In recent years, as with other countries, IT (information technology) skills have rapidly improved in Japan, and have become essential for daily living. In the Hiroshima area we are aiming to create a region able to deal with the progress in scientific technology and advanced information by using this technology. While the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is also implementing various measures for advanced information, a nationwide fiber-optic network for highway maintenance is being built. As a joint experiment, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's Hiroshima National Highway Work Office and Hiroshima Prefecture have set up an information and communications network linking the cities of Hiroshima, Kure and Higashi Hiroshima using fiber optics. With the cooperation of industry, academia and government, tests were conducted in those three cities for a two-year period from 2000 to 2001 with the goals of introducing a high-tech network, the promoting the computerization of various social and educational activities, enhancing the potential for regional economic development through the use of information technology and the creation of communities that are pleasant to live in through the use of advanced information technology. This paper is to report the outline of the test on advanced highway maintenance and advanced highway information service, which highway maintenance agencies dealt with as one of the tests.
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