Population location data showing changes in movements following the central government's state of emergency declaration was presented to a government expert panel on new coronavirus countermeasures in Tokyo on April 22.
"The number of people flowing into central Tokyo decreased by 80% on the weekend, a significant drop, but many people visited parks," Shigeru Omi, vice chair of the panel, said at a recent press conference, urging people to make more of an effort to avoid going out.
Human-to-human transmission of the virus can be slowed down by minimizing contact between people.
In the past, virus countermeasures have included border controls to stop people and goods from crossing borders, and quarantining of infected individuals in hospitals and dedicated facilities. This is the first attempt to reduce human contact nationwide; population location data from smartphones has proved to be an effective tool to understand how this can be achieved.
"Utilizing location information collected from smartphones is the best method. It might be the first time the technology has been used effectively as a measure against infectious disease," said Hokkaido University Prof. Hiroshi Nishiura, who specializes in theoretical epidemiology and is a member of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's task force on cluster infections.
The importance of technology that makes it possible to use cell phone location data to locate and assist victims in the event of a disaster has come into focus since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Technological advances have made it possible to map population movements by collecting and anonymizing large amounts of location data from smartphones.
"Location data could be used to avoid congested areas," said Kazuhisa Shibayama, president of Agoop Corp., a subsidiary of Softbank Corp.
Smartphone apps often use location information for such features as navigation. Anonymized data, removed personal information, from the devices of smartphone users who run apps based on Agoop technology is sent to the Tokyo-based tech company, if users have given their approval.
The technology makes it possible to calculate the number of people at a particular point at a particular time, based on app usage rates, among other factors.
Agoop analyzes population data as a disaster measure at 20,000 locations across the country, including major stations.
The government declared a state of emergency in seven prefectures on April 7, and, based on population location data provided by NTT Docomo, Agoop, among others, has been posting daily updates online.
On April 10, search engine Yahoo also began publishing its own congestion data analysis. Such data is used by the government expert panel in its discussions on coronavirus countermeasures.
"The technology has continued to improve since the Great East Japan Earthquake. It has finally become a means to save people's lives," Shibayama said.
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