Making Toshima Ward a hub for Web 3.0—Event report from the large-scale festival "TOKYO OTSUKA NFT FES" held at Otsuka Station

From April 22nd to 23rd, the TOKYO OTSUKA NFT FES, a large-scale festival focusing on NFTs, crypto assets, the metaverse, and more, was held around Otsuka Station in Toshima Ward, Tokyo.

The organizers of the event were boom now Inc., which runs the NFT media "NF times," and ironowa Inc., a major local real estate company. The event was held with the aim of promoting Toshima Ward's "International Art and Culture City Concept" and creating a culture and system that will attract NFT creators and Web 3.0 entrepreneurs to Otsuka.

The event aims to attract young Web 3.0 entrepreneurs and companies to Toshima Ward, and to have Web 3.0 startups that will develop into global IT companies set up headquarters in Ikebukuro and Otsuka. The ultimate goal is for Toshima Ward to become a hub for Web 3.0 and NFT in Japan in the future.

The event was hosted by Web 3.0 influencer Yuna Yuna.

The event was held in "ba," a building in Otsuka owned by ironowa. The name "ba" comes from the "ba" in the phrase "provide an attractive place."

The center of the event was the ba01 building, where 20 top runners in the Web 3.0 field active both in Japan and overseas held a talk session. Eightdays Dining on the first floor will feature an actual painting by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), famous for its popular NFT collection.

According to Yusuke Nishikawa, CEO of boom now, BAYC was purchased by Mandy Sekiguchi of the popular dance and vocal group EXILE for 48 ETH (approximately 23 million yen). This exhibition was made possible when ironowa's Muto purchased BAYC's copyright and painting from GASHO2.0, an acquaintance of Mandy's who creates works that combine NFTs and real art.

The venue was filled with excitement even before the event started, as many people with an interest in Web 3.0 and NFTs gathered.

What was interesting was that while traditional Web 3.0 events tend to be centered around the younger generation, this session was attended by many people of all ages and genders. This could be seen as a sign of the mass adoption of Web 3.0 and NFTs.

The opening session was attended by Nishikawa of the organising company boom now and Muto of ironowa.

Muto, who originally bought paintings from a painter acquaintance, first learned about NFT art at an NFT event held by Nishikawa in Shibuya.

Even if the art is excellent, if it's not well-known it's unlikely to sell. Nevertheless, there was a desire to introduce talented artists with a wealth of creativity to the world.

He said that his future goal is to "hold an NFT art event that uses the whole of Toshima ward, with Otsuka as the centre".

The speakers for the second session were Daisaku Yamamoto, Chief Innovation Officer, and Yuta Hayakawa, Chief Growth Officer, of Egg Forward, a company that provides business transformation support services.

The two discussed "the latest trends in the cryptocurrency guidelines and the future of fundraising through NFTs."

Yamamoto explained AppVanilla's service for building websites where users can create and sell NFTs. Hayakawa stressed the need for entrepreneurs working with NFTs to thoroughly read the "Cryptocurrency Guidelines."

The next token session was given by Atsushi Takai, Policy Coordination Section Chief of the SDGs Future City Promotion Division, Policy Management Department, Toshima Ward, and Yoshino Yamada, CEO of moccu Inc., which practices CSV management. The theme was "Why Otsuka Now?"

Yamada said that Otsuka is already home to many Web 3.0 startups, and that he is inspired by them every day.

Meanwhile, Takai said, "Even if startups think about having offices in Shibuya or other places, it's impossible because of the high rent. In that respect, Otsuka is just right."

He also said that Otsuka today is similar to the time when Gotanda was called "Gotanda Valley" because young IT startups gathered there. With this background in mind, he emphasized that "Otsuka Village" will be launched soon.

The fourth talk session featured three speakers on the theme of "Starting a business with Web 3.0! The forefront of domestic Web 3.0 startups." The speakers were Ticket Man (Daisuke Miyashita), CEO of Ticket Me, a company that turns tickets into NFTs; Hideyuki Akagawa, president of Shinshizumo Inc., which offers a service that allows users to authenticate and confirm NFTs using QR codes; and Tomoyuki Yamazaki, CEO of Chain Craft, which operates the rights trading platform "PARKET."

