Public-Private Engagement in Japan - Activities based on the Meteorological Service Act and a new consortium: WXBC - WMO Library

Public-Private Engagement in Japan
- Activities based on the Meteorological Service Act
            and a new consortium: WXBC -

                     Tatsuya KIMURA
   Director, Public Awareness and Partnerships Division
            Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)

Outline
• Meteorological Service Act
• Efforts to Ensure Quality of Data & Private Services
  Observation and Verification
    Entrustment; Tech Stds, Notification & Verification;
     Guidance; Big Data
  Forecasting
    Data provision; Licensing for Forecasting Services;
     Certified Weather Forecaster System
• A New Hope: WXBC, a new consortium

                                                      2

Meteorological Service Act of Japan (1/3)
 • 106 articles, established in 1952 and revised
   more that 30 times
 • Prescribed duties: JMA DG duties reflecting the
   organization’s mission are defined to help JMA
   fulfill its obligations to WMO Members.
 • The Meteorological Service Act clarifies the
   different roles to be played by the public sector
   (in this case, JMA) and by the private and
   academic sectors.
 • Specifically, Article 23 highlights JMA's sole
   authority with the restrictive specification,
   "No party other than JMA shall issue warnings".
                                                       3

Meteorological Service Act of Japan (2/3)
Article 1 of the Act says,,,
• The purpose of this Act is
  to ensure the sound development of meteorological services*#
  by prescribing basic systems concerning meteorological services,
  and thereby to contribute
    to the promotion of public welfare such as
       prevention of disaster,
       securing of traffic safety, and
       prosperity of industries
    and to offer international cooperation concerning
       meteorological services.
   * Article 46 of the Act for the Establishment of the Ministry of
     Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) also
     stipulates that the mission of the Japan Meteorological Agency
     is to ensure the sound development of meteorological services.
   # Meteorological services include private services
                                                                    4

Meteorological Service Act of Japan (3/3)
• The act is also intended to optimize commercial
  opportunities for private meteorological services in Japan.
• Major stipulations related to private services include the
  specification of JMA’s authority for:
   Observation and verification -> Slide 7 & 8 (a major
    revision to the Act in 2001)
   Licensing for forecasting services, including relevant
    Certified Weather Forecasters’ roles & data provision
    -> Slide 9, 10 & 11 (a major revision to the Act in 1993
    followed by repeated deregulation)

 For further details, see the following web site.
 http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail/?printID=&ft=1&re=01&dn=1&co=01&ky=%E6%
 B0%97%E8%B1%A1%E6%A5%AD%E5%8B%99%E6%B3%95&page=1&vm=02                                5

Efforts to Ensure Quality of Data & Private Services (1/5)
Observation (Articles 4 - 12) & Verification System (Articles 27 – 34) (1/2)
 The following regulations are indispensable to conduct observations efficiently or
 to prevent confusion in one of the most disaster-prone nations like Japan.
 Entrustment
  • Article 5 stipulates that JMA may entrust group(s) or individual(s) with
    (i) observations of phenomena and (ii) provision of the results.
    → E.g., JMA has entrusted municipalities and the private
         sector with observation at most of the airports.
 Technical Standards, Notification & Verification
  • Article 6 stipulates that observations intended for
    announcements and DRR must follow technical
    standards, and installation of such observation
    stations shall be notified to JMA.
  • Article 9 requires observations performed in compliance
                                                            Facilities for Verification:
    with the above-mentioned technical standards        Verified instruments must be
    to use instruments verified by a registered body.   used for announcement- 6 and
                                                                  DRR-purpose observation.

Efforts to Ensure Quality of Data & Private Services (2/5)
Observation (Articles 4 - 12) & Verification System (Articles 27 – 34) (2/2)
 (cont'd)
 Guidance
  • Article 10 authorizes JMA to provide guidance on observations.
    → E.g., JMA provides a variety of guidance manuals; latest renewal
        was in March, taking account of increase in privately observed data.

 Latest recommendation (JMA 2030 Vision) by a JMA advisory body
 calls for:
      further integrated usage of observation data
      obtained/collected by various bodies,
      by overcoming challenges such as ensuring of data
      quality and development of big-data utilization
      technology.
                                                                        7

Efforts to Ensure Quality of Data & Private Services (3/5)
Data Provision to the Private Sector (Articles 24-28 – 24-33)
 • JMA actively engages in open-data activities.
 • Since 1995, JMA provides most of the data/information it
   collects and/or formulates to the private sectors at cost for
   commercial usage, via JMBSC (a designated public foundation).
 • Fee structures are revised every three years.
 • Number of users: Approximately 300 (as of March 2018)

