QA with Leon Erichsen

1. What do you see as the most urgent or overlooked issues in Japanese society today?

What do you think is the most urgent or overlooked problem in Japanese society today?

Many people think that the development of AI is not "a change in the environment that affects everyone" but only "a change in the tools used by some people." Some people criticize the manifesto of Anno et al. by saying that it is "about means and not ideology." Plurality's "Three Ideologies for the 21st Century" is a discussion about how to deal with technology, but I don't think the framework of that discussion is understood yet. This is an overlooked issue.

The most urgent issue is that the pension system is failing due to the declining birthrate and aging population. The younger working generation will suffer from the burden of social security contributions to support the elderly and accumulate hate toward the elderly generation. In a democracy, "the elderly, who outnumber the young," have more power, and politicians also focus their activities on the elderly. As this intergenerational conflict grows, the forces that seek to wrest power back from the elderly through violence, rather than through democracy, become stronger.

2. How would you describe your role in the Mirai movement -- what you do, and how you feel within it?

2. how would you describe your role in the MIRAI movement - what you do and how you feel in it?

When Anno was running for Governor of Tokyo, she was working on a project to visualize public opinion using Talk to the City. Anno has been involved in the design phase of kouchou-ai, an OSS tool for broad listening released by Anno in March, and is one of the code owners. (The main developer is Sumino Nasuka, who is running as one of the candidates in this election.)

As for this campaign, I don't think we have done any obvious and conspicuous activities because we are looking at various information as an engineering ranger and doing activities where necessary. This time, for the Team Mirai volunteers, we have made the AI agent Devin available for unlimited use by those who wish to use it. We implemented a backend for visualization of the amount of donations received by the team. We implemented a visualization of volunteers' geographic locations based on their zip codes; we created a mechanism for AI to process over 2,000 proposed amendments to policy proposals published on GitHub. To summarize, one might say that we are facilitating information distribution.

3. If Mirai were to succeed, what kind of Japan do you imagine? What would feel different in daily life?

If MIRAI were to succeed, what kind of Japan do you imagine? What would be different in your daily life?

Depends on the definition of success. We believe there is a fairly high probability that the party will be successful. In that case, we will have a pro-technology party with a leader who has a solid experiential understanding of using AI to improve productivity. I see this as akin to blowing a hole in the dike. If a hole is drilled, water flows through it and the hole gets bigger and bigger.

I have not discussed and agreed with Anno on this topic, but I believe it is also related to Answer 1. I think it would be good if the energy of intergenerational conflict were used to make the system better through technology rather than through the use of force through physical violence. I believe that by creating an initial pathway to this end, we will succeed in the long run in alleviating the problems of an aging society without becoming violent.

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I was curious whether you’ve seen moments where this generational conflict has already tipped into more emotionally or physically violent territory. You described the risk so clearly -- and I can see how that underlying tension could easily intensify.

I was curious if you have seen a moment when this generational conflict has already plunged into emotionally or physically violent territory. You have described the risks very clearly, but I can see how the underlying tension could easily intensify.

Police are troubled by the increase in fraud cases targeting the elderly.

2024: 21,043 cases, 71.88 billion yen, +10.5% (number of cases)/+58.8% (value) from the previous year

The perpetrators of this scam are known to conduct their training with narratives such as "The elderly are hoarding money because it is their death money, and it is justice to take it and distribute it to the poor," or "Our generation is the victims who are forced to pay high Social Security contributions and will not be able to receive the benefits themselves because they will be bankrupt by the time they reach the elderly. It is known that the training is based on the narrative that "our generation is the victim.

Violent behavior includes

Famous for a widespread robbery that took place in 2022.

This past June, another 140 thefts targeting the homes of elderly people while they were sleeping occurred, and three suspects, including a 25-year-old suspect, were arrested.

We know that Telegram was used in the former case, and I think the main problem is that it increases the security of the ringleaders and the know-how gained in the execution is distributed while maintaining anonymity.

Kouchou-AI is based on Talk to the City, with additional functionality added based on the need felt from practice in Japan by Yasuno and others.

It is being actively developed in Digital Democracy 2030.

Devin is not something we created, but a service provided by Cognition, of which Scott Wu is CEO.

I, Aoyama-san, and anno-san have been users in Japan since the very early days, and recently Scott Wu asked us to have a dialogue with him, so we made a YouTube video.

This Refferal has provided Mr. Anno with ample credits. He uses it to provide team members, including supporters (volunteers), with an environment where they can use AI agents without worrying about the budget.

The latter is the development by the polantia, this latter statistic can be seen here (I made this one up too).

I think a mechanism to involve citizens in PR prioritization is an important element in the long run; I read the Plural Management paper by Glen et al. and saw it used in the Plurality Book project. My understanding is that they are aware of the same issues.

On the other hand, I think there is a tradeoff between democracy and decision-making speed. It would be hard to use it when the election is only a few weeks away.

I think this kind of democratic system should not only be implemented at election time, but also on a daily basis. In order to create such a situation, I think we are now in the phase of making more people aware that such a future is possible by taking advantage of the attention that elections attract.

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