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Solving social issues through our business

Towards the realization of a data-driven society

The government and companies work to utilize data to identify solutions to many different social issues face by Japan today, such as the aging population, declining birthrate, decreasing population, shortage of resources for healthcare and nursing care and poor food self-sufficiency, as well as the shift to a circular economy, the promotion of decarbonization and other issues that are being addressed globally. However, we still have a long way to go before we are able to use data beyond the framework of an organization, such as the government or a company, or beyond the framework of an industry.

In consideration of this, IIJ pursues the realization of a data-driven society where diverse data circulates safely and in more advanced ways and extensive social issues can be solved leveraging the cross-disciplinary use of organizations and industries.

Data-driven society

  • A society where the data generated and accumulated through social activities safely circulates while protecting the rights of the people who generate the data, and problems are solved based on the insights obtained from the utilization of the data.
  • A society where many stakeholders use data for many purposes and the many different problems which have been hard to solve can be solved in a cross-disciplinary and sustained manner beyond the borders between companies, industries and countries.

In a data-driven society, the active use of ICT will advance in a cross-disciplinary manner and it will have benefits such as flying mobility solutions, autopilot, the complete digitalization of contracts and payments, advanced and uncrewed anti-disaster measures and personalized and advanced healthcare and education services. This will increase expectations for the achievement of a society and an economy that enables prosperity to be shared in many different ways.

IIJ has led the development of the Internet to connect all kinds of things, and similarly, it will build an ecosystem where data can smoothly circulate on a network. We will also generate useful data independently while utilizing the circulating data in our businesses to play a role in organically connecting society. By doing so, IIJ will lead the development of a data-driven society and seek to ensure that more advanced and extensive social issues will be solved in the future as we work on our business operations.

IIJ aims to realize a data-driven society

The enhancement of productivity

Always the one to adopt cutting-edge technologies, IIJ Group has been sending out society network services that improve production efficiency. To maintain economic growth, unaffected by the declining workforce shortage from Japan’s aging and declining population, IIJ actively applies clouds, IoT, AI and other such technologies and improves productivity for the entire society, through automating operations at manufacturing sites and bringing more IT into offices.

Supporting industries with IoT

We provide a multitude of IT solutions to address the labor shortage in the industrial world.

Through a partnership with Taiwanese industrial computer manufacturer Advantech, IIJ develops specialized industrial IoT platforms for Japanese manufacturers.

These platforms enable data collection from all types of industrial machines and sensors to the cloud for remote equipment monitoring and production number visualization, without depending on manufacturer.

In one example of the introduction of IoT, we improved quality and productivity by incorporating industrial computers with mobile communication capabilities into a production line at the automobile plant and constructing a cloud computing structure capable of collecting equipment operation data and visualizing and analyzing measurement data.

We provide solutions for sites where food control measures need to be employed, such as the sites of manufacturers, storage facilities, and retailers, to enable them to collect temperature data, monitor and report food safety issues at low cost. In line with the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety management system, the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers where food is stored are recorded automatically, saving time and avoiding errors that may occur in the temperature control.

The solution has been registered as one of the IT tools to be funded by IT Introduction Subsidy 2022, the subsiding system that SMEs and small enterprises can use for the introduction of IT tools.

IoT Services and Solutions

Improving operational efficiency with cloud

IIJ offers office IT solutions which integrates companies’ on-premises (own-operated) servers to IIJ's cloud services. This saves various operational workloads not just for hardware operations but also for security measures and application management.

Operations become more efficient, as company employees will be able to access the latest office applications and enjoy new work styles without being confined to specific locations.

Meanwhile, as work environments shift to digital workplaces, stable high-volume and high-speed telecommunications will be essential as well as stronger security measures against malware (*1) and information leaks. IIJ offers solution services and DX platforms to comfortably and safely use different cloud services that enable the use of different devices in different places.

These solutions reduce the workload of system operators and contribute to improving productivity. Furthermore, IIJ also offers SaaS (*2)-based IIJ Unified Operation Management Service (UOM) that supports automatic filtering and operations, system monitoring, and job management to prevent the enormous amount of alerts generated from the system from hindering the operations of system administrators.

  1. (*1)Malware: malicious software and code.
  2. (*2)SaaS: services that enable users to access applications from remote locations through the Internet.

Support data utilization and linkage

Society as a whole is promoting data utilization, including the digital transformation of businesses, digital government, and the smart city concept. There is a need to link and utilize data distributed across many different places including on-premises infrastructure and multiple cloud computing services.
Making the best use of our knowledge of cloud operations and our track record in system integration, IIJ offers the IIJ Cloud Data Platform Service that enables data linkage between on-premises and the cloud.

We support data utilization and the promotion of the digital transformation of businesses by providing services that achieve secure, low-cost inter-system data linkage.

Making device setups and operations more efficient

IIJ develops products and services that significantly reduce the time and cost taken on initial setups and installations of a large number of network devices, including routers at our customer sites, making device operations more efficient.

