In the wake of last year's Corona, a virtual event such as music and fashion shows was held in games such as "Fort Knight" and "Atsume Animal Crossing", and the "Metabers" was attracting attention in the entertainment field.
This year, this year, Facebook has changed its company name to "META", and it has risen further as Microsoft, Disney, Nike, and other industries have announced Metabers.Nowadays, "metavers", it is widely known as a buzzword.
一方、海外だけでなく、ここ日本でもメタバース参入を表明する企業は増えていますが、その最前線に立つのが、国内通信大手のKDDIです。KDDIは、渋谷未来デザイン、渋谷区観光協会と共に73社が参加する｢渋谷5Gエンターテイメントプロジェクト｣を立ち上げ、2020年5月に渋谷の街をバーチャル空間上に再現した渋谷区公認｢バーチャル渋谷｣を展開し、いち早くメタバース事業に着手しています。また2021年11月には、経済産業省、渋谷区をオブザーバーに迎え、東急、みずほリサーチ&テクノロジーズ、一般社団法人渋谷未来デザインとともに｢バーチャルシティコンソーシアム｣を発足し、メタバースにおけるルールの制定やコンプライアンス指針の策定に取り組むことも発表するなど、日本のメタバース・ビジネスをリードし続けています。
KDDI calls the meta spring that is currently being deployed as "urban -linked metabers". What is this?
To KDDI's "Innovative Division Director", Ichiro Miura, who is also a model of "Virtual Shibuya", the role model of "Urban -linked meta spring"Oda, editor -in -chief of Giz Mode, heard the story.
What is the director in charge of the innovation who gave birth to the virtual Shibuya?
Oda: Currently, KDDI is working in the title of the "Innovation Manager", such as the 5G / XR Business Service Strategy Department, but what kind of position is this position?
Miura: My standing position is also institutionally unique in the company, and there are many proper employees who have been enrolled since college graduates in KDDI, but in my case, missions are given during a three -year fixed -term employment.I am.If there are always the same person in the company, the way of thinking tends to be stiff.Therefore, it is my role as a "innovation manager" to create a new business and environment by putting people from outside and causing chemical reactions.
Even if you are a large company like KDDI, even if you want to recruit colleagues who will be ready to execute the mission given to you, self -branding to show what kind of person you are from outside is also important.It will be.KDDI is now incorporating a "job -type personnel system", but in the future, large companies should be more focused on output than how to move in the organization.In that sense, I think that the position of "Innovation Director" will become the touchstone.
Oda: Miura was the center, and in KDDI, in 2020, we worked on Virtual Shibuya as a metavers platform.It has become a hot topic among the media officials that Mr. Miura has been active in the Corona whirlpool in the virtual and regional activities that can be said to be the first time from Japan, and on both sides.Can I tell you about the background?
Miura: When I joined KDDI, I first had a connection between Shibuya Ward and KDDI.Shibuya -ku's "Shibuya Future Design" has been dating since she was working in Red Bull, and now she's on the Shibuya Ward side, I am in KDDI, so we together.I wondered if I could do it, and I've been discussing for a year.
Since then, KDDI has been promoting 5G, and Shibuya is also an interesting city in the city of creating culture, so there is an idea to make it a place for entertainment business experiments using 5G.In 2019, we launched the "Shibuya Entertaine Tech Promotion Project" with Mr. Nagata.
In 2020, Shibuya Ward and KDDI newly launched a consortium called "Shibuya 5G Entertainment Project", which is currently participating in about 73 companies, but at that time, one of the participants, Netflix.There was a launch of "Ghost in the Shell Sac_2045".
In Shibuya, there was a problem that only people gathered at the scrabble intersection and could not travel around the city, but as a solution, the AR content of the Ghost in the shell sac_2045 is various in the city.By the way, I thought about having the city travel.However, the corona evil began after that, and the idea itself had to be canceled.
However, if that happens, the project will be canceled, but at that time, I decided to consider it as a chance and throw everything into the virtual.There was a great risk of challenging unprecedented projects, but I was grateful to the company called KDDI for the challenge and felt the size of the company as a company.Then, the world view of Ghost in the Shell and the world view of the world of Shibuya in the virtual match matched more than expected, and there was an idea to approve Shibuya -ku anyway.With the great effort of Mr. Nagata of Shibuya Future Design, the license was obtained in April 2020, and in April 2020, the virtual Shibuya started as a Shibuya -ku official platform.
