“JR East needs to take the initiative for challenge”: Staff members share their voices on the new city’s “Playable“ experiments

Celebrating Takanawa Gateway Station’s first anniversary of its opening on March 14th, “Playable Week“ festival was held from March 8th to 14th.

The festival offered a wide variety of content with a focus on socially distanced and low contact activities, attracting a lot of participants. The festival included an exhibition of the Sustainable Tree and giveaways of flowers along with recycled vases in collaboration with the Never Wither Flower Vase project, which is an initiative based on the concept of circulation.

The following activities were held during the festival:
TRY! Mapping!, a game-like walk around the Takanawa area,
OUT IN JAPAN, an exhibition of portraits highlighting sexual minorities, presented by photographer Leslie Kee, Takanawa Gateway Station PokeMarché, a farmers’ market held monthly at the station and has begun gaining traction. There have also been demonstrations of various in-station robots in addition to an exhibition and online concert featuring a “Station Piano”, which was decorated for the 5 Days CITY event in the summer of 2020.

In this series of note, we have been introducing to you the efforts of “TokyoYard PROJECT“, which is conducted as a part of the Shinagawa Development Project for the area surrounding Takanawa Gateway Station. In this post, Kenji Yamazaki, the member of this project, will elaborate on the “Playable Week“ festival.

Kenji Yamazaki (JR): East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division. Yamazaki has been involved in the Shinagawa Development Project since 2019. As of March of 2021, he is in charge of regional collaboration measures and future planning beyond 2030.

The new city promotes the new “Playable”concept, but what does it mean?

As the festival’s name suggests, “Playable” is one of the most important key concepts, promoted by the Shinagawa Development Project for the area around Takanawa Gateway, in aiming to create a city where you can take on new challenges.
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The word “Play“ implies various meanings from implementation, participation, attempt, taking action, performance, to experimentation. Thus, we have set the word “Playable” as a key concept in our aim to make it possible for people involved in the city to “Play”. The “Playable Week“ festival was held to report on the progress of JR East's experiments with our partners, and to express our vision of how these experiments will contribute to the city.

While the development in front of the station is still underway, we have decided to hold the event inside Takanawa Gateway Station in order to communicate with the local community and customers as we design a city for the future. In developing an “Ekimachi (station and town)” integrated city that we envision, we believe that the station should act not only as a part of the city, but as a gateway to the city as well. Therefore, we wanted to create an opportunity at this very location for people to learn about the values that the new city embraces.

For this event, we have selected activities that the Shinagawa Development Project’s regional collaboration team has been working on, and collaborated with our partners to explore content that is consistent with the values of the new town, such as “Playable“, “Sustainable“, and “Diverse“.

TRY! Mappi

Now, let us present you some of the content in line with “Playable“, “Sustainable“, and “Diverse“, and share with you the voices of the staff members from some of these events.

First, in the “TRY! Mapping! (City Walk)“ activity, we had participants walk around tourist spots around Takanawa Gateway Station, selected by our members and tourism volunteers, in game-like fashion.

The aim of this activity was for the visitors to get to know about the appeal of the area in order for Takanawa Gateway Station to become a “Global Gateway“.

The activity was carried out with the support of our partners: Japan Photo Rogaining Association, which promotes “photo rogaining“, an orienteering-like sport where you collect points at checkpoints based on given maps supplied to the participants, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd, which developed the “YORIP“, a city-walking application that we have been utilizing from before, Minato ward’s tourism volunteers, and WheeLog, which works on the development of “Let's Make a Barrier-Free Map Together!” app and other related events. Despite the bad weather, the event was attended mostly by the local residents.

One of the participants told us it was a good opportunity to know more about the city that they live in, stating that “Although I live in Minato ward, I didn't realize how different the Takanawa district in the north is from the Shibaura-Kohnan district in the south, despite them being in the same area”. This is also exactly how our members felt as they walked around the city, and we are glad to have been able to create an opportunity for the people to know the different facets of each part of the city.

Voice of “TRY! Mapping! / City Walk“ staff

Kentaro Higuchi (East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division)

“One of the mainstays of the Shinagawa Development Project is “connection with the local people”. Although the COVID-19 situation has limited what JR East and society as a whole can do, I think we have been able to increase our contact with the local community little by little through different events over the past year.”

“However, events alone are not enough to deepen the connections we have established. Personally, I would like to go to gatherings in the community shopping district and local festivals to have more conversations. I believe that we have laid the groundwork, and in order to take it a step further, I think we are now at the stage of building a relationship beyond our one-time collaboration for these events. In order for us to maintain our reliability, we would like to learn more about the city from here onward and communicate directly with people in the community.”

