Planetway Corporation (headquarters: San Jose, California, USA; CEO: Noriaki Hirao, hereafter "Planetway") will offer the PlanetID universal ID platform and the PlanetCross collaborative data platform solution for the Suita Self Care Suite Trial, a health improvement support service operated by Kowa Company, Ltd. that begins operations on May 18, 2022. This project was sponsored by Planetway Japan (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo), a fully-owned subsidiary of Planetway Corporation.

Background

The Suita Self Care Suite Trial is a service that manages personal health data collectively and supports health improvements for residents of the Suita Sustainable Smart Town (location: Suita, Osaka), a multi-generational health-oriented residential smart town. For this service, Planetway offered PlanetID for the IH (Integrated Healthcare) Concierge* smartphone app and other partner apps used by residents, as well as PlanetCross, to realize the IH HUB, which allows for the linking of various data needed in health management.

**Trademark application pending: Application no. 2021-161855

Implementation Benefits

Normally, integrating multiple separate databases while guaranteeing security to a high degree requires enormous costs and time due to building new infrastructure or improving existing systems. The use of PlanetCross has made it possible to integrate data between the various health management platforms offered with this service and quickly create data exchange platforms without significantly altering existing systems. In addition to managing access rights to each database, access to information by third parties can be blocked by making it impossible to create false access logs.

PlanetID is a universal ID platform used to identify individuals. It utilizes electronic certificates and functions as identification, electronic signatures, and user consent. By using PlanetID with IH Concierge, it becomes possible for the user to offer consent to or to deny having their personal privacy data offered (personal data control).

Future Initiatives

Planetway has implemented Proof of Concept (PoC) experiments at 17 companies in 13 industries, and began actual operations of PlanetCross in 2019. Actual combined operations of PlanetID and PlanetCross will begin for the first time with this service. Planetway will continue to actively work to offer solutions to promote the efficient use of data between companies, focusing on individuals.

About Planetway

Planetway Corporation is a start-up headquartered in California that has developed its own core platform technology, PlanetCross, an advanced version of the powerful Estonian e-government administration platform X-Road. Planetway has also developed PlanetID, a digital universal ID with functions including ID assignment (identity-verified), authentication, and electronic signature, based on the Estonian national identification number system.  Planetway is certified as a SILVER X-ROAD TECHNOLOGY PARTNER. Based on the fundamental idea that the rights to personal information belong to individuals rather than companies or organizations, Planetway has created a mission to change society for a human-centric and secure planet with the goal of promoting the idea of information disclosure and utilization by an individual’s consent or denial thereof. Corporate Website (EN):  https://planetway.com X-Road Technology Partners:  https://x-road.global/xroad-technology-partners

*Company names and product names in this text are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies

About the founder

Born in 1983, Noriaki Hirao is a three-time entrepreneur (with one liquidation), founding companies in the entertainment, semiconductor, and IoT fields. As a student, he studied space engineering, organic chemistry, and marketing in the United States, and then went on to found a content production startup for Hollywood films and video games. In 2008, after graduating from California State University, he returned to Japan joining SoftBank Mobile and received several in-house awards, including first prize for sales competing against 800 national mobile salespersons. In 2011, he co-founded a technology licensing company (TLO), which signed a joint development research agreement with Tohoku University. He attempted to expand the business in next-generation semiconductors, centering on 500 patent strategies, but unfortunately the company had to be liquidated. In 2014, he was appointed as the domestic Business Development Manager for Sircom, a Taiwanese IoT equipment ODM vendor, and General Manager of their New Business Innovation Office for WirelessGate, specifically responsible for new business development in the IoT field. Incorporating his diverse experience, Noriaki founded Planetway, a global startup (USA, Japan, Estonia), in July 2015. In 2017, the company introduced technology for securely communicating patient information between Tokio Marine & Nichido Insurance and Iizuka Hospital and was awarded the “World's No. 1” rating award for the solution. In 2018, Planetway made a courtesy visit to the Prime Minister of Estonia as one of seven companies to represent Japan with Prime Minister Abe. In 2019, Planetway commercialized PlanetCross, which now services more than 2 million service account users. Since 2020, the company has aimed to expand its infrastructure in Japan and globally. Noriaki has a unique vision for the realization of the age of data sovereignty and the evolution of capitalism. Planetway was selected as the "Top Japanese Startup 2022 as Editor’s Choice" in the March 2022 edition of StartUpCity, the first magazine about startups in the US. Awards received: Six awards, including the Top 10 Japanese Startup 2022 and the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards 2017.

Lectures: More than 50 lectures given, including at DAVOS2020, MyData2019, TED, and a special lecture at the graduate school at the University of Tokyo (Information and Communications Struggle with COVID-19).