For one month from June 15th to July 15th, crowdfunding is being carried out to renovate the basketball court in Yoyogi Park, a sacred place for street basketball.
We will deliver a dialogue between Akiba, who is also a project member and a producer of Future Design Shibuya, who is seconded from Boomer Co., Ltd., and Future Design Shibuya Secretary General Osada.
How will you utilize Future Design Shibuya as a member company? In addition, the dialogue was not limited to the perspective of sports, such as the vision of creating advanced cases at Yoyogi Park and spreading role models from Shibuya to the whole country.
crowdfunding “We want to renovate the basketball court in Yoyogi Park, a sacred place. 』｜READY FOR
——First of all, could you look back on how Mr. Akiba was involved in Future Design Shibuya (FDS)?
Akiba Originally, I was an NPO in Shibuya when I was young. An NPO that supports the culture of the younger generation, and as a support for the graffiti art scene, a legal wall (* a wall that is legally permitted for street artists to paint freely in a public space) is set up in Miyashita Park. I was making it. At that time, it was Mr. Hasebe (currently Mayor of Shibuya) who was in the first year of the ward assembly at that time, who said, "You are young and interesting." I was interested in knowing that such exchanges have been around for a long time, and that Mr. Hasebe eventually became the mayor of the ward and the FDS was established.
My main business is an advertising agency, and I was involved in producing sporting events such as basketball at Red Bull, which was the previous job of (Osada) Shinko, so I joined from SOCIAL INNOVATION WEEK in 2019 little by little, and then As our company Boomer, we have become a special regular member company of FDS.
I was seconded to FDS in February 2020, and the coronavirus started right away...I was actually trying to create a sports business, but due to the coronavirus, I couldn't focus on sports anymore, so I decided to start "YOU MAKE SHIBUYA Crowdfunding". suddenly became a big mountain. That's why we had a hard time in the first year, but I think we've improved as a team by sharing our difficulties.
Osada That's right. It feels like the crowdfunding at that time united the team. I had a clear goal, and I was able to create an attitude of working together to reach it.
Akiba: The know-how I gained there will also be very useful in the crowdfunding for the renovation of the basketball court at Yoyogi Park, but I'll talk about that later.
"How to use" FDS as a member company
Osada So, did you start working on the urban sports business from around 2021?
AkibaYes, FDS had been working on "Next Generations" (*a project to create a sports scene for the U-15 next generation), but we wanted to do a little more adult sports business, so we increased the number of members. , Another FDS member company Sports Biz Co., Ltd. also sent people on loan to help us grow the team. In line with Shibuya Ward's basic concept of treating the entirety of Shibuya as a playground of 15 square kilometers, a promotional project is underway to "watch," "do," and "nurture" running, basketball, and street sports that fit the city of Shibuya. starting.
Osada When it comes to the participation of companies in FDS, especially those who are seconded from companies, the characteristic of urban sports projects is that experts on the road are joining the team. It's not a secondment that wants to gain experience from 1 in FDS, but an experienced person with passion joins me, and it directly leads to support for the scene, because it is a group of experienced people. There is a great deal of information and activity.
Akiba Normally, if you are seconded from a company, you will be replaced by annual personnel, which is unavoidable. People with general profession come every time, but it is certain that they are not completely immersed in the scene of the project that they will be in charge of at FDS.
Osada of that, I think that the current team of the Urban Sports Project is a group of people who naturally have a passion for things like, "We want to do this," and "If we do this, society will change."
There are people who come in from "1". For example, Mr. Tanaka, who has been seconded from the Shibuya Ward Office, is surrounded by passionate professionals and is greatly stimulated and growing day by day. Actually, that would be the ideal form of team-up.
Akiba: But in a strange way, I think we are "using FDS well." Rather than fulfilling "what FDS wants to do", it feels like "what we want to do" is fulfilled using FDS.
Osada That's fine, isn't it? Actually, there are people like that not only in sports but also in art and music, for example, and we can make good use of FDS as a platform. I want people who are passionate about it to come in more and more. There are many requests to do this, but there are still surprisingly few people who come in and do it themselves.
Gather love for basketball courts and create autonomy ...
I want to spread it to the park basketball scene nationwide
Akiba That's how the urban sports project is steadily taking steps. I did a skateboarding and dance demonstration experiment with Nike at Miyashita Park, and a running event demonstration experiment with New Balance at Yoyogi Park. Of course, it can be seen in such a situation. There are some issues that are unique to public spaces, and on the positive side, it was a good idea to be able to cooperate with the newly established sports club in the Shibuya Ward Office.
One of the things that I personally think was a big achievement was the collaboration with Yoyogi Park. The FKT micro-race project that I worked on together with the aforementioned New Balance was triggered by the fact that I was allowed to do it at Yoyogi Park for only one day at SOCIAL INNOVATION WEEK last year, and this year I will conduct a one-month demonstration experiment around Golden Week. I was able to do it. Yoyogi Park is a park under the jurisdiction of Tokyo. That's why it's a park in Shibuya, but there wasn't much contact with Shibuya Ward. In addition, the Yoyogi Park side also wanted to cooperate with the local community because of the trend of the world to put private activities into public spaces and revitalize them. That's why FDS was able to function as a hub in terms of contact with Shibuya Ward.