In a few years, the barriers of real and virtual will disappear
Oda: You said that you launched a virtual Shibuya due to the corona evil.
Miura: Shibuya had a problem with the migration of the city and overtourism that I mentioned earlier, so in the discussion with Shibuya Ward for a long time, there was a plan to "make another Shibuya."This was realized as a virtual Shibuya that reproduced the real Shibuya in a virtual space due to the Corona evil.KDDI has been holding various events in Virtual Shibuya in the virtual Shibuya, with the image that the barriers between real and virtuals will disappear a few years later.However, in a virtual space, honestly, if you just create a city, you can really make anything.
However, as long as I create a city that actually exists in a virtual space, and do business there, I don't suddenly make a real city without refusing to those who have worked hard so far.I think there is something to protect, such as Hitoshi and relationship value.While being aware of the relationship with such a real city, we will create another city in the virtual metavers.That is the urban -linked meta spring that KDDI is currently working on.
Oda: In November this year, the Virtual City Consortium was launched, but what was the purpose of this?
Miura: Japan was very good at making hardware, but now that Japan is now in a very crisis situation, as it is becoming unnecessary from overseas.I am.However, as the global metavers are attracting attention, we believe that urban -linked metaberse may become a business model as a product from Japan in the future.
In addition, KDDI has declared that various businesses will be set up in the metabas market regardless of Japan and overseas, but as I personally, my previous job was a foreign -affiliated company, so KDDI has been around for a long time.I wanted to work together, so I wanted to take the job I was involved in within a limited period of time to the country level and overseas.Now, as a matter of fact, as a virtual Shibuya, as one of the industries that develop the country from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, etc., the government also calls out to export urban -linked metavers abroad.I am grateful that you can feel the possibility.
The key to steady work such as negotiations with local shopping streets
Oda: In the world, I feel that there was no urban -based meta spring.The virtual space can be created anywhere, but it is difficult to get the regional nature.
Miura: Yes.I think so too.There are metaberas that claim the relationship with the "region", such as Paris and NY, but most of them have little relationships with the region.
However, if you are going to operate a virtual space as a business in the future, you will naturally need the rules for that.Therefore, in KDDI, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Shibuya Ward as an observer, and based on the knowledge we have obtained in the operation of virtual Shibuya, the purpose of making rules makeup in a virtual space with several private companies and experts.I launched a virtual city consortium.
Oda: While the government is now in a situation that recognizes the value of virtual, such as metaverse, I have the impression that Japan is still struggling to show the physicality of existing technology.How do you feel the response around that?
Miura: It will be miso in the foreground, but I realized that it was quite successful because it was possible to realize metaharas early.Of course, metaverse and VR -related technologies have long been incorporated in the game industry, but overall, I have the impression that they have been postponed due to various problems such as smartphone specifications.In that sense, I think it was very important that we involved a venture company and worked on the meta spring once in the wake of the corona.
However, virtual Shibuya may have been about three years earlier.The corona was executed using a killer IP called Ghost Shell, but there was still a risk in the technical unstable, and there were no proper rules.
Oda: Even when there were any problems with distribution at the virtual Shibuya event, it was a narrative among stakeholders that Mr. Miura was taken accurately.
Miura: However, it was a good business for KDDI because of tolerance, and I would like to add a good relationship between me and KDDI, who is developing a new business even at such risks.I think I did.In fact, what do you do with the distribution trouble?Even when it is a tense scene, KDDI has a specialist such as a server configuration, and let's do this in front of the whiteboard!I talked about it and took measures.Even though it was my own, I was impressed that "like Shin Godzilla" (laughs).
Oda: KDDI has the highest level of communication technology in Japan.I'm sorry, but at that time everyone was alive (laughs).What other factors were other than the Corona and Ghost in the Shell in the success of the virtual Shibuya launch?
