Japan: Imagination Lab Event Held as Next Generation Co-creation Activity for Expo 2025
On Sunday, August 4, an Imagination Lab event was held at the Osaka Science & Technology Center with 30 participants, mainly from the fourth to sixth grades. The Imagination Lab was started by the Panasonic Group to mark two years to go to Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. It is designed to work with children to imagine and create the future. In the lab we work with children on activities under the "Designing Future Society for Our Lives" theme of the Expo and to achieve the SDGs, allowing them to have the experience of having dreams and hope toward the future.
So far, we have held diverse events for various teams of people. For example, in April 2023 we held the first event at the Panasonic Center Tokyo with special guest Ms. Yuko Nagayama, an architect involved in the design of the Panasonic Group's Expo pavilion called The Land of NOMO. The event took the form of a workshop allowing the children to imagine and create a children's expo to be held in the year 2100.
This event, the fourth one, was a workshop on the topic of transforming Matemons by combining the children's ideas with AI. Matemon is a term for characters created using the materials handled by the Panasonic Group. The children came up with ideas to transform these Matemons.
Matemons want to collect "happy energy" to be of help to someone, so the children thought in various ways how to make the Matemons transform so that they can create happiness. The collected ideas were turned into visuals using generative AI software, then the children presented their ideas with the illustrations. It was an enjoyable time for children to use their imaginations and creativity.
The Matemons will also appear in virtual pavilions exhibited publicly for the Expo and in school visits by the Panasonic Group with the Expo School Caravan* organized by the Cabinet Secretariat.
Original Panasonic characters created from Expo co-creation activities to embody the materials and technologies created from such materials. (see here for details)
Some of the Matemons created by the children
(left) Yaruki-Bako (Motivating Wooden Box) / (right) Denkyuman (Light Bulb Man)
*The Expo School Caravan was announced by the Cabinet Secretariat on September 13. Taking the opportunity of the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, it will serve as a chance for school children throughout Japan to consider societies of tomorrow and to take action for the future. The program will work with companies exhibiting and sponsoring the Expo to reach elementary, junior high, high school and special needs schools throughout Japan as part of classes to learn about the SDGs and similar topics. It will reach around 200 schools in FY2024. The Panasonic Group will conduct around ten school visits from October.
<Related links>
Imagination Lab Vol. 4 Report Page
About the Expo 2025, Osaka, Kansai, Japan
Overview
Time period: 184 days from Sunday, April 13 to Monday, October 13, 2025
Location: Yumeshima, Osaka
Panasonic Group's Expo Pavilion: The Land of NOMO
The Panasonic Group is developing its business to realize "an ideal society offering material and spiritual affluence." The name of the Panasonic Group Pavilion, "The Land of NOMO" is based on the idea that "how you perceive something changes considerably based on your mindset," and that "minds and objects are like mirrors." At The Land of NOMO, the Group will seek to provide opportunities for every child to find "the strength to believe in themselves and the courage to take the first step" through experiences that change their mindsets.
The Panasonic Group's Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan website
