Why is this work relevant for Media?

Slack is a business communication tool used by more than 10 million people worldwide and more than 500,000 in Japan, the second-largest market in the world. Our idea was to use Slack as a communication infrastructure for city development. In fact, Slack's specifications for facilitating business communication are well suited for strangers to exchange information. Online City Office sees about 200 posts of conversations between participants on Slack every month, and online events are also held for Slack members. As a result of this continuing use of the platform, three city development ideas emerged in five months.

Background

The Japanese population’s concentration in Tokyo is a serious problem. The Tokyo metropolitan area contains 30% of Japan's population, with numbers similar to some major countries, such as Poland, Morocco and Canada. Moreover, the total population of Japan has been decreasing 0.2% every year for nine consecutive years. Under these circumstances, it is difficult for local governments to increase migration. The central government has been making efforts to promote migration to smaller cities and towns, but the concentration in Tokyo has not changed. As a result, competition among local governments for residents has become a major social issue. In the city of Saku, the population is expected to decline from 99,368 in 2015 to 85,781 in 2040. It has lost its vitality under these circumstances, and needed to find a way to get people involved in making the city vibrant again without having to become a resident.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

An estimated 3.09 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area, or 12.3% of the region’s population, have expressed a desire to move to a rural area. While they would like to move eventually, only 21.7% of them are thinking of moving within the next five years. This is why we created a platform that allows people to participate in city development as a mechanism to get involved in the local area without having to move. In other words, we created Japan's first online city administration on Slack — Online City Office. Our idea was to use Slack as a platform and infrastructure for city planning, which people can use to share their real feelings about various issues in Saku, communicate with each other and have discussions online to solve problems.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

This media program was run by the collective knowledge of all participants who live in various rural areas. Therefore, we needed to find ways to get more people to participate in Online City Office, targeting people who are already interested in rural areas and those who already use Slack. We brought in the mayor and local influencers with strong effect on the target audience, as well as more widespread IT influencers, as stakeholders from the beginning to get the media to encourage people’s involvement. As there was no budget for media in this project, we needed to create a mechanism that would allow and encourage participants to disseminate information on their own. Another aim was to attract media coverage by putting the ideas gleaned from Online City Office into action and publicizing them.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

To increase the number of participants, the mayor of Saku officially launched Online City Office, posted about it on SNS and sent information to the media. As a result of these actions, the project received coverage in major media, including national broadcaster NHK and the Nikkei newspaper, and the number of participants reached 1,000 within four months. Online City Office continues to operate as an active platform, with 200 to 400 posts per month. This close communication has created an opportunity for people to be continually exposed to information about Saku. After three weeks of recruitment, we received 52 applications, and since they had roles as Online City Office staff, they were able to disseminate information on their own. With these people as the core, we were able to realize three ideas in five months — a web service for prospective migrants, an online event, and a radio show.

List the results (30% of vote)

Online City Office now includes over 1,400 participants, and has generated lively dialogue. Posts total about 4,500, and reactions over 12,000. The videos we produced have been viewed 234,000 times. Advertising conversion totals 150 million yen, and connections on SNS reached 6.3 million. National Diet members, local politicians and editors of local media endorsed the platform and posted on SNS. In response to the buzz, we were asked to collaborate in an event with one of Japan's largest real estate companies and Slack, and won the Gold Award at the City Promotion Awards, an event for local governments. After Online City Office started, 89.3% of “digital residents” said they thought Saku was a progressive city, and 69.8% said they were interested in city development. Half the digital residents said it made them want to move to the city, and 3,453 became residents.