In 2003, IIJ developed SMF (SEIL Management Framework), which centrally manages SEIL, the router series IIJ had developed, to help users develop and operate networks freely. Further updated and with patents both from Japan and the United States, SMF is now widely used in IIJ’s services, including the IIJ Multi Product Controller Service, which allows centralized management of network devices, and contributes to improved operational efficiency.

SMF-compatible devices can instantly connect to network services as soon as the cable is plugged in and turned on, eliminating the need for network engineers to do any on-site installation work.

Supporting children, the elderly and the socially vulnerable

Using IT and network technologies, IIJ is currently addressing issues such as the rise in demand for in-home care, support for people's livelihoods, watching over people who need assistance and expanding nursing and medical care in local communities. IIJ also provides services and solutions to solve issues related to children’s use of IT, such as problems and deficiencies in the network environments in the digitalization of children’s education and the protection against Internet threats. Through these business activities, IIJ takes initiatives to bridge the digital divide and/or increase access to communications for underserviced populations such as children, the elderly, people with disabilities and low-income households.

Digital platform enabling specialists to cooperate to support people in need of care and assistance (IIJ Electronic Contact/Communication Note Service)

IIJ engages in collaborative research with Nagoya University Hospital and, since 2017, has provided the IIJ Electronic Contact/Communication Note Service which is a platform that enables professionals involved in in-home care and healthcare to cooperate. The goal of the service is to facilitate the government’s project for community-based integrated care.
Various professionals collaborate on the platform, streamlining activities beyond the conventional borders of jobs and ensuring that information about people in need of nursing care is rapidly and smoothly shared to provide more fulfilling support.
Currently, A result of the government's continued use of the platform is that it has expanded into other welfare areas, such as supporting victims of disasters, enabling emergency services to cooperate in the event of a disaster and supporting mothers and children who support children in need of medical care and young carers.

Efforts to provide the socially vulnerable with information and support services using smartphones and tablets are increasing. However, many patients and elderly people who need in-home care find it difficult to operate ICT devices. IIJ Electronic Contact/Communication Note resolves the digital divide by using ICT to connect the families and professionals protecting the lives of these patients and elderly people. We will continue to develop services and expand and improve functionality to achieve a sustainable society where no one is left behind.

Using ICT to watch over children and the elderly

An increase in the number of double-income households, a decline in community awareness and other environmental changes pose difficulties in people's efforts to watch over their children. This problem leads to greater use of GPS devices to watch over children and keep track of where they are and their behavior history. IIJ provides the manufacturer of the devices with a mobile communication service. A typical example is the introduction of IIJ’s SoftSIM to GPS BoT, a robot for watching over children provided by Bsize Inc. It supports a function that automatically sends notices to parents on occasions such as when their child arrives at the school or significantly deviates from their route to school.

As the number of elderly people living alone is increasing remarkably, the needs for a service enabling people to watch over their elderly parents remotely is growing as well. To meet these needs, IIJ and Chubu Electric Power established necolico LLC which develops and provides products enabling people to watch over their family members by monitoring the opening and closing of refrigerators and robots that are capable of facilitating voice and text communication. IIJ offers an ICT-based environment that enables all family members to feel secure in their lives by unfailingly watching over their children and the elderly.

Building a network environment for students' online classes (IIJ GIGA School Solution)

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology runs the GIGA School Program proposing a device for every student and the construction of a high-speed network environment. Based on this program, we provide safe and easy to use network environments to municipal governments and boards of education around the country.

Related efforts have progressed nationwide, and in. March 2021, every elementary and junior high school student had a device. However, quite a few classrooms have insufficiently enjoyed the effects and advantages of ICT-based education due to insufficiencies in the development of a network environment which results in slow communications and poor connectivity. To "ensure smooth communications integrating everything from devices to the cloud," one of the requirements of the GIGA School Program, we will solve problems within schools and provide optimal network environments to realize new forms of learning.

Consumer mobile service package designed to protect children from Internet threats and harmful sites (IIJmio Mimamori Pack)

The optional Mimamori Pack is available for IIJmio, IIJ's mobile service for individuals. It enables children to feel secure about using smartphones. We provide environments that enable children to feel safe and secure using the Internet. This involves security measures such as malicious app countermeasures, web threat countermeasures, and usage restrictions by parents, and the service provides filtering features to block sites that are unfit for viewing by children.

Contributing to the growth of global infrastructure for information communications

The global economy and industries have benefitted and grown significantly because of the ubiquity of the Internet, however, the digital divide is a problem that has emerged. This is the widening gap between the group that is capable of using Internet and the group that is not. IIJ seeks to resolve the digital divide and contribute to the development of a sustainable society by building communications infrastructure around the world using its technologies that have supported Japanese network infrastructure.

