Making the community safety-monitoring network part of the city’s infrastructure: Gifu City partners with otta and CHANGE Holdings, with Taiyo Life also joining the initiative

Gifu City has announced plans to expand an IoT-based community safety service in partnership with otte. Dedicated devices weighing approximately 8 g will be distributed free of charge to all children who wish to receive them among the pupils at 47 schools, including 46 municipal elementary schools and a school for special needs education. Fixed monitoring spots are being installed at approximately 900 locations across the city.

The 2 private-sector companies will divide responsibility for the technology and operations. otta will develop and operate the community safety platform and prepare the environments for device installation, while CHANGE Holdings,Inc. will support orientation sessions and implementation at schools. The devices carried by the children use BLE technology to record information in real time when they pass fixed monitoring spots or community safety volunteers.

In a new development, Taiyo Life will partner with ota in September 2026, with approximately 10,000 of its sales representatives participating in community safety activities using company smartphones. When they pass children or older people carrying the devices, location information will be recorded automatically, expanding the local safety network through mobile monitoring spots.

As part of its efforts to increase the number of eyes watching over the community, Gifu City aims to promote the use of a community safety volunteer app and establish area-wide monitoring that combines approximately 900 fixed spots with resident volunteers. The city is also considering expanding the program to prevent people with dementia from going missing, among other purposes, with the aim of strengthening the community's overall safety infrastructure.