Local Government Measures Utilizing Content— Issues and opportunities for local government collaboration utilizing Anime,Game and eSports —Atsushi Sekiyama

Culture, Sports, and Tourism Department
Tourism Division
Yokosuka City

1. Introduction

The most important goal of regional governments is topromote the welfare of residents within their regions. As such,they must take multi-faceted approaches to solve various issues
arising from that goal. One such approach is to use collaboration
through eSports and content such as anime. Here, we introduce
some opportunities that Yokosuka City has found and used withthis approach.

2. Action plan to promote a tourism-based
city

Since World War II, Yokosuka City has been built
on manufacturing in industries such as automobiles andship-building, and has more-recently been trying to shift to
information and communication related industries. However,these industries are vulnerable to global conditions and withrecent developments in new technologies such as automatedmanufacturing and AI, they are becoming industries that do not
as directly result in employment.
To deal with changes in conditions such as declining
population and the mind-boggling changes in the global economy
and the structure of industry, it is important to diversify the
structure of industry within a city. In Japan, with its declining
and aging population, it will be difficult to plan for increases inpermanent residents in the future, so industries that attract people
from outside will be important.
Under such conditions, it will be important to cultivate
tourism as a new core industry and build it into a major industry.
As such, Yokosuka City has created a tourism-based city
promotion action plan, identifying three main directions. The
first is to develop a “Marine City” with rich marine products andleisure activities. The second is to develop a “Music, Sports andEntertainment City” that will provide excitement for everyone.
The third is to develop a “City with local communities that havetheir own personality,” providing a base for schools and local
residents to work together on various initiatives.
We plan to implement these, integrating nature, Japaneseheritage, and recent history with sports, music and entertainment,
strengthening our communication capabilities through synergistic
effects, creating differentiation with other regions, and thus
attracting visitors from groups that have not given Yokosuka muchconsideration in the past, such as women, families and foreign
visitors.

Eriko Oyamada

Culture, Sports, and Tourism Department
Tourism Division
Yokosuka City

We have various collaboration efforts with this approach at thecore, which makes our local government extremely easy to workwith compared to others.

3. History of collaboration measures

Yokosuka is in a good location, within an hour of metropolitan
areas, but it is far enough to require a reason to go and there areother tourism sites nearby, such as Yokohama and Kamakura. As
such, an extra push is needed to attract people to Yokosuka, so wehave begun using content collaboration as a primer to attract new
visitors.
We found that collaborations with Yokosuka City andsubculture content have worked very well. There was an action
plan to change the image of Yokosuka City. It was often used as
the setting in game content because its image was a bit edgy, andusers were familiar with many of the games.
The Yokosuka Cit y Tourism Division began suchcollaborations in 2013 with the “Tamayura” Gourmet Stamp
Rally. It became a must-see destination and attracted many fansthrough collaboration with Keikyu Railway and others.
The following year (2014), we started a campaign with a gamecalled Ingress, which was our first game collaboration. The gameused location information distributed by Google at the time andstaff were playing the game, which led to a collaboration proposal
and eventually to implementation.
Since then the Ingress startup team has gone independent,
as Niantic Inc., and launched other applications such as
Pokemon GO. Following the location-game event conducted incollaboration with Yokosuka City described above, another public
collaboration event was held in 2018 using Pokemon GO.
These events really raised awareness, for Yokosuka City andothers, that game content has the potential to move many people.
We held about two collaboration projects per year using
anime, manga, games, magazines and other media, and although
Yokosuka started to get a reputation that they would try anything,staff at the Tourism Division gained experience, became
accustomed to events involving copyright, and formed connections
with people in the industry.

4. Lessons learned from collaboration by
Yokosuka City

It is difficult to establish culture just by holding events. To
create sustainable initiatives requires involvement from many

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■ Figure 1: The administration’s ideal framework for development

people and awareness of the planning process needed to gain
acceptance by fans.
The administration must first take the initiative in searching
for, finding, and planning events, local businesses must take-overdevelopment and continuity, and fans must help form and expand
a community, establish the event, and earn a place as a must-see
destination for fans of the content. The ideal process is shown in
Figure 1. It is easy to think of content collaboration as transient,but with awareness of this process, even though each event istransient, we have had an increasing number of comments frompublishers, that Yokosuka City is becoming known for its agility,
and understanding of the various subcultures. The true value ofthese efforts will be shown as we continue with these initiatives.
However, if a plan ignores a global outlook, or does somethingthat could be done anywhere, fans will soon drift away. Whencreating plans, we must find aspects of Yokosuka that are
attractive and superior from the perspective of a fan, and build onthem. Making this the highest priority and planning to appeal tothe hearts of our core fans is what will draw their affection.
While it is also good for the administration to take initiative indrafting plans, the path to success is to gather as many colleagues
as possible, from related enterprises, local businesses or residents,and form scrums. The eSports project was implemented based on
this lesson.

