We want to create a blank space in the city and fill it with play and ideas. JR's keyword for the city: "Playable”

The Shinagawa development project, currently being undertaken by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) in the area surrounding Takanawa Gateway Station, is a project where "collaborative creation" and "experimentation" are constantly taking place, and our goal is to create “a city where you can take on challenges” that will continue to be prosperous in 100 years' time. In the previous articles, we have emphasized the importance of cooperation not only with our partner companies but also with the local community, in achieving this goal.
>>The significance of “being there” as the basis for regional cooperation in urban development

In this post, we will discuss "Playable" as a key word for bringing about the "collaborative creation" and "experimentation" that are core to our project. We consider this term an encapsulation of the spirit of our urban development. We will also explain what we wanted to convey through the event "5 Days CITY", which we hosted as part of the "communication" that East Japan Railway emphasizes in its urban development. Ryoji Katayama of JR East's Shinagawa Development Project Team is here to tell you about it.

Ryoji Katayama (JR): East Japan Railway Company, Life-style Business-development Department, Shinagawa Business-development and Marketing Division, Deputy Manager. Ryoji Katayama has been responsible for the Shinagawa Project since June 2015.

Exploring a “playable city” made to embody “collaborative creation” and “experimentation”

In contrast to large-scale urban development projects in Tokyo, which often involve redeveloping areas where there are few residents, the Shinagawa Project is being developed in an area where a large number of local residents live.

It is precisely because of this that our platform must be rooted in “collaborative creation” and “experimentation” at the local level, and that we must bring together partner enterprises, residents, and visitors to the area. We strongly believe that JR East cannot simply dictate our own plans as to what kind of city we wish to create.

It is exactly because we are a company like East Japan Railway Company, which is responsible for the infrastructure that is indispensable for people's mobility and lifestyles, that we must continue to communicate with the people of the region on an equal footing with other companies.

As we engage in urban development in this region and continue to communicate with people as they pass through our cities, the key word that we most want to share is "Playable".

When we use this word, we hope to encapsulate many of the nuances of the word "play" – "to accomplish," "to participate," "to try," "to perform," "to amuse oneself," and "to experiment,", and we hope to make it possible for all those involved with the city to “play”. 

In our previous articles, we discussed how urban planning projects often tend to cause a divide between the city and its residents and visitors on the one hand, and the developers on the other. However, if developers ignore the voices of the region and its visitors and simply try to imprint their blueprints on the city, they will let down the people of the city and weaken their fondness and hopes for their neighbourhood.
>>Overcoming urban challenges and creating a town that implements "collaborative project" and "experimentation”

But everyone has something they want their city to achieve. The project must be one that takes into account with the wishes of visitors, local residents, and partners in a variety of ways, and experiments with the challenges that each person brings to the table. It must be a platform for collaborative creation that is easy for many people to participate in. “Playable” is the key word that we have chosen to express these core values. We believe that we must continue to leave room for play and ideas in our city's philosophy, and by doing so, we can ensure that our society will continue to grow and prosper even 100 years from now, when it will be impossible for us to predict how society will change.

“5 Days CITY”, an event that exhibits the Playable approach

We are now striving to share the our vision of a "Playable" city, and to create a foundation that will allow us to engage in collaborative creation with local residents and visitors and think about the future of the city. In order to do so, East Japan Railway Company has been holding walks around the neighbourhood and regional briefings, and has been working with the local community to create a base for corporate and regional cooperation, and through our "Tokyo Yard Building" and "Partner base Takanawa Gateway Station" we have been communicating with people who are involved in the city. However, as noted in our previous article, we feel that we still have much to learn about the views held by our partners and the people of the community.

As we move to begin development in earnest, we want to create a place where we can communicate with people, not just in the form of briefings or business meetings, but in a casual manner, and where we can communicate the Playable concept to as many people as possible. It was with this in mind that we came up with the “5 Days CITY” event.

5 Days CITY was held on the last five days of the Takanawa Gateway Fest, which ran from July 14th to September 6th in front of Takanawa Gateway Station. The event was centred on the “Playable” concept.
>>(Take a virtual tour of the event here)

Rather than just exhibiting content to liven up the event, we aimed to share what we are actually working on with our partners in collaborative creation in preparation for 2024, and we hoped to allow participants to enjoy themselves and the event while they thought about the new city.

Below, we would like to introduce some of the content displayed at 5 Days CITY, focusing on "Communication", "Healthcare" and "Food", which were all key themes of the event.

Physical communication: Something which rail operator JR must not forget

As mentioned above, communication with our partners, local citizens and visitors is one of the most important themes of the Shinagawa Development Project.

The "Post Your Playable" project, which was set up in each corner of the event, took a straightforward analog format, providing a space for local residents, partners and visitors to fill with their ideas for the city.

Digital and formal communication are always necessary to speed up large-scale developments that require the agreement of many developers. On the other hand, when something has yet to be decided and its details are vague, we often feel that it is difficult to have a meaningful discussion about it, and it is difficult to discuss the matter in a casual and open-hearted way, unrestricted by our status as stakeholders. “Post Your Playable” was our attempt to overcome this difficulty.
In truth, we were a little anxious about the project: it is difficult to get people to take an interest in such questionnaire formats and to actively voice their opinions.

