Tackling East Asia’s Population Decline Issues with Local Coop’s Subsystem - Tokyo 2024

hey awesome well we're ahead of schedule so okay next up we have atsushi Hayashi of paramida uh who will be discussing tackling East Asia's population decline issues with local co-ops subsystems for local governance okay oh hi uh my name is atushi Hayashi the the previous speakers have mentioned the radical mechanism but but if you ask me where to search it's implement ation in the real Society I will answer in rural area of Japan where the population is rapidly declining Japan's population peaked in 2018 and has continued to decline and it is fair to say that Japan is the one of the country uh in the world with the most declining and aging population and it it will become a serious issue not only for Japan but for all of East Asia this is a photo that from a visit to an abandoned Village 10 years ago I visited uh this summer the road are crumbling and the vacant house houses are abandoned the map of Japan is colored colored red by local government predicted to likely Disappear by 2050 about 40% of the more than 1,700 basic local governments are in danger of Disappearing as the population continue to decline in this way our team role is the further reduce the role of the public it is precisely at this moment that we can redesign self-governance which has been the responsibility of the state and local government back to its original form of governance by our service so how do we start we have decided to focus our attention in Japan's local community and local government to develop and Implement a new community operating system we call that local Coupe but taking back the role previously left to government agencies and putting them in our own hands we will build the foundation for a more flexible and fulfilling way of life numerous numerous small community will be created and the people who move freely between them will solve problem and create new value through co-creation and the mutual assistance as a first step the strategy is to start by creating the subsystem of local government we can call a second local government but re redesigning the new natural local government we will be able to see the decentralized model of the small world that local cop is aiming for local cop is a Tru mechanisms for the funding the local comms whereby local assets such as a vacant houses and the vest forests in the community can be made accessible and nurtured as Commons while raising fund and external resources the goal is to optimally redistribute and invest commment and common funds without the involvement of the former government or Council in governance now let's describe a specific case study the first is the case of yakush Village a typical depopulated area in Japan the current yakush Village uh has a population of less than 760 and is facing difficulties in maining the infrastructures that is essential for daily life with a Sensi of Crisis that the village will disappear if nothing is down to we are contacted by The Villages about 3 years ago and this proposal okay let's let people around the world know what is going on with yakush Village and gather our friends and then as a symbol of yamakoshi uh the nisho which is uh the best place of nisho so we decided to create to generate we decid to create a generative art futuring nisho nisho is a c curp and issued the word first digital residence certificate nft we decide to call those who purchased the digital residence certificate nft digital villager the nisho nft community is built by combining to the real world which preserves natural resources and unique culture such as nisho and Bing with a virtual space that extends infinity beyond physcal roric using an NFD as a tool ORS as a design new relationship with while still providing a mutual utilties so uh let me share the the video of yakushi project this is the rural community of yamakoshi Japan in 2004 a massive earthquake hit this part of Japan many left and never came back to help deal with this pero has got some ideas in the digital space when you buy an nft it's almost like your passport be a digital villager how many do you have now there's a, and 12 people that these NTS yes it's worth not underestimating the value of that Legacy and I hope web 3 technology can help bridge The Divide between young generations and historical legacies the currently the number of theal villages both domestic and international exceeds 1,700 more than double the number of real villages in a region where their physcal population continue to decline their creation of the states in which anyone can acquire the identity of yamakoshi Bea NFD in the digital space is bringing about major change in the way Village operates and itself sged the second is about the relationship between sustainably re regenerated nature and sustainable local community we focus on the abundance of nature in Japan 70% of the country's land is forested and the arago is surrounded by the Sea on the other hand as a result of the decline of Forestry and other industri planted forests have become the dis rate creatures in disappearing Fisher herther to catch and the risk of land slid and other disaster is increasing it is important to guarantee economic feasibility while restoring the cycle of nature s Sina makes it it possible to raise the fund for the maintenance for Japan's local forest and Oceans by aing preh holding rights for the carbon credit to be created to be exchanged on the blockchain by using the fund race maintain natural resources carbon credit can be created the project is also promoting their democratization of emission trading so the individual as well as companies both domestic and international can participate in the trading as our first step as our first side of the creating the carbon credit we have a uh partnership with o City uh me prefecture on the other hand carbon credit are not only things generated from forest mainten maintenance we are working to create a biodiversity forest and restore nature that human have destroy to create a watershed where divar creatures can return and disaster El likely to occur the video that I am going to show you now as a local resident living in the waterers shed and people from outside the region who are interested in or say working together in the mountains cooperating with each other it is important to restore the relationship between people's lives and nature rather than just creating a carbon credits for for in this six month period the total number of the participants in this collaboration has extend exceeded the 700 and uh Forest is now is a position to generate carbon credit worth $330,000 us it's almost like a go uh per year to this model which can be financed while caring for the local nature is beginning to be deployed in the other regions the third example is the transfer of government public service the operator of the Public Services shifted from the government to the local coup which actually uh manages essential service such as a public transportation and the recyclable garbage collection with the coporation of the local residents in the future the government will handle off the operation of the public service and local coup re proceed to design alternative service in collaboration with major company startups and local residents for example we do not know if the government will continue