General Meeting of the Mobility Transformation Consortium. I hear the first general meeting was held on December 4, 2017. That means we’re now entering our fifth year.

I’m still serving as a member of the steering committee, and since I was asked to say a few words, I joined the meeting online (*^^*)

Today’s keynote speaker was Joi Ito. Since I had just been in touch with him, it was a valuable opportunity to hear Joi speak at length about where he is “now.”

The theme of the Mobility Transformation Consortium is Waas (Wellbeing as a Service).

For me, too, the pandemic served as a catalyst, and I’m taking on the challenge of a new lifestyle in order to improve my quality of life.

First, I started living in multiple locations: Niigata, Kumamoto, Tokushima, and Tokyo. The reason I was able to do this is that almost all of my activities have moved online.

What has changed because of COVID-19 is that it’s okay to be anywhere. We’ll likely be living and moving online more than ever before. Will we have a “mobile society” in the post-COVID era?!

I’ve also started living with five robots. One of them is in Tokushima. Even though I call it “multi-location living,” I don’t actually have a physical base in Tokushima. Instead, I have an avatar robot there, and there’s a community that welcomes it. I use this robot—my avatar—to move between spaces. It’s kind of like teleportation, and I consider it a form of mobility.

Behaviors that were not accepted before the pandemic are now expected of us: working remotely and attending school online.

This is my newfound freedom! And because it’s newfound, there’s no going back! I don’t want to go back!

Virtual spaces may become the primary setting for people's activities.

Even while staying online, people are becoming more mobile. I believe that, in the post-COVID era, cities need to incorporate this into their planning.

As we enter this new era, the metaverse is also gaining momentum.

In both Takeshiba and Shibuya, real estate companies are creating digital twins based on data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

Meanwhile, it seems ANA is teaming up with the City of Kyoto to create a Kyoto metaverse. An airline building a city?! What does that mean?

Various companies are building towns. Foreign companies may also build towns in Kyoto. Anyone can build a town.

Also, I wonder how this relates to the people who are actually building cities? It looks like a lot of issues I hadn't thought about before are going to come up!

Mobility and urban development are entering a new phase.

I’m looking forward to seeing the Mobility Transformation Consortium play an increasingly important role in this era (*^^*)