In the end, however, we received about 3,000 ideas, ranging from unique thoughts to honest opinions about the city, and we were surprised at just how many opinions we were able to receive by putting a little fun into the event, allowing visitors to write down their own ideas and fill in the blanks with others.

The ideas that we received from our partners and participants, who were able to visit a physical place like 5 Days City and get a feel for what a “Playable” city looks like in person, were the result of our team's conversations with the people of the community, and their thoughts and feelings about the lives of the people who live there. It was also a great learning experience for us.

We were reminded that while a mixture of digital and physical approaches will be important for the future of urban development, we, as railway operators, must not forget the value of physical communication.

We also exhibited the "Station Piano", which will be installed in the Takanawa Gateway Station, as a tool to encourage communication between the city and its visitors. We allowed people to write their own messages on handprints from the Hand Stamp Art Project and attach them to the piano (the project typically allows visitors to make their own handprints with paint and other materials, but on the day of the event, handprint stickers were used instead in order to minimise the risk of infection). On the final day of the event, we hosted performances from both professionals and members of the public.

JR employees directly explain the event and urban development to visitors at 5 Day City. In addition to the event team, employees from the urban planning team and the architectural planning team, who are directly involved in the development of the city, also participated in the event, and directly communicated with the visitors.

The coastline stretching from Takanawa-Okido to Shinagawa has long been a popular spot for gazing at the moon. There are many Japanese sweets shops in the surrounding area, and we collaborated with them to hold “Moon Night Anko", an event where visitors could watching the moon while watching a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and enjoying performances on the koto. This project was born out of conversations between local businesses and the development team.

Integrating healthcare with life and mobility

As the world continues to change, another major theme is the maintenance of a rich "healthcare" system that includes not only physical but also mental health.

The health care content at 5 Days CITY was not the kind of collection of cutting-edge, specialized medical equipment that you might see business/medical exhibitions. Our focus was not on changing medicine or technology itself, but on informing people of the kind of "healthcare" that we are looking to implement in the city through the use of technology.

What kind of blueprint should we draw up for health care in the city, and what can we achieve with the resources of JR East and our various partners in collaborative creation? We believe that we should aim to provide seamless access to the necessary level of medical care to those who need it, and that life in the city should be one where access health care is entwined with access to travel.

The process from consultation to examination and treatment is very time-consuming, and we think that many people find it hard to go to the hospital on weekdays in their daily lives. As a result, it is easy to put off a visit to the doctor. We believe that we can create an atmosphere in which people can easily access medical and health services anytime and anywhere and notice the signs of illness by "measuring" them, and in which people can easily receive treatment at hospitals.

At the event, participants were allowed to wear a sensor suit which analyzed data on their posture and their walk. They were then able to demo a simulated online medical examination where they could receive advice from a doctor based on the data.

We hope to create a future where people can easily receive quick and easy medical examinations at stations, commercial facilities and other places that they utilise in their daily lives.

The exhibition was held in collaboration with various companies, including Fujifilm; Xenoma, a start-up which develops smart apparel "e-skin,"; and Optim, which develops AI and IoT services and online medical care platforms.

The future of food will come from thinking, not just “being right”

The food that we eat shapes our health, which is essential for a richer life. In addition, food loss, climate change, and other issues are closely linked to the global environment, and tackling these issues through our daily diet is one of the most important things we need to address when thinking of life in the future.

Minato Ward, where the Takanawa Gateway Station is located, is also home to many embassies and is an area where expats of all races, nationalities and religions commute to work and live. We consider this city a global gateway, and it is a place that embraces diverse values in an inclusive manner. However, JR East are still deep in discussion as to how best to utilise this diversity in tackling issues from the perspective of food.

To give participants an opportunity to think about the challenges of food and its future, 5 Days CITY collaborated with the company Re to create a touch-operated electronic display which allowed visitors to create recipes while trying to solve these issues.

A game in which the user selects an item of food they are familiar with, and one option from from among "Sustainability", "Diversity", and "Japan Value". The recipe is transformed in a way that responds to the issue selected. The game then printed out a piece of paper with information related to the selected issue.

In addition, some of the menu items created at this event were merchandised at the Food & Craft Market held at the Takanawa Gateway Fest venue, and participants were able to actually try eating them.

As you can see, 5 Days City did not aim to present a single correct answer or to show off a completed product. In a sense you may say that it was an incomplete event.

However, we believe that a one-way dialogue in which the developers simply talk about the future of the city and talk about “right answers” from their own perspective is not enough to create a truly affluent city in the midst of an ever-changing society with ever-changing values. The most important thing is to openly share our ideas about the city and where we are today, and to think about the future of a "playable" city through repeated dialogue and discussion with our partners, local citizens, and visitors to the city. This is the approach that we would like to take to city planning.

#TokyoYard #TokyoYardPROJECT #TokyoYardPROJECT #urbandevelopment #Tokyo #Playable #5DaysCITY #5DaysCITY #PartnerBase #TokyoYardBuilding #music #technology #food #medical #SDGs #business #start_up #communication #community #challenge #regional_co_operation