Meta to hold Metaverse Expo Japan 2022

Meta, formerly known as Facebook, together with dozens of Japanese companies and organisations, will hold an exhibition in late July to showcase metaverse-related products and services. 

Metaverse Expo Japan 2022 will be attended by about 30 companies, organisations and government agencies driving the metaverse business. It will be held in Tokyo on July 27 and 28. There will be exhibition booths and conferences in which invited experts will share their views.

An exhibition hall in the Grand Hyatt Tokyo hotel, the event’s venue, will be set up with features resembling a metaverse space in order to allow visitors to have a taste of being in a virtual world. The event, however, will not be held in the metaverse.

Executives from various companies, organisations and public authorities will give speeches during the conferences. They include Shinichiro Sanji, Partner at PwC Consulting and Director of the Technology Laboratory, who will give a seminar on “Global trends in the metaverse from a technology x investment perspective.” 

Eiichiro Omata, Director of the Public Policy Division, Japan; Yasunari Ueda, Deputy Director of Content Industry Division from the Commerce and Information Policy Bureau under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry; and Yuto Kunitake, chairman of NPO Virtual Rights, will discuss “New rules required for the metaverse.”

Yasushi Funakoshi, director of HIKKY, will talk about “New era business possibilities in the metaverse – the past and future of the virtual market.” Yukiko Endo, director of blockchain game The Sandbox for Japan; Kohei Nakamura, founder of Token Pocket; and Kazuhiro Mizuno, president of Minto, will discuss a variety of topics related to the metaverse, including “The future of the metaverse – The Sandbox’s challenge”. Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth, chief technology officer of Meta, will also give a speech via a video call.

Organisers and sponsors include Meta, CyberMetaverse Productions, Dai Nippon Printing, NTT Docomo, PwC Consulting, Softbank and Toppan Printing. Participating companies and organisations include Namco Bandai Entertainment, Bascule, CyberAgent, CoinCheck, HIKKY, IMAGICA EEX, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kadokawa Dwango Academy, Media Do, Microsoft Japan, NPO Virtual Rights, Pixiv. Pixiv, PERSOL MARKETING, Rakuten Mobile, rinna, The Sandbox, SHIBUYA109 Entertainment, TV Tokyo, Thirdverse, University of Tokyo’s Research Centre for Advanced Science and Technology, W TOKYO.