Never Wither Flower Vase and Sustainable Tree

At the event space, located in front of the multi-display signage inside the ticket gate, we handed out samples of “Never Wither Flower Vase” and put the Sustainable Tree on display. The Never Wither Flower Vase is a flower subscription service that has been provided by Deflax, Inc., a florist shop based in Yotsuya, over the course of almost 10 years. It is a service where you purchase a small flower vase every 3 months, and when you take it to the store, they will give you flowers free of charge any day of the week. These are flowers that have been damaged during shipping and have become unsellable. The name of the service derives from the fact that these vases never cease to hold a flower. We are working together with them because their effort of enriching the community with flowers, without wasting what the producers have grown, meets the concept of the new city.

For this event, empty cans and bottles brought along by the JR East employees were used as flower vases. After cleaning and disinfecting them, JR East employees and the stationmaster of Takanawa Gateway Station handed them out along with flowers provided by Deflax. Many people stopped by, from people who just happened to be passing by, to people with their families, including one senior citizen with a history of architectural design who had been keeping an eye on the development of the station, as well as an elderly who came to receive the flowers for his grandchild who “loves trains”. The flowers were gone in less than ten minutes.

Many people also stopped by the Sustainable Tree created by Deflax, which was made by recycling branches and flowers that would have otherwise been thrown away, and we were able to present them with a rare sight of a station interior decorated with flowers and greenery.

Voice of the “Never Wither Flower Vase” staff

Mari Oikawa (East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division)

“Safety is the first priority of our business. That's why, when we install large plants or trees in a station where there are railroad tracks nearby, it is quite challenging to install them for permanent display because the staff has to keep an eye on them at all times.”

“Nonetheless, while ensuring the safety of the station, we would like to continue to display decorations for seasonal events like Tanabata* and Christmas, as a station that embodies the spirit of “Playable” and as a gateway that welcomes everyone to the city. We believe that “Playable“ and “Safety“ are not necessarily contradictory, and we would like to explore ways to make people feel enriched as we try out various exhibitions like this event.”

*3 Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival, is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. The festival is held at various dates depending on the region during July and August.

Voice of the Takanawa Gateway Station Stationmaster

Taka Nakamura (Stationmaster of Takanawa Gateway Station)

“Although stations have mainly played a role as hubs for transportation up to this point, we would like to create a station where visitors can enjoy themselves and experience new things. There are a lot of events that we have had to cancel due to the COVID-19 situation, but we would like to carry out more experiments and make this station a place where new things can take off.”

Voice of our partner

Taro Nishida, CEO, Deflax, Inc.

“For instance, I think it would be interesting to have something like a “Green Library“ located in the Green Counter (JR Ticket Office). You can rent a plant for your home, and once it starts to die out, you can return it for curing. And even if it dies out, we can recycle it as leaf soil. It would be great if a community could be created by people bringing along greenery and gathering at the station, and I hope that this project will be the first step in creating a community driven by the combination of greenery and the station.”

Station Piano

Also at the event space, the Station Piano made its debut. It’s a one-of-a-kind piano that features fireworks, collaged with handprint stickers with messages collected from participants in the “5 Days CITY” event held in September 2020, as well as hand prints collected in advance.

The “Love Piano“, a project which is being carried out by Yamaha Music Japan, its headquarter located in Takanawa, was first displayed at JR stations and station buildings. This collaboration opened up an opportunity for realizing the Station Piano with hopes that it could be a tool for local businesses and residents to communicate and connect through music.

Much to our regret, although we would like to have it permanently installed so that people can play it at their leisure, in terms of preventing the spread of the COVID-19, it is currently only on display and not open to the public as of April 2021.

Voices of the of “Station Piano” staffs

Takahiro Enomoto (left) and Mina Ichinose (right)

Takahiro Enomoto (East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division, as of March of 2021)

“The Takanawa Gateway Station and the new city will be a place where we can experiment with advanced technologies, aiming to create a lifestyle that will enrich people's lives for the next 100 years. At the same time, we would also like to promote this city planning while valuing things that will never change for people, such as the richness of music.”

Mina Ichinose (East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division, as of March of 2021)

“We have received multiple inquiries about when people will be able to play the Station Piano, which made us realize the power of musical instruments and music itself. In spite of the situation, we honestly want people to be able to play it freely. In the future, we would like to use the Station Piano as much as possible at every juncture, and hope that it will become a “symbol of richness” and a communication tool that everyone can easily take part in.”