                                                            8

Efforts to Ensure Quality of Data & Private Services (4/5)
       Licensing for Forecasting Services (Articles 17 – 22)
 • Any party intending to provide forecasting services A wide variety of
   must be licensed by JMA’s DG.                          private weather
                                                         service customers
 • This provision is intended to meet the general public
   interest and to ensure social order and security.
 • Standards for licensing are defined in relation to         Ship routing
   facilities and personnel* involved in data collection
   and analysis and to receive warnings (*See the
   Certified Weather Forecaster System information in           Farming
   the next slide).
 • A total of 73 commercial entities are licensed to        Manufacturing
   issue weather forecasts in Japan.
               Health
                                   Construction                 !
                                                                 Retail &
Daily life               Tourism                  Energy              9
                                                             Transportation

Efforts to Ensure Quality of Data & Private Services (5/5)
Certified Weather Forecaster System (Articles 24-2 – 24-27)
 • Commercial entities licensed to provide weather
   forecasts must employ Certified Weather Forecasters,
   with the requisite levels of expertise to perform the
   core part of forecasting (i.e., prediction of phenomena).
 • The above stipulation is intended to ensure the quality
   of private weather services.
 • The national Certified Weather
   Forecaster exam is held twice
   a year (average pass rate: 5.6%) .
                                  Most of weathermen or
                           weatherwomen in Japan are qualified
                                                           10
                            as a Certified Weather Forecaster!

However,,,
• Sales of private weather
  service companies in Japan
  have slowed down…
• Working-age population decreases…
• Big-data era came.                          気象事業者の年間総売上高と事業者数の推移

• There must be an enormous amount of room for users to
  utilize weather data along with other big data for analysis
  and prediction…

            Why don’t we start a new project
 to improve productivity and providing a range of services
     based on the combination of weather information
 with various types of big data and advanced technology?
                                                       11

A New Hope (1/5)
     Weather Business Consortium (WXBC)
• The Weather Business Consortium (WXBC) was
  established on 7 March, 2017, in Tokyo, Japan, by
  public, private and academic sectors including
  current and potential meteorological data users.
• JMA functions as the consortium’s secretariat via the
  newly established Office of Public-Private-Academic
  Collaboration (under me!).

  Group photo
  at 1st Weather Biz Forum   Minister Keiichi ISHII
                             at 2nd Weather Biz Forum 12

A New Hope (2/5)
      Weather Business Consortium (WXBC)

To put it formally,,,
• Purpose: to drive commerce involving intensive usage
  of meteorological data in technologies such as IoT and
  AI via extensive joint efforts in the public, private and
  academic sectors, thereby enhancing socio-economic
  productivity in Japan
• Number of Members: 416 (as of 3 October, 2018)
To put it very informally,,,
• Now rebooting weather-for-business activities in Japan
  for advanced use of weather data in business involving
  new users                                               13

A New Hope (3/5)
    Weather Business Consortium (WXBC)
          From the basics to   Dialogues & business matching
                                                I’ll go in
          actual application   We’ve got        with that.        That’s it!
  WXBC                         detailed model
                               prediction…
                                                                               How 'bout
                                                                               using
  Seminars &                                                 Why don’t
                                                                               Himawari?

  trainings                                                  we use them
                                                             altogether?

Training Session for
Weather Data Analysis                                     14
                                     Weather Biz Idea Contest

A New Hope (4/5)
     Weather Business Consortium (WXBC)

• Major activities: organization of major fora, seminars,
  training sessions, idea contests and matching events
  based on decisions, discussions and dialogue from
  the organization’s Congress, Governing Board and
  working groups (Human Resource Development WG
  and New Business WG)
• JMA supports members’ commercial activities both
  as the secretariat and via further provision of
  meteorological data based on commercial needs, as
  well as improving data usage environments and
  promoting deregulation.
                                                     15

A New Hope (5/5)
            Weather Business Consortium (WXBC)
• Typical example of emerging commercial application:
  advanced utilization of Himawari imagery for pasture
  grass harvesting in Hokkaido, Japan
                                                                                            Solar
                                                                          Himawari          radiation
                                                                          Imagery           prediction
   I wanna eat
 yummy grass…             How can I efficiently
                                                                  New data and support
Definitely not wet        deploy combine                              I’ll go in
                                                                      with that.        That’s it!
 nor damaged…             harvesters in foggy
                                                     We’ve got
                                                     detailed model                                  How 'bout
                          areas?                     prediction…                                     using
                                                                                                     Himawari?
                                     It’s so difficult to                          Why don’t
                                     predict and grasp                             we use them
                                                                                   altogether?
                                     how fog comes in
                                     from sea...
                     A WXBC
                     Member
                     (Agricultural
                       expert)
                                                                                                     16

Summary
• My presentation highlighted JMA’s efforts to
  increase socio-economic productivity in Japan.
• JMA actively promotes the sound development
  of private meteorological services and facilitates
  further advanced use of meteorological data by
  the private sector through a variety of initiatives,
  including public-private partnerships within a
  new consortium called WXBC.

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Thank you for your attention!

            tkimura@met.kishou.go.jp
            (tatsuya.kimura@gmail.com)
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