tailored administrative information to individual residents, online appointment booking for administrative consultations, and push notifications. Related URL (https://www.hachi-pay.tokyo/, https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/kusei/koho/shibuya-portal/my-portal.html).
Digital Twin and PLATEAU Integration. In collaboration with Future Design Shibuya and private companies, the Digital Twin Shibuya project launched in November 2021. It integrates 3D point cloud data, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's PLATEAU 3D city models, tree diagnostic data, and public-private open data to build a virtual replica of the urban environment. Cross-domain applications of spatial data were also demonstrated, including optimizing the placement of security cameras and street lighting using 3D city models in partnership with PASCO and SECOM, smart planning for walkable urban design, and advertising effectiveness simulation. Related URL (https://fds.or.jp/pressrelease/327/, https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/use-case/uc22-017/, https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/use-case/uc22-004/, https://www.mlit.go.jp/plateau/use-case/uc22-040/).
Education ICT and Digital Inclusion for the Elderly. Since 2017, Shibuya City has implemented one of Japan's pioneering programs providing one LTE-enabled tablet per student at all City-run elementary and junior high schools. In 2020, devices were upgraded to a hybrid-connectivity model (Microsoft Surface), enabling rapid transition to online learning during the COVID-19 emergency. For elderly residents, a digital divide elimination program (launched September 2021) lends smartphones free of charge for two years to residents aged 65 and older who do not own devices, aiming to improve quality of life. Related URL (https://business.ntt-east.co.jp/case/shibuyaward-education-ict-infrastructure.html).
On-Demand Transportation and Universal Map. From September 2025, Shibuya City launched a demonstration of demand-responsive transportation using GO Economy (formerly GO Shuttle), operated in collaboration with GO Co., Ltd. Subsidized tickets are also issued by the City to elderly residents, people with disabilities, pregnant women, and parents of preschool children. Separately, a Universal MaaS project in partnership with ANA (All Nippon Airways) utilized Tokyo Metropolitan Open Data to provide barrier-free navigation with wide-area mapping of accessibility information, including restrooms and nursing facilities, transcending City boundaries for residents and visitors who have difficulty walking. Related URL (https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/kankyo/kotsu-seisaku/chiiki-kotsu-senryaku/demand.html, https://www.city.shibuya.tokyo.jp/kenko/shogai-seikatsu/shien-kaigo-seikatsu/barrier-free-map.html).
Financing
Financing Scheme. The initiative is funded through a combination of the City's own budget, Tokyo Metropolitan Government subsidies, and national government grants. For privately-led initiatives, private funds are utilized, with the City providing support such as offering demonstration sites.
Outcomes
Multi-Domain Data Visualization. SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD now covers education digital transformation, health and medical data, weekly infectious disease reports, pedestrian flow around the station, barrier-free facility maps, Hachi Pay business reports, startup ecosystem data, and resident surveys. The breadth of data coverage supports evidence-based governance across policy domains.
Education ICT and COVID-19 Resilience. By providing LTE-enabled tablets to all students at City-run schools from 2017, Shibuya City received national recognition as an "ICT education advanced district." During the COVID-19 state of emergency, it transitioned to online classes ahead of other municipalities, ensuring learning continuity including for students absent due to illness or school refusal.
Civic Engagement and Satisfaction. Resident surveys show approximately 95% of residents want to continue living in Shibuya, and approximately 90% express a sense of attachment to the City. The existence of a cooperative resident monitor base serves as a direct feedback channel for smart city pilot projects and contributes to a high signal-to-noise ratio in service evaluation.
Operational Digital Services. Currently operational services include: Hachi Pay, a digital local currency with My Number card authentication; Shibuya My Portal, a personalized information platform; and on-demand transportation with subsidies for elderly and socially vulnerable residents.
Open Questions
Spatial Data for a Walkable City. Ongoing large-scale redevelopment in Shibuya City is creating new public plazas and open spaces, and the City aims to connect with the global trend of walkable urban design. However, significant barriers remain. While many people want to use Shibuya's public and semi-public spaces, there is no single way to find out which spaces are available, who manages them, and how to apply for access. The City has plans to address this challenge through spatial data platforms like CREATIVE JUNCTION, but fully digitizing spatial asset management across departments and private owners and translating it into open, walkable urban experiences, as well as building shared understanding among stakeholders of the benefits and costs of data utilization, remains a work in progress without an established model.
Shortage of Specialized Talent and Technology Adoption Rules. Shibuya City has a relatively strong fiscal base and undertakes numerous large-scale public projects including school reconstruction and road infrastructure improvement. However, when attempting to incorporate new technologies into these projects, there is a shortage of specialized coordinators who can bridge emerging technologies and public procurement processes. The lack of both human resources and institutional mechanisms to connect available technology with administrative projects is recognized as a significant unresolved challenge for the City.
References
Primary Sources
- Shibuya City Smart City Promotion Basic Policy
- SHIBUYA CITY DASHBOARD (Official Page)
- SHIBUYA OPEN DATA (Official Open Data Portal)
- SHIBUYA CREATIVE JUNCTION (Official Platform)