Community Rejuvenation Made Possible by Community SNS[1]Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture

Hand Made by City Hall Staff without Cost

The word “Gorotto” mentioned in the name of the SNS made public to the residents of Yatsushiro City means “complete” in the local dialect but it also has sounds like the expression “to lie down in a heap.” The word “Yacchiro” means “Yatsushiro” to the younger generations but it is a familiar expression used by the elderly.

The SNS first made its appearance on the completely revised City website in April 2003. Originally it was a residents’ portal site that was added to the City’s website. However, in April 2004 it became an independent community website with the establishment of an information exchanging function and it took on its current form in October 2005.

The website first came under national attention in April 2004 when the community website function was added. The reason for gaining this attention was that it was the first local government SNS type local community system, Open Source Software (OSS) was adopted into the OS and middleware and the system that was created was provided using OSS.

Another reason for receiving national attention was the fact that the creation of the system barely incurred any cost. Programs were constructed by local government employees who gave up their time on weekends. In addition, there was no need to invest in new facilities because the City’s hardware was used as a server to operate the system.

Mr. Takao Kobayashi, the City’s information systems development manager, proved that this innovative system could be created through good ideas and effort.

“I learnt about programming and system design through self-study. I just enjoyed playing around with the internet. It was a simple as that.” said Mr. Kobayashi.

“Actually, it’s probably more that I like Yatsushiro.” (Mr. Kobayashi)

Yatsushiro City is not a famous tourist destination. However, as stated previously, one of Japan’s three largest rapids flows down the Kuma River from the City's east to the City’s west and every year a nation fireworks competition and the Myoken festival are held on its banks (November 22nd and 23rd). The fireworks competition introduces new fireworks that will be released in the following year and it attracts visitors from the Kanto region and other far away areas. In addition, during the Myoken festival, the streets are filled with numerous images of the “Turtle and Snake” god, and firing squads are on display. Horse races are also held on the side of the river.

“Yatsushiro City is also the origin of the Kappa (a mythical creature that lives in the river).” (Mr. Kobayashi)

The legend states that the Kappa crossed the sea from China in order to avoid the chaos of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period (770BC - 221BC). This has also been used as the main character for the SNS.

Yatsushiro City has a good balance of fishing, agriculture, industrial and commercial businesses and has an increasing number of residential housing developments due to the construction of new highways and bullet train lines. In addition, on August 1st 2005, two towns and three villages (Sencho Town, Kagami Town, Sakamoto Village, Toyo Village and Izumi Village) further merged with the city, increasing the population to approximately 34,000. The idea to create a local community system was aimed at providing a place for new residents to exchange information.

“Our intention is exactly that. It’s not to encourage more mergers of towns.” said Mr. Kobayashi. However, he continued by saying “but the intention was to rebuild the community as it is not as close as it has been in the past.”

The Examination Committee decided upon connecting to the internet through a LAN within City Hall and transferring the operation of the Web server from external to an internal source. The Committee further hoped that “the City could promptly distribute the latest information to residents.” However, he added, the residents will need to actively look at the website in order for this to be achieved.

It is not sufficient to merely display notices on the website. A website has no purpose if it is of no use to the residents.

The question then arose in regard to how to attract people.

“How about creating a forum where information can be freely entered, an electronic Yatsushiro City message board for example?” (Mr. Kobayashi)

Many other local governments have set up public electronic message boards. Although probably the easiest option, Mr. Kobayashi questioned whether setting up a message board was such a good idea. Mr. Kobayashi was aware of both the good and bad points relating to message boards since he had studied other local government websites when he was a network manager.

Any number of users can make entries on a message board. There have been many cases where unfounded rumours and abusive messages have been placed and remain on the site.

“It’s a type of anonymous violence. These kinds of actions would badly reflect on the reputation of the local government providing the website.” (Mr. Kobayashi)

However, the idea of a SNS had not yet surfaced.