Arab News Japan

TOKYO: With Japan’s birthrate and population declining, cities and towns around Japan are looking at ways to persuade citizens to remain in their current location or to attract new residents, including foreign residents.

The city of Yokosuka, to the southwest of Tokyo, already has 7,000 long-term foreign residents, as well as 20,000 people living at the massive US naval base in the city. It hopes it can persuade people to make Yokosuka their permanent home.

As part of its campaign, the Yokosuka City government released a video on its website on Tuesday to outline the attractions and advantages of living in the city, but with a twist. The video appeared to feature Mayor KAMIJI Katsuaki speaking in English, but in fact it was an avatar of the mayor created using artificial intelligence.

“With the power of generative AI, we want to overcome language barriers and deliver information to more people,” a spokesperson for Yokosuka City said. “Yokosuka City has always sought ways to deliver information to as many people as possible. As part of this initiative, we will begin disseminating city information in English using a realistic mayor avatar that makes full use of generative AI technology, a first for a local government in Japan.”

The city believes the move will help to lower the language barrier and allow information to reach as many people as possible.

The video was made using generative AI service HayGen, which learned the mayor’s words and actions at press conferences and created an avatar that looks identical to him. The avatar’s English was created by inputting AI-generated English translations. The avatar’s facial expressions and English language also reflected the emotions inherent in the Japanese words.

Whether or not the message gets through to foreigners in Japan remains to be seen, but the mayor can now communicate in English with the city’s foreign residents.