{"id":31542,"date":"2024-05-28T12:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T03:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=31542"},"modified":"2024-05-28T12:44:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T03:44:01","slug":"the-japanese-government-made-a-metaverse-to-combat-loneliness-and-it-went-horribly-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-japanese-government-made-a-metaverse-to-combat-loneliness-and-it-went-horribly-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"The Japanese government made a metaverse to combat loneliness and it went horribly wrong\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japan enacted a law to prevent loneliness and isolation on April 1, 2024. This law obliges local governments in Japan to make efforts towards tackling the societal issue of loneliness. It seems that one of these efforts have taken the shape of a government-funded metaverse called Plat-verse<\/strong> (jp: \u3077\u3089\u3063\u3068\u3070\uff5e\u3059). However, something about the metaverse\u2019s design obviously went horribly wrong, as it seems almost like it\u2019s meant to promote loneliness rather than battle it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the passing of the \u201cAct on the Advancement of Measures to Address Loneliness and Isolation\u201d, May has been proclaimed the month of Countermeasures Against Loneliness and Isolation in Japan. Thus, during May, Japanese users can access Plat-verse<\/a>, which is described as a virtual space where anyone can casually enter, relax and experience various content. There\u2019s one catch though \u2013 you can\u2019t communicate with anyone else in the metaverse by any means, and there\u2019s basically no content.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Plat-verse<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the Plat-verse’s existence was not that widely known, but a recent review by Japanese sociologist and author Noritoshi Furuichi has made it blow up \u2013 and not in a good way. In a post on X<\/a>, Furuichi calls the government\u2019s metaverse \u201cunbelievably bad\u201d and \u201cutterly shocking,\u201d citing the fact that all communication between users (voice chat, text chat) is prohibited. As soon as you enter Plat-verse, he says, an avatar called \u201cSecurity\u201d approaches you, asks you to mute yourself and keeps a watch on you to make sure you don\u2019t attempt to communicate with others.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut if you can\u2019t communicate with others, surely there are other things you can do, like playing games, right?\u201d Furuichi asks rhetorically. But in fact, there is no form of activity in Plat-verse. \u201cAt best, you can get redirected to the government\u2019s homepage,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think you couldn\u2019t find a metaverse as lonely as this if you searched the whole world. I feel genuine concern for the people who launched this as the centerpiece of a campaign against loneliness and isolation,\u201d Furuichi laments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The author of this article could not access Plat-verse without being removed instantly, but the page leading to the metaverse warns you to turn off your microphone and camera, as well as the fact that chat is forbidden. The project appears to include educational\/awareness raising seminars scheduled throughout the month, but it seems these redirect to YouTube<\/a> rather than taking place inside of the metaverse. As Noritoshi Furuichi describes it, it really is \u201ca place that causes hopeless feelings of loneliness.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Japanese Cabinet Office made Plat-verse, a metaverse to battle loneliness where you can’t talk to others or do anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":31546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-31542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Japanese government made a metaverse to combat loneliness and it went horribly wrong\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Japanese Cabinet Office made Plat-verse, a metaverse to battle loneliness where you can't talk to others or do anything.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-japanese-government-made-a-metaverse-to-combat-loneliness-and-it-went-horribly-wrong\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Japanese government made a metaverse to combat loneliness and it went horribly wrong\u00a0 - 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