Quick take:
- Japan’s biggest tech and finance companies have formed an initiative to build a metaverse economic zone.
- Mizuho Financial, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, and JCB are among the ten companies that signed the agreement to advance metaverse adoption in the country.
- The companies will collaborate to create gamified worlds featuring different aspects of Japanese culture.
Japanese tech and financial services companies have teamed up to build the “Japan Metaverse Economic Zone”. Mizuho Financial, JCB, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, TBT Lab, Sompo Japan Insurance, and Toppan are among a list of 10 companies that have signed the agreement to build an open metaverse called RYUGUKOKU,
According to the announcement on Monday, the companies will use the metaverse construction framework provided by “PEGASUS WORLD KIT” to build gamified 3D virtual worlds featuring different aspects of Japanese culture.
The initiative draws inspiration from Hajime Tabata, the creator of JP Games’ idea of bringing innovation to Japan through gaming.
The open metaverse will allow organisations that signed the agreement to operate interoperable metaverses, which will serve as a new social infrastructure for businesses to launch digital experiences including marketing campaigns, information sharing, and consumer-facing products, among others.
Based on the press statement the RYUGUKOKU metaverse will also feature a standalone role-playing game (RPG) based on a unique fantasy world. Users will use the game to move through the interoperable metaverses sampling goods and services on offer.
“Each Metaverse service and content presented inside RYUGUKOKU (TBD) takes on the form of a moving “city,” “castle,” or “vehicle” that roams around that virtual world. Users will be able to engage in an RPG-like experience as they travel through different realms and encounter a variety of contents and services,” reads a statement on Fujitsu’s website.
The metaverse platform will leverage Japan’s secure financial infrastructure through banks and other financial services companies that signed up for the initiative. This will allow the “Metaverse Economic Zone” to “deliver an open and secure Metaverse infrastructure that enables safe and stable use of identity authentication, various payments, data infrastructure, insurance, etc.”
The companies also have plans to expand the metaverse infrastructure to other companies and government agencies thus expanding the Japan Metaverse Economic Zone to the rest of the world.
****
Stay up to date:
Subscribe to our newsletter using this link – we won’t spam!