With that, a frame was created to let the three parties work together, and with that flow, the major move from last year to the present is to renovate the basketball court this time and design a little more usage.
Osada: Including "Next Generations," FDS has been in the sports business for the past four years, and I'm very grateful that people from various places have come to talk about "I want to do this kind of thing together." Not only the context of "street sports" that we drew, but also activities as "urban sports" with a wider framework such as running and basketball, and we got calls from various places ... I think it's very good to take the time to step up like this.
What I think is really good about this basketball court renovation project is that you often think that the local government will do all of that. However, by creating a place like this together, we will become more attached to each other, and we will continue to have a strong connection to support ourselves when something happens. Crowdfunding this time is very significant in the sense that it makes you goto yourself.
Akiba That's right. This coat is still said to be a sacred place for basketball, but I don't think it was made a sanctuary just because there was a coat. There is a community there, a sense of belonging is born, and it is necessary to talk about self-government of this place.
It's been 17 years ago, and I had Nike donate a basketball goal to the park for a project I worked on. But after a while, there was a goal board in a certain park, but the ring was removed. When I asked the park manager why, I was very grateful for the goal donation, but when young people gathered in the park, complaints came from the area due to garbage and noise problems, so I had to remove the ring. What?
So, if you just create a place and say "Yes, please", it may be Halloween in Shibuya, but it looks like <administrator> and <user>, or <region> and <visitor>. It may become Versus in some way. That's why the sense of belonging is important there. If it's a place that you love—for example, there's no one who throws away cigarette littering in front of the uncle who was indebted to me a long time ago. That's a story of conscience. Considering that conscience is a sense of belonging, if a sense of belonging is born, autonomy will be born, so I would like to increase the number of people who have a love for this basketball court. There is also one aspect of crowdfunding as a means of doing so.
After that, if you just talk about renovating the basketball court in Yoyogi Park, only the users here will be targeted, but this is the latest example of park basketball in Japan, and it will be a role model of park basketball nationwide. There is also the aspect that it is good. It includes a story that not only the users of Yoyogi Park but also various people can make themselves goto, such as the excitement of park basketball, equality, and the strengthening of Japanese basketball.
Osada But that's exactly what the FDS mission should be. For any project, create a case in Shibuya and use it as a role model to spread to other areas. I think it is a typical example of what we are aiming for.
The future of Yoyogi Park basketball court
Osada If we try to foster a sense of belonging from crowdfunding, I think that the evolutionary form beyond that will approach the "DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization)" that is now said in the context of the WEB3 era. That's right. Next to crowdfunding, I hope this project can go that far. Everyone will continue to support this, and while there is a part where everyone's opinions are reflected, we will increase the value together. How about that?
Akiba I think it's really good. It's like Shibuya.
Osada Yes. Everyone has the right to vote.
Akiba I want to do it. I think that the fact that such technologies come in properly and create role models is exactly the true value of FDS.
I would like to create an example from Shibuya and Yoyogi Park where the management side and the user side talk and liven up the community together, not the relationship between the <administrator> and the <user>. hey.
——Crowdfunding has already reached its initial target amount, but what is the biggest change in this court after it has been refurbished?
Akiba To put it simply, the design of the floor will change significantly.
——Is there any change in how you use the coat?
The basketball court in Akiha Yoyogi Park has always had a culture of pick-up games (* players gathered on the court can instantly form a team and play the game. Even if they go to the court alone, they can participate together). It's rooted, and it's great to have a very high level pickup game. However, in Korona-ka, when people who can't play indoors and various people come here to play basketball, they look like "certain people have their own court". Actually, that's the wrong way of thinking, and since it's a pick-up game, anyone can enter it by saying "put it in!", But that requires a little higher communication and the level of play is high, so it's difficult for many people to enter. As a result, there is a part that has become a story like "I have it exclusively".
However, we think that the culture of pickup games so far is wonderful like Yoyogi, and we would like to keep it. Fortunately, there are two Yoyogi coats, so I would like to do a empirical experiment to design how to use them so that more people can use them easily. There are private activities, such as having people who are currently playing pick-up games and apparel brands open schools for children, or involving sports brands to attract basketball events. On one side, it's not every day, but I think it would be nice if we could put in that kind of content and repeat experiments.
Osada Also, it would be nice to have a place that is open not only to basketball but also to dancers and double Dutch people, right?
Akiba That's right. This is a basketball court, but like the lacquer park in New York, there are B-BOYs, double Dutch, and so on. Therefore, I feel that measures to attract them more consciously can be realized by crowdfunding or attracting corporate support.
It's fun Osada!
