(Provisional translation by an external company for reference purpose only)
Today, I have two announcements at the outset. The first announcement is related to Typhoon No. 25. Due to the impact of the heavy rain caused by Typhoon No. 25, there have been landslides in Kanagawa Prefecture and Chiba Prefecture and some people are missing. Therefore, the Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture and the Governor of Chiba Prefecture made requests to the Commander of the 1st Division for a disaster relief mission to carry out lifesaving operations. In response to this, Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) personnel from the 31st Infantry Regiment at Camp Takeyama in Kanagawa Prefecture and the 1st Airborne Brigade at Camp Narashino and the Air Defense School at Camp Shimoshizu in Chiba Prefecture rapidly deployed to the affected areas and, working in coordination with local fire and police services, they are conducting search operations for those missing due to the landslides. Currently, a team of approximately 25 JSDF personnel from the 31st Infantry Regiment are working tirelessly to find the missing persons in Minamishitauramachi, Miura City, Kanagawa Prefecture and a team of approximately 45 JSDF personnel from the Air Defense School are working tirelessly to find the missing people in Nagara, Chiba Prefecture. In the disaster-affected areas, while taking great care to prevent secondary damage, all of the JSDF personnel will continue to engage at full capacity in their operations with a sense of mission, while closely coordinating with local fire and police services and other relevant agencies, in order to find the missing persons as quickly as possible.
The second announcement is about the launching of the Ministry of Defense (MOD) version of the Small/Startup Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. Today, I will talk about the newly-launching MOD version of the SBIR Program. Technologies in the private sector are advancing at extremely fast speeds, including unmanned aerial vehicles and AI. Rapidly and accurately incorporating these cutting-edge technologies into the activities of the MOD/JSDF is becoming ever more important for the strengthening of the defense capabilities of Japan. Startups, in particular, generate solutions that go beyond mere extensions of existing approaches, due to their flexible thinking and outstanding technological capabilities. The MOD intends to actively utilize the capabilities of those startups to strengthen its defense capabilities. Moreover, as part of our “fast-track procurement” initiative designed to rapidly incorporate the outstanding technologies offered by startups, we will now commence a public call for proposals for the MOD version of SBIR from the 2nd of next month [October 2], fulfilling our commitment to launch the program during the current fiscal year. Under this MOD version of SBIR, we will establish challenges and needs faced by units in the field as research and development topics, and broadly solicit innovative technologies and ideas from startups to address them. The first challenge for which we are making a public call for proposals this time is ground-launched compact response UAVs that maximally use domestically-produced components. This is one of the needs of the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF). The second challenge is surface vessel-launched compact response UAVs that maximally use domestically-produced components. This is one of the needs of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF). The third challenge is systems that optimize the operation of the supply warehouse. And the fourth is equipment which reduces aircraft noise and improves the working environment. The third and fourth challenge are needs of the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF). We are planning research and development topics based on these needs in the Ground, Maritime, and Air SDF. Another aim of presenting these challenges is to clearly show the technological needs of the MOD/JSDF to the startups, which we had not been doing adequately until now. Among these challenges, there are probably some challenges which will not immediately lead to concrete proposals. Nonetheless, I believe that there is great significance in the fact of widely sharing the needs on the ground of the MOD and the JSDF. Going forward, based on the needs communicated to us from units on the ground, we will establish new research and development topics and gradually make public calls for proposals. I sincerely hope that we will receive many proposals. This concludes my announcements.