Japan To Launch National Open Data Portal

The Japanese Government will be launching its National Open Data Portal as part of its commitment to create an environment where data is used by citizens to promote innovation, creative industries and knowledge-based services.

Hiroichi Kawashima, former CIO of the Government of Saga Prefecture and currently one of the key committee members working on the project, says the Government is hoping to create a portal similar to that of the US Government’s data.gov.

“At present, we are trying to settle technical issues concerning data format and standardisation so that we can make the data available in machine readable format. In addition, the committee is also studying legal aspects of sharing data to the public,” says Kawashima...