麻豆传媒在线

In the summer of 2020, amidst the social chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and under the leadership of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), a diverse group of members including architects, designers, artists, and researchers (including the author) gathered alongside a team of young METI officials. Together, they held a workshop to develop the basic concept for the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. As humanity faced a collective threat to "life," values were shifting, technologies like remote communication and AI were rapidly advancing and permeating society, and social and political turmoil grew alongside the inevitable countdown to the limits of the global environment. The members involved in the basic concept were themselves stakeholders in this situation, as is everyone in the world. The overall theme of the Expo set in 2017, "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," unexpectedly took on a completely different meaning. In considering what message Japan should send at the Osaka/Kansai Expo—which will be positioned as the dawn of the post-pandemic era—a group of outspoken members (despite wearing masks) gathered. Following relentless and heated discussions that began by overturning the draft prepared by the secretariat, the Basic Concept for the Japan Pavilion was compiled and released in April 2021.

The theme established for the basic concept is "Between Lives."

The fragility of human "life" was rediscovered through the pandemic. The cycle where "life" is nurtured on Earth, nature is formed over many years, and it becomes energy and food to nurture the next "life." The various relationships and changes that occur between the "lives" of humans, diverse non-human life forms, and the environment. Unknown "life" that may exist somewhere in the universe. New forms of "life" being created by AI and robots. As old and new values intersect, the message is to use this Expo as an opportunity to create and connect a place where diverse visitors from all over the world and across generations can contemplate the nature of "life."

Guidelines for the exhibition and operations—such as experiences that change for each visitor, the inclusion of diverse people in operations and exhibition experiences, mechanisms to encourage personal engagement, spatial configurations conscious of circulation, the interconnection between the real and digital, and experiences of facing "life" by visualizing the inner self of visitors—were compiled with the hope that they would serve as a message not only for the Japan Pavilion but for all the various pavilions participating in the Expo. These ideas are being embodied in various forms across the diverse pavilions of the now-opened Expo, and I would like to express my heartfelt respect for the immense efforts made by the many people involved over the four years since the basic concept was formed.

Based on the philosophy of this basic concept, I am also planning to exhibit several research projects.

As a co-creation project with the Japan Craft Producing Area Association, we are working on the digitalization and transmission of skills in traditional Japanese crafts. As the declining birthrate and aging population accelerate, traditional crafts across Japan are facing a crisis of survival. We are exploring the future of crafts for the next generation by using digital technology to preserve artisans' skills, utilizing it for training successors, and transmitting skills across time and space. In this exhibition, we will introduce the recording and re-experiencing of pottery skills using haptic transmission technology and skill expansion technology using Cybernetic Avatars, a project we have been working on for a year with "Ikutouen," a Tsuboya-yaki pottery studio that has continued for seven generations in Okinawa.

In the Cabinet Office/JST Moonshot Research and Development Program "Development of Cybernetic Avatar Technology and Social Infrastructure for Physical Co-creation," for which I serve as the project manager, we are working to create a future where diverse people can demonstrate their various abilities and play an active role regardless of age, gender, or disability. By utilizing Cybernetic Avatar (CA) technology that allows for the sharing of human experiences and skills, we are creating opportunities for experience sharing, skill co-creation, cognitive expansion, and new forms of social participation through CAs. This exhibition summarizes five years of research, development, and social co-creation activities of the project, showcasing the vision of future society in 2050.

As social change accelerates and the future becomes harder to predict, the raison d'être of the Expo is being questioned. Rather than presenting a simple "future," diverse people cooperate, create something together, and seek to pass it on to the next generation. Everyone, including visitors, interacts as stakeholders in realizing the future society. I hope you will experience this new form of the Expo in the post-pandemic era and use it as an opportunity to think about the future.