to collect recyclable garbage in the future in an area called tukas is's only 1,200 people living the number of the collection sports for recyclable garbage has been reduced by 1 Sixth and change a form where residents bring their own garbage the new collection spots have become the community spaces where residents sold their garbage more precisely than before actually 14 14 types of garbage the creating the cycle web less garbage burned and more resources generated in addition there this Gage station have become a community spaces increasing the communication among residents there's some evidence that is reduced the risk of becoming an elderly person in need of care they are also now able to use the proceeds from the sales of resources as their own budget while while optimizing government services that are not sustainable the residents themselves can contribute the increase resources they can effectively use here's a real resident council meeting that was held when local coup was installed in order to gather the opinion of the diverse group of the people people randomly selected from the resident register authorized to participate after six months of intensive discussion about the future of the community and the local group it was agreed to start the local group local coup's practice is still in the process but we have as we have discussed with a specific example we are forming the common funds with the steady stream of the funds and resources through multiple channels the common funds is matched using a methods such as like quadratic funding and is the first example to in the world where the fund a redistributed area necessary for the survival and the devel velopment of local coup and the physical community in Japan we are currently conducting the demonstration in four areas and plan to conduct demonstrations outside of Japan in the near future local coup is a strategy to start by creating the subsystem local government in Japan which is facing the rapid population Decline and is an excellent excellent opportunity to design the original Ro self-government we intend to develop local cope as the main system to implement a plural world where people freely move between multiple communities and help each other creating a community that are self suring but necessary for survival that's it thank you [Applause] okay so we actually have a couple minutes for questions we're ahead of schedule so yeah if anybody has any questions from the audience feel free to raise your hand yeah um you you mentioned a few times where you've had Partnerships with local governments how did you go about creating those Partnerships and are there any kind of lessons that that we should learn from any from your experience okay so can I use interpretation do you have it uh okay okay let me uh just whichever language you like uh let me explain in English Okay so or you can use Japanese uh actually uh Japan's local government is kind of is very uh uh it's it's going to disappear so uh about 10 years ago I I already presented the this kind of a presentation to Local woman but they was like what are you talking about but after 10 years it BEC it's changed a lot because they they have huge risk of the disappearing that's a big change and then unfortunately the people in local they getting older so behold the 10 years ago they are kind of still uh have energy to keep their self-government but now they're getting older so they they start thinking about the new way of the uh local government that's the big change okay do we have any other questions okay see one more thank you for the presentation I have a question about the nft how exactly that helped yamakoshi um having more you know number of uh sounded like it was a success and just curious how how exactly it brings value to the to the village and um um how do the local residents feel about it thank you okay so um as I say now they got the 1,700 digital Village outside but they still keep uh their population is a decline right so but the I mean this project was started three years ago but in this three years they their mind is kind of changing before the digital visure is coming they always think like uh uh we want to do this but we don't have much time Manpower energy idea but now oh I want to do this we want to do this but I don't have any kind of idea or we need uh some support okay let's ask to the digal villagers that's a big change so they always think like they they always uh they think about digital ReliOn even over 70 80 years old elderly people they have no idea about the blockchain or digital villager but they know the digital villager they are nice guys they always come to a village and help help us so if you go to if you a digal villager you you go to the yakush village and then okay go to the restaurant they're taking the meal uh probably the local people uh ask you are you disabil oh great welcome that's the uh big difference before the the sh villes is coming or before and after and uh but as I say the population is a decline still decline so next solution is there local they they have to uh build a new governance a new funding system and also new web location uh the people the local people are used to the uh develop or uh like maintain their own village that's uh before that's before but uh now they they cannot to do that so they need to uh some uh partnership with uh which is like a this villager or some like a major company or startup outside that's the way the new way of the to the maintain the local community and sustain the uh the unique culture and the natural resources in Japan is that okay yes thank you okay all right okay do we have have any other [Music] questions questions okay sorry I got to make my way across the room thank you thank you for nice talk just I just would like to ask uh theoretically because the Japanese population really declining for all the all those small Village and small state towns wish should to join your system are sure can you confident that you can um you sustain such a big you know big Society or whatever you okay I should answer yes and uh uh I think the most important thing is uh we always have the the sever Choice multiple choice what what what we we think about what's the problem is I say that uh we're going to build the second government but the uh the the nation states or the government is not bad but there's one choice we can choose that's that's horrible we should we should choose which system we should you we want use well we should choose or we should make what we want what we want to live that's the basic uh thinking I mean we we have to make the uh own structure it's kind of like a as you you know you cook by yourself you can build a house by yourself DIY why why don't we to build a government system governance system that's that always I was thinking so but we need the strategy if we if I say oh I want to make the new uh government system why don't you we why don't we do that some people uh doesn't like the this kind of conversation so let's make the subsystem for the existing system you know is okay so my answer is yes and uh that we need more uh Partnerships and we need more the participants and and we start from the local government in Japan where we have to spread all over the world this this movement that's it [Applause] okay okay awesome yeah let's give a one more hand thank you thank you [Applause]