In this session, there was a point to note in particular about Ticket Me's hiring of personnel. According to Ticket Man, the company selected personnel who had "kind eyes."

He also said that it has become easier to "link the value of NFTs to the real economy" after the cryptocurrency winter, and cited "blockchain x AI" as a future development to watch.

The next speaker for the token session was Yuhei Yasui, project manager of "GGGGG" by Drecom, Naoyuki Tamate, producer of "SYMBIOGENESIS" developed by Square Enix, and Miki Kawaguchi, Marketing Director of LGG, who served as moderator. The theme was "The Potential of NFT Art x Games."

"GGGG" and "SYMBIOGENESIS" are both domestic blockchain games that have attracted a lot of attention.

During the session, it was said that unlike existing games, blockchain games are unique in that they are created together by the development company and the community.

Furthermore, he said that there are still only about 20,000 wallets in Japan, and that mass adoption depends not on investment in NFTs, but on whether the game itself is interesting.

He said that in order to popularize wallets, it is essential to strengthen the community and ultimately increase enthusiasm for the game. He then said that "Web 3.0 = entertainment, investment, and utility," and that these elements will promote mass adoption.

In addition, in blockchain games, it is very important to conduct "AMA (Ask Me Anything)" with the community, which can lead to sales. In fact, Tamate felt that sales increased while repeatedly conducting AMAs with overseas users.

The sixth token session was with Rio (Takeshi Kubo), founder and CEO of Noborderz Group, known for listing XETA, the utility token of the NFT platform "XANA," on multiple cryptocurrency exchanges. The company operates in five countries around the world, based in New York and Dubai.

The other speaker in the session was Yuya Mochizuki, an advisor at boom now.

XANA is said to be the largest metaverse in Japan and the third largest in the world.

The session began with Rio's memorable words, "In the future, the world will have one or two avatars in the metaverse."

He said that the time will come when work will be carried out in the metaverse, and emphasized, "The time will come when your AI avatar will make money in the metaverse. The world view of the movie The Matrix will be realized."

The final token session of the day, "Roadmap for Web 3 in Japan," featured speeches by Kyoya Okazawa, co-founder of Animoca Brands Inc., the Japanese subsidiary of Animoca Brands, which invests in the Web 3.0 field, and Junya Yamamoto, MetaHeroes advisor and CEO of Scalably Inc.

Scalably is developing a multilingual communication protocol called "is Protocol" that continues to transmit information about the entire ecosystem, and an information SaaS called "EcoMedia" that connects the ecosystem with communication.

Okazawa stated his opinion that "Web 3.0 was born from capitalism going too far." "In 2018, GAFA took too much data. By taking our personal data, they turned it into their own assets. In other words, advertising. When anything goes too far, it is corrected. That is the current situation."

He also made an impression with his assertion that "it is time for Japan to create value in intangible assets with technology." He said that tangible assets have been securitized in the past, citing oil as an example, saying, "Tangible assets were securitized from gold to oil, and the producing countries gained enormous wealth."

He then sounded the warning, saying, "The world's largest IP is buried in Japan. This means that assets comparable to gold and oil are buried underground. We will use blockchain to dig up Japan's buried IP. Right now, in the Web 3.0 realm, this is Japan's biggest and last chance to become a leading country that can compete with the world."

The entire event was filled with excitement from start to finish.

In the ba07 building, 24 NFT companies and projects exhibited in the booth area on the 6th floor. In Japan, Comiket is famous for being held in the summer and winter, but this space also made the need for such a sales event feel necessary for NFT.

In addition, an NFT work exhibition and Otsuka Beer Festival were held in the parking lot of the ba02 building. An after-party was also held at ping pong ba in the basement of the ba01 building, making it a fulfilling program of "drinking, eating, and learning" about NFT.

It is very significant that such a large-scale event was held in Otsuka and attracted so much interest. At the same time, Web 3.0 events tend to be held in Shibuya and Minato Ward, but the fact that so many people gathered in Otsuka is proof that the number of people interested in the field of Web 3.0 is increasing.

"Toshima Ward as the hub of Web 3.0"

It was a moment when we got a glimpse of the expectations people have in these words.

Images: TOKYO OTSUKA NFT FES, Iolite