The Shibuya Data Consortium combines big data from industry, government, academia, and citizens to create new knowledge and solutions for social issues. Mr. Yatabe, who serves as the Chief Futurist Officer of Mawari Co., Ltd., one of the participating companies, and is also attracting attention as a Metaverse entrepreneur, has a great hint for combining cutting-edge technology and culture unique to Shibuya. It is said that he is looking for
The charm of Future Design Shibuya, where diverse people gather and something is born
YatabeIt 's really embarrassing, isn't it? I will talk about it again.
KubotaIt's embarrassing, isn't it?
——Personally, it's an old acquaintance, but in terms of the relationship with Future Design Shibuya (hereinafter referred to as FDS), High Concept Co., Ltd. is a member company of FDS, and Mawari Co., Ltd. is " We are also a member company of Shibuya Data Consortium. Mr. Yatabe, frankly what kind of organization does FDS look like?
YatabeAt first, I imagined something more tangible as we were collaborating with local governments, but I was surprised to see that we were able to incorporate more pop culture than I had expected. .
It's like Kubota Shibuya. Yatabe-kun has been watching Shibuya culture for a long time.
YatabeFor me, Shibuya culture has its roots in "WOMB" (*one of the clubs/live houses that are synonymous with Shibuya's night culture), but at the time, there were so many different people in the VIP room on the 4th floor of "WOMB." We were gathering. It may be the first time I met Mr. Kubota there. That's why I feel a similar atmosphere in FDS. I have a strong impression that it is a place where diverse people with a strong sense of smell and interesting senses gather and chat.
KubotaThe VIP room of "WOMB" was very sensitive.
YatabeThere were a lot of artists and people who could be called creative businessmen. It was a surprise to me that I could feel such an atmosphere in a government-related organization.
That's why I feel it's very modern. Just as "WOMB" at the time was a playground, but also a place where work was born from there, I think that FDS is similar in that ideas exchanged casually lead to concrete work. increase.
KubotaIt 's a budding atmosphere like bringing ideas and coming up with something, let's do it. The member companies are also expecting such emergent innovation, and it may be true that they are similar in a broad sense.
——What kind of charm do you feel for the city of Shibuya itself?
I think that Yatabe Shibuya is an international city. Of course, there is also a lot of local culture, but surprisingly, there are quite a lot of overseas influences in that local culture. Be it music or fashion. I think that aspect of mixing Japanese and foreign cultures is consistent.
I want to realize the vision of the future that I once saw
——I would also like to ask about Mawari Co., Ltd., which is currently attracting a lot of attention in the XR/Metaverse industry.
Yatabe Mawari is also actually connected to WOMB (laughs).
At the time, I was working with video creators to think about how we could produce images in addition to lighting and lasers, and how we could use technology to create a space on the dance floor. Mawari is actually an extension of that.
I was interested in using XR to create a space from a very early stage, and in fact, we made this video when Mr. Kubota was at NIKE, and it's still on YouTube... …
Kubota This was too ahead of its time (laughs).
Yatabe: I made this together with Mr. Asanuma from GLAMOOVE, and for me it really was the impetus for starting Mawari.
The answer to the digital twin that Mr. Kubota is trying to do now is also included here. At the time, I thought it would be nice to have a future like this, but the technology wasn't catching up at that time, so I drew it out of my imagination.
KubotaIt 's a scene that's been portrayed as an imaginary future world in anime. Now it's possible to actually see things floating in space, but at that time it was still a dream world.
YatabeIn short, I'm still trying to do this feeling stubbornly. I've been thinking about how to make this world view, which was a delusion at the time, a reality. XR technology has emerged, but there are still many technologies that are lacking.
A server is required to make an object appear in space. That server is costly and inconvenient to use... so we thought about using a distributed server. We originally had the technology to distribute 3D images, so we added distributed server technology to that... Mawari's business is now in its 7th year. I think it's finally starting to take shape since last year.
——The dream I once envisioned in Shibuya has finally become a reality...
YatabeIt feels like I'm doing it persistently (laughs).
KubotaAfter 20 years, it will be tough (laughs).