Supporting the development of communications infrastructure in Uzbekistan

In Uzbekistan, the expansion and improvement of information communications infrastructure is under way to meet the rapidly growing demand for data communications amid the digitalization of different industries. The country is pursuing the improvement of the quality of communications and solutions to social issues such as the digital divide between urban and rural areas. Against this backdrop, IIJ has started a project in 2023 for the development of communications infrastructure in collaboration with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, NEC Corporation and NTT Communications Corporation with the goal of building and improving data centers and communications infrastructure for mission-critical communications systems to significantly improve the communications environment in the country. IIJ will continue to contribute to the development of sustainable infrastructure for information communications in Uzbekistan by, for example, providing self-developed, energy-saving, high-quality, high-efficiency modular container-type data center "co-IZmo/I," developing a cloud platform and training employees of Uzbektelecom, the national telecommunications carrier, in charge of data center operations.

Laos Energy Efficient Datacenter Project

We helped build a data center as a part of the mission-critical infrastructure for IT strategies in Laos.

IoT efforts in Southeast Asia

In collaboration with Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd., IIJ developed Crossborder Co-DataBiz Platform, a one-stop global IoT data service platform to provide the support necessary for data businesses. The platform is offered in Southeast Asia. For example, the platform was introduced in Thailand for use as the foundation of the service centralizing the results of pre- and post-driving alcohol breathalyzer measurements in the cloud. In Indonesia, the platform is used for an AI-based system detecting road damage from images from cameras installed in vehicles to support road maintenance and management.

Contributions to revitalize regional areas

The declining population and accelerating urbanization are creating gaps between cities and regional areas in many forms, including but not limited to access to medical care and employment. As part of the policy for regional revitalization, the state is actively encouraging small and medium-sized companies and municipalities in regional areas to employ IT. IIJ is contributing to developing regional economy by driving IT application and usage, including local 5G.

Boosting industries with IT

Matsue Data Center Park

Shimane Prefecture and its city Matsue are focusing on bolstering IT and software industries to bring in companies and help engineers move to the area. As Shimane and Matsue approved the construction plan, IIJ opened Matsue Data Center Park (“Matsue DCP”) in 2011, a data center for cloud computing. Through Matsue DCP, IIJ contributes to bolstering local industries and creating employment, and supports career education for high school students through site tours.

Matsue Data Center Park

Industry-government-academia collaborative development of local 5G technologies and support for community networks

5G is next-generation communication technology that enable ultra-high speed, ultra-low latency, multiple simultaneous connections. Local 5G is a 5G network installed by municipal governments, businesses and other organizations to use in specific areas. IIJ supports the development of regional networks by participating in local 5G-related technology development projects and similar activities.

Support for agriculture

While the super aging society raised the average age of agricultural workers in Japan to over 65, the growing operational scale is urging agricultural work to become more efficient and labor saving. Meanwhile efforts to spread ICT-based “smart agriculture” are growing rapidly across Japan. IIJ is also researching and developing services that can be applied to agriculture.

Promoting agricultural work-style reform with IoT

In 2017, IIJ started developing an ICT water management system to reduce the labor required in the management of the water in paddy fields and has succeeded in development of a less expensive sensor for use in paddy fields. As farmers age and more farmland across wider areas becomes abandoned by retiring farmers, the burdens on farmers are increasing, which has posed major challenges. The ICT water management system makes it possible to stay updated on the condition of paddy fields and control water volume using a smartphone in your home or workplace. This significantly reduces the labor necessary in water management.

In 2022, IIJ also developed a mechanism for calculating the growth of crops in paddy fields based on data from sensors in the field and for automating water management in accordance with the calculations of the growth of crops (patented in 2024, patent number 7425846). In 2024, an implementation experiment was conducted to increase tangerine yields by gathering, visualizing and analyzing, on the cloud, the data obtained from soil water sensors and weather sensors. In this way, we contribute to increasing crop yields and enhancing their quality while facilitating people's passing down water management technologies by visualizing and quantifying operations using IoT technologies, which conventionally relied on cultivation calendars and operator's experience. Using IoT technologies to visualize and quantify operations that had conventionally relied on a cultivation calendar and farmers’ experience will contribute to the preservation of water management technologies, in addition to the increase in yields and improvement in quality.

IIJ provides the following agricultural IoT services

IIJ provides the following agricultural IoT services

Contributing to better financial access

Although the spread of Internet has enabled people to easily access information from around the world, the threat of cyberattacks is mounting in every way. Finance is no exception, facing serious situations such as unauthorized remittance due to malware infection and receipt of malicious emails. IIJ is taking part in Financials ISAC Japan as an advisor, primarily offering security and security measure information to financial institutions to contribute to safer financial transactions.

Promoting Fintech to improve financial access

DeCurret

In 2018, together with leading companies from various industries, IIJ established DeCurret Inc. To promote and enhance the use of digital currencies, it is essential to develop a platform that users feel safe to use, and connect the platform with existing financial infrastructures to ensure user friendliness. Decurret’s goal being “To create a financial platform specialized in digital currencies that can send, receive, store and exchange digital currencies and make all transactions safe and simple,” Decurret is currently developing a platform that enables everyone to access digital currencies safely and easily. In July 2024, a digital currency for environmental value, in the form of digital tokens, will be made available for transactions and settlements.

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