Sakai City's Regional Industrial DX Initiative Named Finalist for Japan DX Award 2026

In the 'Japan DX Award 2026' contest organized by the Japan DX Award Executive Committee, Sakai City and the Sakai DX Promotion Lab's initiative titled 'Beyond Just Digitization! The Challenge of Sakai DX Promotion Lab - Implementing Substantial DX Support with Sakai NeXt Drive' has been selected as a finalist in the Support category.

The contest received a record 186 applications, from which 24 finalist companies/organizations were selected after a document screening. The Sakai DX Promotion Lab was also a finalist in last year's 'Japan DX Award 2025' and received the Encouragement Award, making this its second consecutive year being selected.

### Initiative Overview The 'Sakai DX Promotion Lab' is a regional DX support network established in 2023 with Sakai City as the secretariat, involving 17 organizations across industry, academia, government, and finance. It has worked to form a foundation where support organizations collaborate organically.

This initiative aims to transform the Lab into a 'place for DX support' where companies and support organizations grow together through DX practice. Sakai City defines DX not as simple operational efficiency through digitization, but as an effort to improve corporate value through new business creation and business model transformation. While upstream support is essential for value-creating DX, many existing support programs remain stuck in downstream processes (mere digitization).

To address this, Sakai City launched 'Sakai NeXt Drive,' a program starting in FY2025 that implements DX support focused on new business creation and business transformation. It supports local companies in their challenges while incorporating a structure where support organizations improve their own capabilities through practice.

### About Japan DX Award 2026 Now in its 5th year, the Japan DX Award honors practitioners engaged in business and organizational transformation. The 2026 theme is 'Transformation Breeds the Next Transformation,' exploring transformations that chain across organizations, regions, and industries.

### Upcoming Schedule The 24 finalists will participate in a 3-day public presentation screening. - **Public Presentation (Support Category):** June 18, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Online, free with registration). - **Japan DX Award 2026 Summit & Award:** To be held on July 22-23, 2026, at TODA Hall & Conference Tokyo, where winners will be announced. The Support category ceremony is scheduled for July 22.