Fusion of global and local, technology and culture
YatabeMawari was born here in Shibuya, and I'm still in Shibuya, but now Mawari's base has moved to the United States, and we've expanded our team to include America, Japan, Canada, Russia, and so on, making it a global team. It has become
I think Shibuya is a place where there is a culture of the city in the first place, and where technology and culture can easily fuse. If you just want technology, I think there are other places like Silicon Valley. But the reason why I don't leave Shibuya is because I like the culture. If someone like me is connected to the culture side as a person on the tech side, I think there will be some kind of chemical reaction.
I really want Shibuya to be a place where technology and culture can be combined in an interesting way, where local creators, creators from around the world, and creative business people can come together and create something new. I really feel that possibility at the place called Shibuya Data Consortium.
Kubota, so I guess the next challenge is the ability to transmit information overseas.
But, as Mr. Yatabe says, it is important to have a perspective that mixes hard things like tech with soft things like culture.
Shibuya Data Consortium and Future Design Shibuya may be the same, but how can we get people from so-called big companies to interact with culture? If Yatabe-kun and I don't consciously include cultural elements, it's going to get more and more serious and formal. Tech is absolutely necessary as a basic technology, and I don't think that member companies will be satisfied if they are just doing entertainment without it, but if there are no entertainment and culture elements, it will not be like Shibuya.
——When it comes to technology, I think it's getting more and more distant from the location, and I don't think it's necessary to do it in Shibuya, but by mixing with the culture of this city, the necessity of Shibuya when it comes out
YatabeThat 's right. Services and tools that originated in Silicon Valley are used as tools in daily life around the world. Isn't it? If America had a bathing culture like Japan, smartphones and baths would be more connected.
Each region has its own indigenous culture, so we need to properly evolve things that are unique to that region and bring them to the world. I believe that the essence of using technology is not to imitate the world, but to use technology to evolve the indigenous culture of each person.
And Shibuya has a lot of attractive culture.
Technology and Location—Expectations for Shibuya Data Consortium
YatabeIn that way, I hope that the Data Consortium will turn Shibuya into something like an “XR City,” where people say, “If you want to experience XR, go to Shibuya.” There is no such town yet. Along with that branding, it would be great if the city could become a place where you can experience XR in various places such as Cat Street, Miyashita Park, and Yoyogi Park.
KubotaThat 's right. I think that the current Shibuya Data Consortium is still in the transition stage from the phase of discussing how to take and use various data to the phase of gradually producing concrete outputs. The output may be a graph, or something like XR, and I think that's parallel. problem of data output.
For example, I tried to create a digital twin of Shibuya, but since a digital twin is just an environment, it doesn't make much sense just to have it.
If the output is XR, by multiplying the XR on the digital twin linked to the data of the real point, it is possible to build a mechanism that can be seen at the real site. It is important to know what to do in such an environment.
Shibuya Data Consortium has finally reached the stage of "what to do" from last year to this year, so if people around the world use it, for example, if they do something in the world, it will be in the real town of Shibuya XR I think it would be great if something like that could be realized as a project.
YatabeThat 's right. Digital twins and XR often end with "Wow, that's amazing." That's what I call "falling out". There are many cases where the first impact is too great to continue.
I think it's important to combine elements such as "people" and "encounters" there. I think there's value in the experience of meeting people in that place and being like this. In that sense, the "location" of Shibuya is also important.
KubotaIn the real world, you could be a musician on tour, or a businessman on a business trip, but when you go there, you can have a local staff introduce you to the city, so you can enjoy it, right? .
YatabeThe perspective changes. You can get not only the eyes of tourists, but also the eyes of locals. That's more interesting.
Kubota It would be great if that kind of thing could be provided digitally. It's digital, but it has a human touch and human activity.
YatabeI think that kind of thing can easily happen due to the location of Shibuya. The strength of this city is that it is accepted by saying "It's interesting".
Kubota It's better to mix tech and culture like that. Including my personal reflection as the person in charge of the Shibuya Data Consortium, projects that handle data tend to be rigid. Form is important to build the basic part, but if it is only that, it will also lead to the fact that "it doesn't have to be Shibuya".
YatabeThere are likely to be many hints in the future as to why people choose Shibuya.
Interview/text) Suke Amada
Photo) Keisuke Kato
