mign Begins Trial of Building Code Compliance Automation System with Yokosuka City and Toda Construction

Automatically translated from the Japanese original.

Partnerships

mign Launches Proof-of-Concept Trial, in Cooperation with the City of Yokosuka and Toda Corporation, of a System That Automatically Identifies the Rules That Must Be Followed in Building Confirmation Applications

mign Inc. (headquartered in Arakawa, Tokyo; CEO: Masahiro Taima), a developer of software that brings advanced technology to the architecture and civil engineering industries, will begin a proof-of-concept trial in October 2023 of a system that automatically identifies the rules that must be followed when filing a building confirmation application (Japan’s statutory pre-construction review of building plans). The trial is being conducted in cooperation with the City of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture (Mayor: Katsuaki Kamiji) and Toda Corporation (headquartered in Chuo, Tokyo; President and CEO: Seisuke Otani). The system draws on a large language model (LLM) to generate answers that reflect the ordinances, regulations, and other requirements specific to each municipality.

When companies involved in urban development or construction submit a building confirmation application to a municipality, they must comply not only with national law but also with the ordinances, regulations, and other requirements set by that particular municipality. As a result, every time a project moves to a new site, the company must undertake an exhaustive survey of the rules that apply in that area. On top of this, differing interpretations of those rules frequently lead to time-consuming back-and-forth, a burden felt by companies and municipalities alike.

To address these challenges, mign is developing a system for construction and design firms built on chact, the company’s own natural language model. Users enter the parameters of a construction project, such as site area, intended use, and structural type, and the LLM automatically determines which ordinances and regulations apply at the planned site based on those parameters. Because the system then prompts the user to confirm compliance with each rule one at a time, it is expected to reduce the risk of overlooked requirements to a minimum. The system also lets users type in questions about building confirmation applications and receive answers tailored to the specific municipality.

For this proof-of-concept trial, mign will build a version of the system trained on the ordinances, regulations, and related requirements of the City of Yokosuka, and, with the cooperation of Toda Corporation, will assess how much it improves the efficiency of application work and reduces costs. Going forward, mign will focus its development efforts on bringing the system into practical use as early as possible, with the aim of contributing to the continued advancement of the urban development and construction industries.