Hal Seki. Founder of Code for Japan

The first Decidim instance in the Pacific island was deployed on the year 2020 at Kakogawa, later came Yosano, Nishiaizu, Kamaishi and the community instance Meta.

Why did you choose Decidim?

First, Decidim was open-source software and Code for Japan is a community that promotes public-private partnerships through open data and open-source software.

Second, Decidim was very actively updated among other tools that checked. Third, Decidim provides customize-friendly architecture so that we can adapt it to our domestic situation.

What were you looking for when deploying a Decidim

• Robustness: Our clients are primarily governments. Robustness is essential for them.
• i18n support: It's important to be used in Japanese.
• User interface: It should be easy to use for non-technical people.
• Accessibility: We should cover various types of people.

What did you learn from this experience?

Open-Government in Japan is halfway down the road. But, we feel the potential of our fellow in each region, especially future generations, for developing digital competencies: In a depopulated town, a group of junior high school students uses Decidim to make a proposal for community development. Adults in and outside the town make efforts to implement their proposals. Those experiences will create a new base of citizenship for the young generation.