the 27th of last month, Ichihara City used NTT’s virtual space platform “DOOR” to hold a recruitment information session for city employees on the metaverse. This was the first time the city held an information session on the metaverse. Specifically, separate spaces were created for clerical positions, public health nurse positions, and firefighter positions, and applicants used avatars to participate in the space for the job they were applying for. A total of nine people participated, including seven applicants for clerical positions, one for public health nurse positions, and one for firefighter positions.

The city recognized that in-person information sessions can be difficult to attend due to time and distance restrictions, and that conference systems such as Zoom tend to make it difficult for city employees to explain things to participants one-sidedly, making communication difficult.

Naoki Nakata, head of the Information Policy Division of the General Affairs Department of the city, commented on the metaverse information session, “We had more in-depth discussions than we would have had in-person. It was good in terms of mutual understanding.”
Participants commented, “I wanted to try out a new initiative (called the metaverse),” and “It was easier to talk because you couldn’t see the other person’s face when using avatars.”
Nakata cited the communication environment as an issue. “I don’t know if it was the city’s communication environment or the other party’s, but there were some parts where I couldn’t hear what was being said properly, so I’d like to consider what to do about this in the future,” he said. As for the metaverse, the plan is to use it for other events while thinking of matching content.

NTT East’s Chiba Division supported the planning and management of this briefing.
Hanyu Kenji, a section manager in charge of urban development promotion at the company, said, “The metaverse is a technology of the future, but we believe it will become commonplace in the future. Ichihara City is looking forward to various ideas, so we would like to take on the challenge together with them through trial and error.”