ONAGAWA, Miyagi Prefecture--Computer programmers, software engineers and other “tech heads” from around Japan met here in early May to kick off “Hackathon,” a project organized to revitalize this coastal town devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Sponsored by big name companies, U.S. Internet services and IT firm Google Inc., the 33 IT experts, designers and business entrepreneurs were given the following challenge: “How can we make this town more interesting?”
The organizers then gave the Hackathoners five themes: “the sea,” “food,” “mountains,” “education” and “the town.”
The population of Onagawa has shrunk by 30 percent since the magnitude-9.0 Great East Japan Earthquake struck five years ago.
In order to understand the challenges facing Onagawa, the Hackathoners strolled through the town to canvass the opinions of local residents.
“With all the continuing reconstruction, things are rapidly changing,” one resident said. “Maps of our town change every three months.”
Another said: “People in the town are unable to share information about the reconstruction.”
After hearing a range of opinions, the Hackathoners held a two-day brainstorming session to develop online projects to help revitalize Onagawa.
Afterward, the Hackathoners dispersed for their hometowns but kept in contact with one another through social networking services. It took three weeks to develop the tools and software to make their projects become a reality.
The creative team working under “the town” theme developed the “Smile Camera.”
Cameras were set up at tourist spots, restaurants and other public spots in Onagawa to identify smiling faces.
The total number of smiles recorded by each camera were then displayed on an online map with smile faces on a website created by the team. The idea was to let people worldwide “visually learn which parts of Onagawa are filled with smiles.”
“We cast happiness and fun into visible shapes,” said 34-year-old website designer Sho Hamano.
The “sea” project team came up with the “Phoya System,” which enables Onagawa fishermen to display their fresh catches of saury and other seafood on smartphones via the LINE app.
Freshly caught fish were displayed in boxes surrounded by good lighting and photographed. The images and prices are displayed on smartphones so that potential customers worldwide can check out the seafood and purchase items online.
The total cost of setting up the system was less than 30,000 yen ($291).
“Each of the projects could be developed quickly and efficiently on their own," said Shigeru Kobayashi, one of the organizers of the Hackathon event and a professor of physical computing and innovation management at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences. “Also, ideas (by the Hackathoners) are very cool."
A director of an Onagawa fish sausage manufacturing firm who has been engaged in the reconstruction of his town welcomes the online innovation.
“We are anxious that we are going to lose our hometown if we rely solely on the conventional means for reconstruction," said Masaki Takahashi of the company. "So far, we have pretty much relied on the old "analog" method for everything. I am happy that we can now also adopt (digital) technology from outside the town."