Iizuka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is taking a proactive stance towards blockchain utilization, and what are the future prospects for Chaintope, which is working with the city?
——Please tell us about the benefits and significance of utilizing Web 3.0 in Iizuka City. Also, please tell us about any initiatives you are currently working on.
Tomoka Okuma (hereinafter, Okuma): Iizuka City is home to a cluster of research institutes, IT companies, and engineers, centered around two science and engineering faculties: Kyushu Institute of Technology's School of Information Engineering and Kinki University's School of Industrial Science and Technology.
Utilizing these excellent human resources and intellectual assets, Iizuka City has been working to create new industries for the past 20 years with the aim of becoming an information industry city, and in recent years, Iizuka City has been home to several leading researchers and engineers involved in blockchain, and we feel that it is advantageous to promote the use of Web 3.0 through industry-academia-government collaboration.
We are also currently focusing on human resource development. In collaboration with Fukuoka Prefecture and Chaintope, we are holding a training session called "B3" that specializes in blockchain technology, creating opportunities to learn about blockchain technology.
Hideki Shoda (hereinafter, Shoda): Study sessions have been held since 2015, centered around Professor Shigeichiro Yamazaki of Kinki University's School of Industrial Science and Technology, and this has led to the creation of several startups. Based on these examples, Iizuka City is, so to speak, a key location for blockchain research and a base for training engineers.
Recently, there has been a boom in semiconductors in Kyushu, especially in Kumamoto Prefecture. AI is also on the rise, and more and more students are interested in it, along with blockchain, and research is actually being conducted. In particular, there are many students who aim to contribute to society using blockchain.
