Japan and Germany are strengthening their cooperation and at the CeBIT in Hannover. They announced results as well as further joint activities, particularly in the fields of international standards and improved IT security for networked industry.
In April 2016, Japan and Germany agreed to work together in the area of Industrie 4.0. This cooperation will take place on the one hand at government level between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs (BMWi) and Energy and the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). On the other hand, Plattform Industrie 4.0 (PI4.0) and the Robot Revolution Initiative (RRI) have also been closely working together ever since. International cooperation forms the basis for success in the area of Industrie 4.0. In Industrie 4.0, factories will become part of cross-company and cross-border value networks. Digitalised production can only work if those participating in the production process can be sure that all systems are working in a protected and trusted environment.
Plattform Industrie 4.0 and the Robot Revolution Initiative are seeking to jointly advance standardisation and IoT security. Within the context of CeBIT they have published a position paper on Industrial Cyber-Security containing suggestions on improving international cooperation in IT security questions. In addition, together with the Standardization Council Industrie 4.0 they developed a joint strategy paper on cooperation in the area of international standardisation. Both papers are part of an agreement between the BMWi and METI as well as the Japanese Ministry of Communications (MIC). The “Hannover Declaration” was signed in the context of this year’s CeBIT.
In addition to their joint work on international solutions, mutual learning is a big part of their cooperation: The Japanese initiative for instance took over the online map example from Plattform Industrie 4.0 and published its own application examples. Furthermore, the platform’s online map reveals some practical German-Japanese examples, such as the joint research project being carried out by the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) and the Japanese company Hitachi.