Selling and buying goods and services, running local government, maintaining public infrastructure, and making laws… this is a city which resembles any other city — except one thing: this city is run almost entirely by children under 18.

Mini-Kawasaki, a miniature city within Kawasaki City, just across the river from southern Tokyo with population of 1.5 million, pops up two days in every October.

Play City concept was first hatched in Munich, Germany, in the late 70s. In every late July to early August, their city, Mini-Munich, has since been a great opportunity to rethink what a city is, and can be. The concept has now been spread around the world. There are more than 300 initiatives throughout Japan, one of which is Mini-Kawasaki.

Eriko, as part of her community activities, has been leading Mini-Kawasaki since its foundation. Because the initiative is full of implications for UX design, this year we are sponsoring the event by assigning Konomi as a field operations assistant throughout the project. She will also be reporting the wide range of preparations from UX design perspectives.

The project kicked off in May and has been gearing up toward July, when they will welcome this year’s new children, new citizens of the city. Visit their website to see what’s going on. Interested in participating / sponsoring? Please contact Konomi and she will help you out.