Japanese corporate technology blew away the high school students' anxieties about the future.

The Dentsu Group's cross-organizational unit, the Future Business Research Institute, supports corporate business creation and transformation by visualizing the future. Rather than waiting for a predicted pessimistic future, we visualize a sustainable "future we want to create" for people and society. We assist client companies daily in creating future-oriented businesses and formulating purpose and vision to realize that future.

In September 2023, with the cooperation of SHIBUYA109 lab., we conducted a survey of high school students about the future of Japan. The results revealed that 88.9% felt "somewhat anxious" and 11.1% felt "anxious."

However, when Future Business Creation Research collaborated with TOPPAN—which dropped "Printing" from its name to signify its expanding role in diverse technologies and know-how for manufacturing and content creation—and SHIBUYA109 lab., a youth marketing agency specializing in Generation Z, to hold a half-day "Shibuya Future Creation Conference" for high school students, a significant shift in their perspectives emerged.

This time, we introduce why the high school students' perspectives changed and what kind of workshop was conducted.

<Table of Contents>

▼What's the difference between those excited about the future and those anxious about it?

▼Starting by honestly facing the question:"What do you truly want?"

▼TOPPAN's technology as a catalyst for imagining an exciting future

▼Exposing high schoolers to cutting-edge corporate tech also boosts employer branding!?

▼The experience of envisioning "the future you want to create" fuels motivation for the future

What's the difference between those excited about the future and those anxious about it?

When thinking about Japan's future, many have encountered pessimistic predictions: population decline, super-aging, talent drain overseas...

The Future Business Research Institute receives numerous consultations regarding corporate vision communication. Often, the target audience is young people. "We want to spark interest among the younger generation." "We want to communicate a vision that resonates with young people." Many companies want to know what kind of future they should present to gain young people's empathy and spark their interest and expectations in their company and its strengths. Therefore, based on this emerging corporate need, Future Business Creation Research decided to leverage the experience and insights gained from our past initiatives to create a space for young people to think about "Career × Future."

This might be a slight digression, but as the data at the beginning also shows, what struck me most was how many people feel anxious about the future. Perhaps they've heard negative predictions about the future and feel a vague unease. On the other hand, through my daily interactions with people from all kinds of companies at Future Business Creation Research, I've realized that I myself have started looking forward to the future.

When I considered why this difference exists, I arrived at two reasons. First, I am constantly exposed to the incredible power of corporate "technology." Second, I have started thinking about what we can do now for the future, using a backcasting approach. Therefore, I thought that if there were an opportunity to experience the latest technological innovations and to create the future they themselves want to build, participants might realize that their anxiety about the future can be transformed into a positive outlook depending on their own actions. This led to the creation of the workshop.

We focused on "high school students" this time, as they are strongly influenced by upcoming societal changes and will be central to making the future society better. Many of these 15- to 17-year-olds will be entering society in ten years. Straddling childhood and adulthood, they will transition over this decade from being educated in school to taking on roles as working members of society, engaging with the world in new ways. What kind of future do high school students envision today? What kind of catalyst could make them feel positive about the future? We wanted this generation, experiencing particularly significant life changes, to hold onto hope that they can create a more exciting future.

The fields of "elemental technologies" and "materials," essential for developing new services and products that change the future, are also areas of Japanese strength. By creating touchpoints with companies' unique technologies and know-how that have the potential to transform society, can we build high school students' expectations for an exciting future? Can we spark their interest in technology and change their thinking about their future paths?
Based on these hypotheses, the "Shibuya Mirai Sōzō Conference" project progressed, and we enlisted the support of TOPPAN and SHIBUYA109 lab.

The "Shibuya Mirai Sōzō Conference" is a half-day workshop where high school students recruited by SHIBUYA109 lab. are introduced to TOPPAN's technological innovations. They then imagine future lifestyles and create ideas for social networking services that will make the future happier.

Starting by honestly facing the question: "What do you really want?"

The workshop participants were nine high school students who had expressed anxiety about the future in the preliminary survey presented at the outset.

Focusing on the theme "Future SNS that makes the world happy," they explored what could be possible in the future with SNS serving various roles—connecting people, exchanging information, and more. Rather than focusing on "how things are now," they concentrated on "how things should ideally be," brainstorming ideas for technologies that would make the future something to look forward to.

The Shibuya Mirai Sōzō Conference was conducted in three parts:

1. Participants honestly confronted the question "What do you truly want?" and discussed it in teams.
2. Lecture from TOPPAN on the latest technologies
3. Conceptualizing ideas based on what they truly want to do and the latest technology

"What do you truly want?" At the Future Business Creation Lab, we place immense importance on this question every day. There are no absolutes in the future, and there are no right answers. There's no need for guesswork or speculation. I believe the future can only be changed by freely envisioning a future that excites us and makes us lean forward, and then taking the first step towards making it a reality.

Therefore, in Part 1, we first identified each individual's honest desires by asking, "What kind of SNS do you truly wish existed?" and held discussions.

TOPPAN's technology serves as a catalyst for envisioning an exciting future.