Miura: The fact that I was able to build a good relationship with Shibuya's stakeholders before launch is also a major factor in success.In the world, it may seem like a virtual Shibuya started due to the corona evil, but as a previous stage, negotiations with Shibuya Ward, or asking Tokyu at a scrambled intersection.Realistic communication has been done properly.However, there was a consortium like the "Shibuya 5G Entertainment Project".
At first glance, it seemed to be the most advanced thing, but behind the scenes, I was doing steady things like going to a local shopping street.If you really work with the city, it turns out that that is actually the most important thing, and without it, you can't build a win-win relationship.
In that sense, it is a big KDDI that people who have been communicating with the outside of the company like me have entered from the outside, and it is me that I was able to summarize the stakeholders in Shibuya within two years.I think it was a job I did in my specialty.
Where is the "real" of Metaverse?
Oda: What is the reason for making a meta -the city in making a meta spring?
Miura: Both KDDI and I myself want to create a bloody virtual space by facing the real city.I think that doing so will create a relationship that has a virtual space on an extension of the city.
Recently, I think that more and more companies, including META (formerly Facebook), are increasing in virtual space business, but like us, I seriously face iconic cities like Shibuya, and I am in mind. I don't think there are many other companies that are preparing for business. Of course, we think that there are things that we can recreate some cities in a virtual manner alone, but we are presenting to real governments like virtual Shibuya, and to prevent the government from expanding corona. You shouldn't be asked to guide you to a virtual space. I think that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry felt the possibility of bringing it abroad as a business model because it was a rare case in such a world, but we were able to recognize it. I was happy.
Oda: What is the significance of virtualization based on the actual Shibuya town?
Miura: For example, Shibuya is a city with little tangible assets, but there is a history of creating a culture unique to Shibuya, such as a number of unique intangible cultures such as Kogal and Chemar.Actually, my mother's parents' home is Dogenzaka, and I myself was born in Shibuya, so Shibuya has a deep connection.So before, when I had a virtual Shibuya featured on a TV news program, I was watching the broadcast in three generations of my mother, me, and my nephew, but at that time I recall the city of Shibuya.Sometimes it got excited.
I guess that was because Shibuya had a culture of a city unique to Shibuya, so if this was just a virtual space, I wouldn't have been excited like that.Therefore, if you can feel the culture unique to the city that leads to such a real city, not only people with high specific digital literacy, but also various people can enter in various ways.It should be like that.
Oda: Certainly, many people are gathering in the popular izakaya in the city.
Miura: With the current technology, everyone can reproduce such a place in a virtual space.However, in order to make it bloody, you have to involve people who are actually working in a real city like a virtual Shibuya, and otherwise the culture of the city unique to that place.Such things are not born.For that reason, I hope that virtual Shibuya will basically make a platform that will allow all generations to join.
Oda: Recently, the word "Metaverse" has suddenly become a buzzword, but how do you think of the current situation as a standing position?
Miura: I think that being excited in a virtual space is certainly a good thing in the sense that one market is formed.However, it is important to work with a real city, for example, the possibility that people can solve some tasks, such as people who are going to a restaurant in a market, which had been sluggish due to corona.I have.
Recently, the number of virtual spaces modeled on these actual towns is increasing, but if it is made only by companies, it is not so bloody, and a slightly surface impression.I have.So, if you want to create a virtual space, I think that working with a real city like a virtual city is overwhelmingly meaningful than creating a zero -based space.
Future of urban interlocking metavers
Oda: Please tell us about the prospects of the urban interlocking metabers business in the future.
Miura: Regarding virtual Shibuya, it is larger to be able to accumulate experience in interacting with the government and people in the city rather than virtual experience, and to create urban -linked metavers.It became a roll model in.
In that sense, KDDI has now become a pioneer in the metabas business, but as a company, the three -year plan of the Virtual City Consortium has expanded the city -linked metavers, and personally.In the future, I would like to expand more and more urban metavers in overseas cities such as London, Paris, and New York.
However, in that case, how to create a bloody -passed virtual space will be an issue, so it is necessary to continue to do it.But now, if I can do such things in the Japanese society, I think we can soon provide bright and interesting topics to you soon.
Oda: I see.Mr. Miura may be the "Innovation Manager in charge of the innovation" of the whole of Japan, which is responsible for the future of the metabers business!Thank you for today.
Source: Virtual City Consortium
