Metaverse schooling to help Japanese city combat growing absenteeism

The Japanese city of Toda, Saitama, adopted a metaverse-schooling service to encourage students — especially those staying far away from school — to attend their classes. 

The metaverse schooling service opted for by the city of Toda allows students to explore the campus and study in virtual classrooms. However, the students must get approval from respective school principals for attendance via metaverse schooling, confirms local media NHK.

Government data showed that 244,940 Japanese elementary and junior high school students were absent for at least 30 days in FY 2021. NHK's report highlighted a fifth grader's interest in chatting online instead of attending school in person. While the child has not physically attended school in over two years, they shared an interest in meeting up with friends to play outdoor games, such as tag.

While ongoing efforts to improve school attendance remain a challenge, Japanese officials are placing their bets on metaverse schooling to help students connect with the people around them.

Sugimori Masayuki, the head of Toda’s education center, hopes to see metaverse students grow up and eventually live independently in society.

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The city of Fukuoka announced a collaboration with Astar Japan Labs as it strives to become the Web3 hub of Japan.

The mayor of Fukuoka, Soichiro Takashima, confirmed the city’s aspirations to lead the Web3 drive, as he stated:

“We have to do in the context of Web3 what large companies did for the world when Japan was strong.”

Astar Network founder Sota Watanabe revealed his intentions to “work closely with Fukuoka City to attract more developers and more entrepreneurs.”