5. eSports Initiatives

Based on connections cultivated in the various collaborative
events conducted by Yokosuka City and the Tokyo Game
Show, we studied plans to resolve various issues, and in 2019,
we released the Yokosuka eSports Project, in collaboration with

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partner enterprises. For this initiative we asked for collaborationin establishing eSports clubs in the city’s high schools, to lendthem high-performance PCs free-of-charge. As backgroundfor the initiative, PC manufacturers wanted to promote games
requiring high-performance PCs, and telecommunications
operators were very interested in the eSports market. The timingof these needs and the content of the plan matched, Yokosuka
City made the proposal to various enterprises, and we received
their endorsements. At the same time, Yokosuka City was also
considering holding eSports tournaments to promote eSports
culture in the city and to expand the culture of watching suchtournaments.
We have proceeded, knowing that Yokosuka City alone
would not be able to implement this support and there was doubt
whether it was even possible, so at times, we were reminded of theimportance of conveying our plans in this new field to as many
people as possible, to expand our group of partners.
As we moved into education environments, we also held
hearings with teachers and students who are acting as advisors,and continually worked to reflect their input into the initiative,
which is described below.

6. Reasons for the initiative

We have been asked why the administration has started
working in eSports. There are various answers to this, but we will
describe the four main reasons here. Beyond this initiative, wewant it to lead to creating new possibilities that Yokosuka City did
not have before and to increase the potential of the community
itself.

6.1 Expand possibilities for children
By increasing the choices for children, even by one, we can
expand their possibilities in the future. It is clear that there aremany different ways of learning and living, so more choices is also
good.
Becoming a professional player is not the only future pathfor being involved in eSports, and there are many others such as
working with an enterprise or event company in the eSports field,
being a streamer, or a game developer.
6.2 Anyone can be involved
In contrast with physical sports, eSports are a level playing
field that anyone can join, regardless of age, sex, disability,
language, physical strength or other factors. This could also
contribute to solving social issues. For example, introducing
eSports into facilities for the elderly could promote communication
between students and elderly people. From the perspective of local
governments, which are highly communal, eSports bring newvalue in that they are highly impartial and equitable.
6.3 Create opportunities locallyWith eSports, anyone can join, and a location does not haveto be found. If participants can get on line, they can compete withanyone in the world, so tournaments can be held at very small
scale, or covering the whole country. This is clearly not possible
with ordinary sports.
6.4 Topicality
eSports is now an often-heard expression, but three years ago,the fact that Yokosuka City was working on it was newsworthy,
and provided good PR that the city was agile and helped infinding interesting talent. From the initial release in 2019 tillnow, we have been called by various media, receiving plenty of
feedback. We have also heard from several enterprises, having readsome of these articles and thinking that Yokosuka City offices
could be a place that would hear their proposals, and this has leadto some actual projects.

7. Disadvantages and issues

A topic that cannot be separated from eSports is video gameaddiction. We spend much time discussing this when starting

the project, but at this stage there have not been any examplesof video game dependency arising from an eSports club. Rather,
we have seen scenarios where students show a surprisingly highlevel of awareness, such as discussing together and deciding how
much time to play. We were also prepared to receive criticism fromparents, but instead, we heard that parents wanted us to introduce
the program in more schools.
Even so, the possibility of game addition is not zero. As
someone promoting eSports, it is also important to ensure thatthose involved have accurate information regarding eSports,
through seminars and hearings, to give them a deeper
understanding of the issues.
One issue that we sensed in running the project was that the
shortage of staff in school education is a major problem. Thisis an issue in school education overall, not related to eSports.
Even when teachers were enthusiastic and wanted to let students
interested in eSports participate, they did not have time they could
allocate to being advisors, there was no space or funding to do it,
and no one that could lead the project. Yokosuka City would liketo provide any support that it can to resolve these types of issues.

8. Support to establish high-school eSports
clubs

8.1 Donating gaming PCs free-of-charge
We have secured the cooperation of INTEL, MSI Computer
Japan, NTT East, and TSUKUMO Inc., to provide up to fivePCs, monitors and peripheral devices free-of-charge for three
years to each of 13 city high schools that want to participate(Figure 2). All of these products were donated to Yokosuka City in
FY2021. Currently, eight schools have introduced the computers.
We had expected that many schools would naturally comeforward when the program was introduced, but in fact, very few
did, and only after we started going to individual schools to recruit
them and explaining the program, they began to join. When we
actually spoke to them, various concerns came to the surface,such as what to do for the network connection, how to pay for thegames themselves, and whether the program could be operated
without a person to lead it. We spoke in detail regarding operation
with each of the clubs to gain their agreement, and based on these
hearings, we added the following two points.