In Part 2, Shu Tanabe, Team Leader of TOPPAN's Virtual Human Project, spoke about the company's cutting-edge technological capabilities.

TOPPAN is a company tackling all kinds of business challenges, consumer challenges, and social challenges through "creating things" and "creating experiences."

Mr. Tanabe explained TOPPAN's initiatives, including case studies and the future of communication technology, focusing on the following three points:

1. Using information delivery methods ranging from printing technology to digital technologies like web and 3DCG, and conducting business even on new media platforms like the metaverse.
2. Constantly considering what kind of content would be engaging when exchanged on new media, and conducting business in planning and event management.
3. Technology enabling new forms of communication, built on the components of "content," "media," and "technology," is evolving daily.

When he told the high school students, "It's your generation that will create the future media and new forms of communication," some students watching the video of the latest technology examples at leaned forward, eyes sparkling, exclaiming, "This technology already exists today!"

Exposing high schoolers to cutting-edge corporate tech could also boost employer branding!?

We'll cover Part 3 in our next article, but the half-day workshop ended on a high note. When we surveyed the nine high school students again after they returned to their daily lives, we saw significant changes from their pre-workshop responses.

Regarding society and the Earth around 2030, before the workshop, 6 out of 9 respondents answered "Somewhat anxious" or "Anxious." After the workshop, the number answering "Excited" or "Somewhat excited" increased dramatically. Only one person still answered "Somewhat anxious."

Furthermore, regarding Japan around 2030, while no one had answered "excited" or "somewhat excited" beforehand, after the workshop, 6 out of 9 respondents answered "excited" or "somewhat excited."
Free comments also yielded positive responses such as "I saw a new world," "My perspective broadened," "It gave me a chance to think about my own and society's future," "I learned about the latest technological innovations," and "I want to gain more diverse information."

Furthermore, when asked how their image of TOPPAN changed after participating in the workshop, interesting results emerged.

Not only did it provide an opportunity to understand TOPPAN's business activities and its use of cutting-edge technology, but all participating high school students responded that they "thought it was a company with a promising future."

Furthermore, many comments during the workshop indicated growing interest in TOPPAN. When asked if TOPPAN could become a company they would consider for future employment, all participants answered "Yes" or "I would consider it."

This experience suggests that connecting high school students with Japanese companies possessing cutting-edge technology not only helps achieve the goal of making students look forward to the future, but also appears to hold significance for corporate recruitment branding.

Experiences envisioning "the future we want to create" fuel motivation for the future

Whether one feels hopeful about the future ultimately begins with learning about it.
If students have opportunities to learn about technology evolving at incredible speeds every day, wouldn't their anxiety about the future lessen and their sense of excitement increase? Could envisioning their own "Desired Future" become a catalyst for looking forward to the future or a motivation for taking proactive action? Through this workshop, we feel these hypotheses of the Future Business Creation Lab have been proven.

When we asked the participating high school students for their impressions after working on this for half a day, we heard comments like the following:

"I realized again how challenging it is to think about problems without clear answers, but it was fun."

"I'd only ever gotten information online before, but hearing directly from adults about the kinds of things they're doing in business right now made me wonder if I could do that kind of work someday too. It was exciting."

"Today completely flipped my perspective on social media. I'd only imagined a world of text on X or images on Instagram, but learning how technology expands into metaverses and 3D worlds was incredibly valuable!"

"Among all the technologies out there, I realized technology alone doesn't create the future. It's only when you have something you want to do or an ideal that it truly comes to life."

"Trends aren't just about technology; they're born from the synergy of the culture and environment of the time. I realized that it's my own desires and ideas that connect with technology."

"I felt like we can change our own future. I hope I can spend my time in a way that helps me achieve what I want to do in the future."

"I was anxious about the future because I hadn't decided what I wanted to do. While I haven't made a clear decision yet, this was a good opportunity to start figuring it out. I want to research and gather information, and take proactive steps forward."

Finally, Mr. Tanabe from TOPPAN concluded by quoting Alan Kay, the father of the personal computer:

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.

Alan Kay

This is precisely the mindset we cherish at the Future Business Creation Research Institute as we engage with companies daily. Rather than predicting what will become popular or what events are predicted to happen, if we change our actions now toward the "future we want to create," the future will materialize in that direction.

We planned this Shibuya Mirai Souzou Conference as an opportunity for high school students to experience this firsthand. Seeing the clear reactions from participants, it resonated deeply with them, confirming that our daily efforts toward the future are on the right track.

In our next article, we'll introduce the ideas for "SNS that makes the future happy" developed together with high school students during the half-day workshop. Stay tuned!

Contact: Future Business Research Institute (Contacts: Yoshida, Yamada) &nbsp;
future@dentsu.co.jp

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【Graphic Recording & Report Production Support】
Dentsu Inc. Graphic Recording Institute (Artwork: Ryo Miyamoto / Production Support: Chiharu Kai)
Dentsu Graphic Recording Lab is a cross-group project team within the Dentsu Group dedicated to providing and researching visualization services centered on graphic recording.
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/labo/grareco/index.html
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