Innovations to transform “mental barriers” into “admiration”
People Design Institute and KMD — “Super Welfare Expo”
The “Super Welfare Expo” has been held each year since 2014 to encourage the banishment of “mental barriers” toward minority groups, including persons with disabilities, as well as people’s essential conception of welfare itself. The official title of this year’s event was: “2020 Shibuya Exposition — Experiencing the Everyday of Super Welfare.” The NPO People Design Institute plays a central role in unveiling workshops and symposiums open to all along with exhibits of cool technologies and designs which inspire admiring responses in all those who encounter them in the setting of an energetic city that embraces cultural diversity. Institute Trustee Kazuhisa Matsuoka and Director Masahiro Tanaka explain, “Going even beyond current notions of diversity and inclusion, we wish to broadcast from Shibuya on super welfare in daily life, which can transform what was previously considered an object of sympathy into something that is regarded as being cool.” The expo attracts younger generations by strongly promoting elements of art, fashion, and technology, and by 2019, it had grown into a major event visited by 75,000 people. Large corporations also actively exhibit at the expo, and there are now over 100 corporate sponsors at events across 11 venues in Shibuya ward.
The KMD Real Projects “Superhuman Sports” and “Embodied Media” have played a major part in the Super Welfare Expo since its launch. Professor Kota Minamizawa says, “Both Real Projects grapple with inclusive design to ‘create a society that anyone can enjoy,’ and the concept of super welfare is especially exciting. The expo has become an opportunity for those at KMD to promote new projects based on the ideas they are exposed to at the event.” For example, the “Musiarm” born from research on prosthetic limbs is a prosthetic hand that has the function of a musical instrument. By perceiving disabilities not as obstacles but as blank pages to be filled, something like a prosthetic hand can be freely customized as an instrument. Additionally, “Sli-de-lift” is a power-assist wheelchair that makes drift locomotion possible. Not only will this be used at sites of care provision but through the creation of, for example, performance arts in which this wheelchair is conceived of as a new body, it is giving everyone the opportunity to confidently express themselves based on how they actually feel.
2020 is also a decisive year for the Super Welfare Expo as it will be held for the last time. Additionally, KMD is planning to co-host with the British Council the “Disability Innovation Summit Tokyo 2020,” an international conference on welfare and innovation, in Shibuya on the day before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, and this will further enhance the city’s role as a platform to circulate the latest information on welfare. Matsuoka and Tanaka both add, “The Super Welfare Expo has established itself as a hub both for innovation and connecting people. With each hosting of the event, new projects and technologies have emerged one after the other. We hope to maintain this momentum to further expand going forward.” It seems the day when the mental barriers that clearly existed five years ago will finally dissolve is not far off.
Matsuoka Kazuhisa, Trustee
NPO People Design Institute
Masahiro Tanaka, Director
NPO People Design Institute