■ Figure 2: Partner companies donating PCs free-of-charge
学 校 対 応 ・ イ ベン ト

PC BrandCon ﬁgur a tio n

Clu b sta r t- u p su p p o r t p r o g r a m

C PU

N e tw o r k / S e c ur ity

Gam i ng d esk t op PC :“ G- GE A R Power ed by MS I”

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■ Figure 3: Structure for PC donations

8.2 Network installation support
Kanagawa prefecture high schools already had NURO
networks for student use, separate from that used by staff, sothese could be used by simply having the participating schools
report it to the prefectural education committee. However, almost
none of the private schools had networks that could be used forclub activity, and new connections had to be arranged. Yokosuka
City provided assistance for the initial costs, which were the firsthurdle.
We have asked each school to bear the running costs, either
through club fees or from the school’s activity fees.
8.3 Support student guidance programs
Some people were happy to receive a Gaming PC, but did notknow where to start with it, or have anyone who could teach thestudents. We realized that rather than starting completely in thedark, participants could only appreciate the attraction of eSports
and set meaningful personal or club goals with training from a
dedicated leader or pro.
As with other issues discussed above, it seemed that it would
be difficult for schools to carry the costs of programs provided byprivate enterprise, so we provided support in the form of course
fees, as a startup support measure.
We thought that it would be good to provide introductions
to various eSports program titles through people we had met forthe project, and by asking the professional eSports teams for theircooperation.
We are already conducting trials with several titles, and they
are meaningful both for students to experience valuable timeand guidance from pros and for businesses and eSports teams
to interact with the younger generation, so we hope that we can
expect even more active interaction in the future.

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9. Description of eSports project

An issue for the overall eSports industry is recognition. We
believe there will be business opportunities, once a culture ofwatching and supporting eSports spreads, and as the surrounding
adults reach a higher level of understanding. Our efforts justwithin Yokosuka City may not have great effect, but we areworking to increase the number of people that understand, even by
one person.
9.1 Seminars
We have held seminars to provide accurate knowledge
regarding eSports, both for businesses and for the general public.
For businesses in particular, we have discussed issues such assponsorship and cultivating a company’s own team.
9.2 eSports facilities
We have taken an approach oriented to high-school club
activity, but the number of PCs made available is much smaller
than the number of students, and time for such activity is limited.
We are also planning eSports facilities to increase opportunities
to try eSports, including pre-high-school students and others who
have finished school.
9.3 eSports tournaments
We have been holding eSports tournaments for high-school
students since FY2020. We hope eventually to invite large-scale
tournaments to Yokosuka City, but we will hold regular regional
tournaments in order to establish the eSports culture in the city.

10. Future objectives

It cannot be denied that some people are still skeptical about
eSports. While we are giving consideration to criticisms ofeSports, we are also actively working to gain understanding of thebenefits of eSports described above, from both business people andthose involved in schools.
Although we are promoting it through informational articles,
SNS and other means, it still feels inadequate. We need tocontinue our current activity on eSports projects, while also
strengthening promotional activities to attract the attention ofmany more people.
It is due to the interactions we have had with many businesses
in the past that we have been able to start and promote theseprojects. By expanding our circle of interaction with people
involved or interested in eSports, we have been able to support
projects.

■ Figure 4: Measures for securing funding

11. Issues and solutions

It is true that there are still many issues to be addressed incontinuing these efforts and having them take root as part of theculture of the city. We discuss various issues and ways to deal withthem below.
11.1 Projects die out due to staff changes
When personnel involved in a project change, it is difficult
for new people to take over the related know-how and personalconnections. It is also difficult to preserve enthusiasm andquality, so it is not unusual for projects to die out. This danger isparticularly high for projects initiated mainly local governments,
where personnel changes are common. To ensure a projectcontinues, it is important to have a key person from a private
enterprise as a partner for the local government organization.
11.2 Securing funding and importance of agility
Two weaknesses of projects led by local governments are thedifficulty in securing funding and the inability to move quickly.
For funding, a budget can be secured through crowd funding, byusing municipal taxes collected from private businesses, or throughsponsorships from collaborating or endorsing businesses.
Having cooperation and the driving force from a key personfrom a private business can help improve agility while also helping
to secure funding (Figure 4).

Finally, as a person in charge of eSports for the city, thefocus on eSports has steadily increased in the three years since
we started this project. As actual studies and reports are saying,
the eSports market is expanding every year, with more and more
people and companies wanting to get involved. We want to use
this time, when it is attracting so much attention, to increase
the number of colleagues that we can form scrums and workwith. By using each of our strengths, we can build an even larger
movement.

Cover Art

12. Conclusion

We have described a full picture of eSports projects conductedby Yokosuka City, but another result of these initiatives is togenerate new types of intergenerational interaction between
students and adults. eSports seem to be able to fill-in age andgeneration gaps easily. We hope that more active exchange
between generations, such as between students and the elderly,
will contribute to revitalization of Yokosuka City in the future.
eSports can also help strengthen communication skills, suchas helping senior students communicate with juniors in club
activity, even though they may be worried about making thoseconnections. It can also provide opportunities for students tocontribute their own strategies, designs, plans for club activities
and other ideas, which will also help them in the future.

kyotomeishonouchi shijogawarayuusuzumi(Cooling off in the Evening at Shijogawara(Famous Places of Kyoto))
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797~1858)
Collection of the Art Research Center (ARC)
Ritsumeikan University
Object number: arcBK06-0013_008

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