Delivered on December 8, 2025
Data Changes the Future: Urban Planning Driven by Maps and People Flow Data by Geotechnologies
Speaker:
Akifumi Ishizu
Geosolutions Sales Division, Sales Headquarters
Deputy General Manager, Enterprise/Public Business
Affiliation and position information is as of the time of distribution
Geotechnologies' people flow data, collected primarily through the point-earning service "Trima," is continuous, highly accurate, and contains human attributes. When combined with maps, primarily "MapFan," it enables a variety of urban development projects. In this session, we will hear about how this data can be used to develop cities and the future, citing specific examples.
This seminar is an archived version of the Location Information Seminar held at Kindai University in July 2025.
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People Flow Data Opens Up Future Urban Planning and Business Transformation: The Potential of High-Precision Location Information and App Integration
With over 20 years of experience in the IT industry, the speaker currently works at Geotechnologies, a company that provides people flow data and map information. He believes that "data will change the future." In fact, the company is one of the few mapping companies in Japan, providing base data for maps used by Google and Apple. This business model, which combines social infrastructure like maps with the company's collected people flow data and survey data, is key to driving future urban planning and digital transformation (DX).
High-Precision People Flow Data: Its Advantages and Mechanism
Geotechnologies' people flow data is acquired through the user base of "Trima," Japan's largest mobility tracking app. Its greatest feature is the extremely high frequency and accuracy of location information, acquired every five seconds or every 20 meters. This detailed data allows for accurate understanding not only of users' locations, but also their speed and direction of movement, such as whether they are walking, driving, or taking the train. This offers a significant advantage over other types of human traffic data, enabling advanced, multifaceted analysis, such as determining which routes people with specific attributes took.
Expanding Applications, from Regional Revitalization to Advertising Measurement
This high-precision data is already being implemented in a variety of fields.
Regional Revitalization and Urban Development: Kumamoto City used people traffic data to verify whether residents were actually using developed pedestrian spaces and identified areas where people congregate, such as parks and shopping malls. This data is being used as evidence for future urban planning and facility development.
Transportation and Tourism Measures: After the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen, people traffic data was analyzed to identify areas of increase (towards Tokyo) and decrease (towards Kansai). For those with decreased user numbers, the Trima app's coupon distribution function was used to encourage them to take alternative routes, leading to data-driven tourist attraction.
Event and Crisis Management: Data was used to identify abnormal congestion around stations (a 1,300% increase) during large-scale fireworks festivals, and coupons were distributed to surrounding stations to encourage people to diversify their routes home. It is also being applied to crisis management measures such as preventing crowd accidents.
Advertising Effectiveness Measurement: In the field of outdoor advertising (OOH), such as the large screens at Shibuya Scramble Crossing, users passing within the visible range of an advertisement can be identified and, through Torima's survey function, data can be collected on whether they viewed the advertisement and ultimately purchased the product. This scientific measurement of the effectiveness of outdoor advertising, previously difficult to achieve, has been realized, promoting digital transformation in the advertising industry.
Summary
Geotechnologies' people flow data, based on a map platform and integrated with Torima, Japan's leading mobility app,** enables unparalleled acquisition of location information with high frequency and precision.
This data is key to powerfully promoting digital transformation in a wide range of business areas, including evidence-based policymaking (EBPM) for local governments, transportation infrastructure development, event crisis management**, and scientific measurement of the effectiveness of outdoor advertising.
As people flow data becomes a key factor in shaping society's future, its potential applications will continue to expand.