OUT IN JAPAN

For the “OUT IN JAPAN“ photo exhibition that I, Kenji Yamazaki, was in charge of planning, we selected 40 photos of people with a focus on LGBTQ, taken by the world-renowned photographer Leslie Kee, and installed them on photo panels. “OUT IN JAPAN“ is a project which aims to take 10,000 LGBT portraits in five years.

The project came to life through conversations with the LGBTQ activist Gon Matsunaka. Matsunaka is a representative of the “OUT IN JAPAN“ production team, and also a representative of the “Pride House Tokyo“ consortium, which takes the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as catalysts to communicate information regarding sexual minorities.

Diversity is an essential theme for a city that aims to become a “Global Gateway“ where everyone can play an active role. And this exhibition is meant to express our commitment to creating a city that is comfortable for all minorities including LGBTQ people.

I myself have never had any friends or acquaintances who openly admit to being a sexual minority, so in the stages of planning this event, I learned a lot about sexuality through talking to different people and regular in-house LGBTQ study groups.

I learned that, even through a single advertisement displayed in a public space, LGBTQ people could feel that they are not included in the notion of a “family“ that it presents, and that if they hadn't happened to learn about LGBTQ person on TV, they may never have had the opportunity to identify their own sexuality.

After learning these things, I began to feel strongly that we need to actively communicate about the notion of family and personal identity in a highly public place like the train station, so that people can be encouraged about their ways of life.

Of course, the Shinagawa Development Project as a whole will give serious consideration to issues related to tangible elements such as restrooms, but we also want to create an “Ekimachi (station and town)“ that is comfortable for all people to use in terms of intangible elements.

Kenji Yamazaki (East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division, as of March of 2021)

Takanawa Gateway Station PokeMarché and Robot Demonstrations

The “Takanawa Gateway Station PokeMarché (hereinafter called PokeMarché)”, which has been held on a regular basis, and “Takanawa Gateway Station Robot Demonstrations (hereinafter called Robot Demo)” also took place at the event.

PokeMarché is a next-generation marché linked to the “Pocket Marché“ app, which allows users to purchase seasonal foods directly from farmers and fishermen across the country. Products can be pre-ordered and sold, and the freshly picked ingredients are transported to Tokyo to be picked up at Takanawa Gateway Station, thanks to JR East's powerful railroad network, the Shinkansen.
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The marché is held once a month with the aim of creating a rich food environment in the new city. This is the fourth time for the marché to be held, and this time, we delivered produce mainly from Miyagi Prefecture. The lineup included strawberries from “JR Fruit Park Sendai Arahama”, a new tourist farm that opened in March, and tea leaves from the “SEIBU Green Marché” hosted by Seibu Railway in cooperation with Seibu Holdings.

We have received many comments from local residents that they look forward to this monthly event, and we hope to continue our efforts.

We also held a public demonstration of robots, which are normally tested in the restricted areas, near the ticket gates.

There are various challenges to introducing robots in the new city. For instance, sometimes robots can not overcome the smallest steps, or would crash into glass walls. Normally, in order to work on these challenges, we have our partners for city planning test out the robots together.

In this robot demo, many unique robots that people don’t see everyday went into test operation, including avatar robots, snack and beverage delivery robots, luggage delivery robots, cooperative transportation robots, and cleaning robots.

We believe that people were able to get a feel of one of the characteristics of the “new city” by seeing these robots move about freely in the station.

Where does the new city start and end?

Even though the station is an asset of JR East, there are many restrictions and hurdles to overcome when holding an event in the station yard. And although we place the highest priority on the safety of our customers, we also must continue to innovate in the spirit of our mission statement of being a city where you can take on new challenges.

The discussion of “Where does the new city start and end?” often comes up among our members. Is the newly developed area only considered a new city, or is the surrounding area that will be affected by it also considered a new city?

Our view is the latter. We would like to loosely connect with the surrounding areas, build on our relationships, and work together to create an enriched city for the next 100 years. In order to achieve this, it is important for us to continue to communicate openly and carefully with the community while carrying out initiatives with clear messages, such as the ones we have introduced to you in this post.

A city only begins after its opening, so over a long span of time, the circle of community will continue to expand, the number of players are expected to increase, and activities such as the ones introduced here will be carried out in every part of the city, ultimately feeding back to the surrounding area. Believing in such a future, we would like to keep experimenting.

Interview and Edit by Takuya Wada
Photograph by Yutaro Yamaguchi
Translation by Keitaro Takama
Content Direction by blkswn publishers Inc.

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