On April 6, Okayama University held an opening ceremony for the new Public Microdata On-site Facility. The ceremony was attended by members of the Statistics Data Utilization Center at the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, including Director AKATANI Toshihiko and General Project Manager UENO Masashi, members of the National Statistics Center, including Deputy Manager SAKAIDA Atsushi, and members of Okayama University, including President MAKINO Hirofumi, Executive Director for Academic Affairs FUNAHASHI Hiroaki, Executive Director for Promotion of Digital Transformation ABE Masanobu, and Dean KAWAHARA Yuma from the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

President Makino and Director Akatani opened the ceremony, saying, “We hope that facility will promote the development of cross-disciplinary research, the sophistication of our education system, international human resources exchange, and collaboration with the local community” and “We hope that the establishment of this facility will not only make data analysis at the university more convenient, but will also allow for the effective management of data utilization, which we hope will be a catalyst for regional revitalization”, respectively.

The Okayama University Public Microdata On-site Facility started operating on April 1, 2022, and is the 16th facility in Japan and the first in the Chugoku region of its kind. In collaboration with the National Statistics Center, Okayama University will provide public micro-statistical data (anonymous statistical survey information gathered by each government ministry and agency) for research and education topics with a high degree of public interest, especially topics relevant to local communities. The facility is expected to facilitate the collection and analysis of data and will contribute to the promotion of digital transformation (DX) and the improvement of data science education and research at Okayama University.