Okayama City Recruits Businesses for Collaborative Demonstration Projects Including 'Verification of Drone-Based Evacuation Information Transmission to Coastal Areas'

Urban Innovation Japan (UIJ) (Secretariat: Specified Nonprofit Corporation Community Link / Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, Representative: Masayuki Nakanishi) has announced four collaborative demonstration themes that Okayama City is undertaking and has begun recruiting participating companies, including startups. Applications will close on Tuesday, July 7th, with selected businesses decided in late August, and a collaboration period from September to February 2027. The payment limit for demonstration project expenses is 1 million yen (tax included) per project.

What is 'GovTech Challenge OKAYAMA'?
UIJ is a project that solves social issues faced by local governments through collaborative experiments with startup companies. Starting with initiatives in Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture in 2018, UIJ has worked on projects with local governments nationwide. Okayama City's demonstration project 'GovTech Challenge OKAYAMA' will be implemented for the fifth consecutive year since 2022. The Specified Nonprofit Corporation Community Link supports its operation as the secretariat.

Okayama City enjoys a warm and mild climate throughout the year due to the unique climate of the Seto Inland Sea. The city center has a high concentration of advanced urban functions such as commerce, medical and welfare services, education, and culture, while also offering a pleasant living environment with access to nature. Since 2019, the city has operated 'Momosta (Momotaro Startup Cafe)', a startup support hub, hosting various programs to foster and grow startups expected to drive Okayama's economic growth. This has led to the emergence of one of the leading entrepreneurial communities in the Setouchi region. The city aims to build an ecosystem where stakeholders organically interact around Momosta, naturally generating startups.

Okayama City is implementing 'GovTech Challenge OKAYAMA' to support startup growth and solve social and administrative issues through digital technology. This year, the city aims to further accelerate startup growth through this project and is seeking startups that can propose solutions using cutting-edge technology and innovative ideas. The city invites participation to challenge solving issues together using Okayama City as a social demonstration field.

Theme Explanation Meeting (June 25, 2026 (Thursday) 15:00-16:30)
This is a valuable opportunity to speak directly with Okayama City officials about the themes being recruited. Those considering applying are encouraged to participate. The meeting will be held online.

Four Themes, Applications until July 7th (Tuesday)
1. Realizing Evacuation Information Transmission to Coastal Areas Using Drones: To address the difficulty and danger for staff in transmitting information to coastal areas during tsunami warnings, the city aims to verify the feasibility of a system where drones automatically take off and patrol simultaneously with the warning, protecting staff safety while quickly conveying evacuation information.
2. Seeking Proposals for Two Vacant House Measures: Contact with citizens troubled by vacant houses and complex family register tasks: To address the significant time spent on vacant house consultations and heir investigations, the city aims to verify if using AI for consultation organization and guidance, and AI-OCR for reading family registers and automatically creating heir relationship charts, can significantly streamline the support process.
3. School × Local Resource Matching Demonstration to Realize Teachers' Desire to 'Try New Things': To address the heavy burden on teachers who rely on personal networks to find external collaboration partners, the city aims to verify the possibility of creating a digital system that completes everything from candidate proposals to schedule adjustments simply by inputting a theme, allowing teachers to engage in community collaboration without burden.
4. Collaboratively Creating a System from the Field to Early Detect Changes in Regional Farmland and Connect 'Lenders' and 'Borrowers': To address the structural issue where farmland leasing relies on word-of-mouth and individual coordination, failing to reach those who need information, the city aims to verify if a system can be built to connect 'those who want to lend' and 'those who want to borrow' at the right time, enabling both parties to proceed to the next step.

What is 'Urban Innovation JAPAN'?
Urban Innovation JAPAN (UIJ) is an open innovation platform born in Kobe City that matches the challenges of local governments nationwide with startups and businesses. Its approach of delivering the needs of local governments working on DX to those who can truly solve problems and accelerating encounters with businesses that can solve issues in the right place has been highly evaluated, winning the Good Design Award in 2021.