For three days from October 15 to 17, 2013, the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) Workshop was held in Tokyo as part of ANMC21 joint project "Staff Capacity Enhancement Program." It was conducted under the "Training Program on Timely Topics" framework, which focuses on themes that involve pressing issues confronting Asian major cities. On this occasion, when participants were called for, we, TMG staff members as the workshop organizer, gathered together a total of eight persons from the four cities of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila and Taipei; for a workshop which had as its aim using ITS to leverage leading-edge telecommunications and control technologies in order to resolve Asian major city transport problems.

One feature of the workshop was the opportunity for participants to attend the ITS World Congress that was held concurrently. The congress is an annual global event which was held in Tokyo in 2013, following on from Vienna in 2012. In addition to being able to attend sessions and visit exhibitions, participants could exchange information with attending overseas cities and businesses that possessed wide-ranging views. Furthermore, in a showcase demonstration, participants used a new information service via smartphones. While they were traveling on a bus, various information was continuously displayed on their smartphones, such as road transport information and emergency evacuation routes in case of disasters.

On this occasion, including Tokyo as the host city, the workshop was comprised of the people responsible for transport policy formulation in five different cities. With the different cities facing a variety of problems, their approaches are diverse. As such, among workshop participants, there was a great deal of interest shown in exchanging information and asking questions of one another.

Concerning Tokyo, rather than questions focusing on ITS, somewhat unexpectedly there was the following question asked: "How does Tokyo educate its drivers?" After arriving in Tokyo, participants themselves seemed aware that there were relatively few instances of traffic signals being ignored or reckless driving. This led them to ask successive questions to the TMG personnel, they asked about everything from how licenses were obtained, through to how much the fine imposed on bad drivers.

The participant from Metro Manila introduced their unique approach that utilizes motorcycle number plates. In Metro Manila, heavy volumes of motor vehicle, motorcycle and bus traffic have frequently caused severe traffic jams, which made dealing with transport the major challenge for the city. In response, trying to reduce traffic volumes within the city, the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has instituted a restriction for motorcycle; motor cycles that can enter the city on a particular day of the week are decided on the last one digit of each number plate. In that the workshop represented the first opportunity for many of participants to hear about a city instituting such measures, there were even some surprised voices. Meanwhile, from Taipei which also has the same aim of reducing its traffic volumes, there was a presentation regarding the proactive adoption of rental bicycles. However, in that there are still a number of unresolved issues such as the establishment of bicycle priority lanes, there was talk about moving forward while gaining the understanding of citizens, such also including the development of measures that lead to more proactive use of public transportation.

After the conclusion of the three-day workshop, all participants returned to their cities and have been working to resolve their own traffic problems. We hope that the knowledge obtained through the workshop can be applied to resolve the issues of each city. Furthermore, we hope that the mutual understanding and the human network between participants developed through the animated discussions will be further deepened, and that will be liked to future development of Asia in its entirety.