Chat GPT

Yokosuka becomes Japan's first city to use ChatGPT for administrative tasks | The Japan Times

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(The Japan Times; April 20, 2023) .... The city of Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture has a few claims to fame: It’s home to a major U.S. naval base, it’s the birthplace of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and it lends its name to a local variation of Japanese curry.

On Thursday, it staked out a new claim as the first municipality in the country to use ChatGPT in its municipal offices.

Roughly 4,000 employees at Yokosuka’s municipal government office began using the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, which was created by OpenAI late last year, for a one-month trial in efforts to improve operations.

“With the population decreasing, the number of employees is limited. However, there are many administrative challenges,” said Takayuki Samukawa, a public relations representative for Yokosuka’s digital management department.

“So we aim to use useful ICT tools, like ChatGPT, to free up human resources for things that can only be done in a person-to-person format.”

The move comes in the wake of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s visit to Japan, which included a meeting with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida earlier this month, during what was his first overseas trip since the chatbot’s launch. Altman also announced that OpenAI would aim to open an office in Japan in the near future.

In light of the visit, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said that, after first addressing security concerns, the government would work to “use AI to reduce the workloads of national public servants.” Matsuno’s statement came just days after digital minister Taro Kono also spoke of AI’s potential use for government administrative tasks.

In Yokosuka, Samukawa said a team was gathered to think of ways ChatGPT could be beneficial to the city. Through the trial period, the city’s hope is to use the tool to assist in tasks like summarization, copy ideation for marketing and communications, drafting the basis for administrative documents and perfecting easy-to-understand language.

While the use of chatbots has raised security issues, Yokosuka had also heard concerns from the general public about potential leaks of personal information by its human staff members.

However, Samukawa offered assurances that Yokosuka intends to use the tool in line with OpenAI’s typical security policy.

ChatGPT will be tested among Yokosuka employees in conjunction with “LoGo Chat,” a local government-focused chat service already in use by Yokosuka employees.

As for whether other municipalities might follow Yokosuka’s lead in tapping ChatGPT for administrative help, Samukawa said the city doesn’t intend to serve as an example for other local governments across Japan.

“It just happened to be the right time,” he said. “It’s up to each municipality to think of how they can use these tools.”

More on Yokosuka Arts Theater...

Previously:

Discover Yokosuka 横須賀奥旨: Geijutsu Geki-Jo (deepyokosuka.blogspot.com)

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The "Club Alliance" is located prominently by the main gate of the large USN & JMSDF naval base in Yokosuka.  It was built and opened in the early-1980s as a replacement for the Enlisted Men's Club (EM Club), which was originally in a 1930s-era building situated off-base, near Keikyu Railway's Shioiri Station.  The old EM Club (also named "Alliance") operated from 1947 to 1980 and was the largest of its kind in the world.

Link:  Discover Yokosuka 横須賀奥旨: Yokosuka Power Spot Number 3 --- The "EM Club" (deepyokosuka.blogspot.com) 

When the old EM Club was demolished, Yokosuka City Government decided to build a large entertainment venue on the site -- and after a decade of planning & construction, in 1994, the Yokosuka Arts Theater (横須賀芸術劇場 / Yokosuka Geijustsu Geki-jo) was opened.  

Yokosuka Arts Theater is a large, world-class performance & concert facility.  It is designed as an opera house, where 1,806 seats are arranged in a horseshoe pattern and includes four levels of high balconies.  There is also a small theater called "The Bay Side Pocket", which seats 600 and is a multipurpose space with a flat level floor that can be used for a variety of activities.

The schedule of performances at Yokosuka Arts Theater is always busy and the current line-up can be seen at the link provided below.  Of interest, the old EM Club was known as a "Birthplace of Jazz in Japan", and that history is memorialized by a wonderful/dynamic live concert held every summer called: "Yokosuka Jazz Dreams".

 

    

 

 

The Meiji Constitution was drafted in Yokosuka

A monument commemorating the location where the Meiji Constitution was drafted exists on the western edge of Natsujima, but was originally erected on the grounds of the Yokosuka Naval Air Station.

(Info on Natsushima: Discover Yokosuka 横須賀奥旨: Search results for natsushima (deepyokosuka.blogspot.com)) 

In drafting the Imperial Constitution, Hirobumi Ito and others involved were working at an inn called Azumaya in Kanazawa. However, because the draft, which had been stored in a luggage case, was stolen, the location was moved to Hirobumi Ito's villa on Natsushima. The monument was erected at the location of the workroom in this villa.

Natsujima was later cut down to build an airfield for the naval air force during the Taisho era (1912-1926), and the surrounding area was reclaimed and connected to the land. As a result, this place became the site of the air force airfield and other facilites.

After the war, the monument was renovated in 1951, and the unveiling ceremony was held again, but later was moved again, when the site became the property of Nissan Motor Co.

The granite monument that now stands in the center of the site was newly built during the renovation in 1951, and originally consisted only of a stone slab for the foundation. This was done so as not to affect the plane's runway. Instead, a copper plate engraved with a plan of the villa was embedded in the center, but it was stolen after the war and has not survived. Incidentally, the existing inscription on the copper plate was also stolen, but was miraculously found and restored/embedded in its original position.

Meiji Constitution | 1889, Japan | Britannica

Meiji Constitution, constitution of Japan from 1889 to 1947. After the Meiji Restoration (1868), Japan’s leaders sought to create a constitution that would define Japan as a capable, modern nation deserving of Western respect while preserving their own power. The resultant document, largely the handiwork of the genro (elder statesman) Itō Hirobumi, called for a bicameral parliament (the Diet) with an elected lower house and a prime minister and cabinet appointed by the emperor. The emperor was granted supreme control of the army and navy. A privy council composed of the Meiji genro, created prior to the constitution, advised the emperor and wielded actual power. Voting restrictions, which limited the electorate to about 5 percent of the adult male population, were loosened over the next 25 years, resulting in universal male suffrage. Political parties made the most of their limited power in the 1920s, but in the 1930s the military was able to exert control without violating the constitution. After World War II, a U.S.-approved constitution stating that “sovereign power resides with the people” replaced the Meiji Constitution.