About 10 Japanese companies, including Fujitsu, Mitsubishi and Sumitomo Mitsui, have agreed to advance Japan’s metaverse plans with the establishment of the “Japan Metaverse Economic Zone”.
See related article: What is the metaverse and are we already living inside it?
Fast facts
- As part of the agreement signed on Feb. 27, the companies would build an open metaverse infrastructure called “Ryugukoku” using the metaverse construction framework “Pegasus World Kit” developed by JP Games.
- “Ryugukoku” is expected to create an open and secure metaverse infrastructure for safe identity authentication, insurance, payments, and data infrastructure, among other things.
- The Japan Metaverse Economic Zone may be able to expand globally by “providing this infrastructure to companies and government agencies outside of Japan”, according to the agreement.
- The agreement is based on the concept of “updating Japan through the power of games” by JP Games founder Hajime Tabata, who is also the Web 3.0 advisor for the Japanese government’s digital agency.
- Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last year announced plans to invest in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.
- A Deloitte report estimates the metaverse could add as much as US$1.4 trillion a year to gross domestic product across Asia by 2035, or as much as 2.4% of overall GDP. It notes that governments in China, South Korea and Japan have listed metaverse initiatives in economic planning strategies.
- See related article: Japanese gaming giant Konami is recruiting for expansion into Web3, metaverse