Morisawa held an online seminar entitled "From 'Communicating' to 'Being Communicated' - The COVID-19 Pandemic Accelerating the Digitalization of Local Government Information Dissemination" over two days, August 20th and 27th, 2021.  

During the COVID-19 pandemic, information sent out by local governments is receiving more attention and importance than ever before. For this reason, it is important to create information that can be "communicated" to each and every resident, rather than just "communicated" by local governments. 
Over the two days, local government officials were invited as guests to speak on the two themes of "COVID-19 Pandemic" and "DX," including how to deliver vaccination and disaster prevention information, and examples of the use of social media and digital tools. (Article by Morisawa's Nitano Ryosuke) 

Along with each seminar report, you can also watch archived videos from the day. 

*Registration is required to watch videos. 

This is a report on the first day. Day 2 

Part 1 Keynote speech
Universal design of information in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Lecturer: Visiting Researcher, Waseda University Manifesto Research Institute / Local Government Public Relations Advisor / 
　　　　Tomoyuki Sakuma, Representative Director, PRDESIGN JAPAN Co., Ltd.

Mr. Sakuma is currently a fiscal year appointed employee of Nakano Ward, and is therefore also a local government employee. Drawing on his past experience and his current perspective as an advisor, he gave a clear explanation of the digital transformation of local government information dissemination, which is accelerating amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In his keynote speech on August 20th, he summarized universal design in five points and introduced examples of initiatives, and suggested that from now on it will be necessary for the government to disseminate information that is easy to understand and in line with this idea. 

① What is Universal Design? 
② Why was Nakano Ward able to respond so quickly? 
③ Utilizing digital media, social media, and grants 
④ UD considerations for the digital divide and solutions 
⑤ Summary 

During the talk, the chat function was used to ask questions to the participants and respond to their opinions, which was well received by those who attended in real time. 

Part 2: Panel Discussion
Local government officials' goal of disseminating information during the COVID-19 pandemic

Guest: Kenichiro Satake, Public Relations Division, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture
　　　　Mr. Sho Sakai, Policy Promotion Division, Kimitsu City, Chiba Prefecture
Coordinator: Tomoyuki Sakuma 

With Mr. Sakuma as coordinator, we spoke with two public relations officers from two local governments who are taking cutting-edge approaches and utilizing them to disseminate government information, and they shared their insights that will be useful and practical for viewers of this program. 

Mr. Kenichiro Satake, Public Relations Division, Fukui City, Fukui Prefecture

As part of its "Information Dissemination Project for Everyone," the digital distribution of government information began in January 2021. The digital tool "Katapoke" is being used as an initiative for multicultural coexistence, with multilingual support for foreign residents and welfare for people with disabilities as its two main pillars. 

During this COVID-19 pandemic, information on vaccinations and other topics was distributed digitally. We learned about the type of content that provided peace of mind to residents. In particular, COVID-19 information was subject to change at the last minute, and issues with printing time and other issues with paper media became apparent. We also discussed the benefits of digital distribution. 

Regarding the dissemination of COVID-19 information to foreign residents, cooperation with the relevant department has led to smooth dissemination of information to foreigners. He said that this was due to the relationships built up during normal times, which allowed for smooth progress even in the event of an emergency. 
He says that in the future he would like to communicate with citizens through digital tools. 

Mr. Sho Sakai, Policy Promotion Division, Kimitsu City, Chiba Prefecture

A city opinion survey of relatively young generations showed that a large number of people obtain city information from the "public relations paper," but the number of newspapers distributed as inserts has been decreasing year by year. Despite being an effective information medium, it is becoming more difficult for information to reach young people, and the city saw the renewal of the public relations paper as a turning point to solve this problem, and launched "Katapoke" as a digital distribution service in 2019.

They talked about the benefits of incorporating photos, music, dialect explanations, and more into the digital version of the newsletter, which is possible only because it is digital. 

He also talked about the digital challenge of increasing the number of views, including methods for increasing views by collaborating with social media. 

Regarding their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, they stated that having experienced the difficulty and importance of public relations during the typhoon disaster two years ago, they would like to continue to use digital technology to disseminate reliable information. 

We recommend watching the archived video of the Q&A session to hear what the two speakers had to say.