Why Cities Should Treat Citizens Like Regulars at a Yakitori Stall: A startup-friendly DX plan for municipalities

どうも〜おかむーです！

• Municipalities are adopting digital services (e.g., Okazaki City now lets My Number cards act as medical recipient cards), but outreach and procurement still lag.
• My childhood in my family’s yakitori shop taught me human-first design; my ReCone project proved Web3 can bring mainstream communities in.
• Proposal: a startup-friendly DX sandbox + open, community-driven procurement that uses avatar/AI content for citizen engagement.

結論

Local governments can speed up citizen-centered digital transformation by opening a lightweight, continuous procurement sandbox for startups, publishing transparent RFPs like code on GitHub, and funding modular pilot services (AI-driven short video outreach, membership-based communities) that echo real-world human touch — no massive budget or bureaucracy required.

本文

I grew up in my parents' yakitori shop “Hodohodo” from age five, helping out as the signboard kid. That place taught me one thing again and again: people respond to warmth, familiarity, and simple rituals — not to big, impersonal systems. At Kyutech and later in the startup world I learned how to turn that human insight into products.

Fast forward: as founder of no plan inc. I helped launch ReCone — a metaverse/community platform that used NFTs to create a holder-only space for mainstream creator, Non (能年玲奈). We had to explain blockchain in plain language, set up clear onboarding, and design social rituals so non-crypto fans felt at home. The result: real people joined and participated, not just crypto natives. That taught me how to connect emerging tech to everyday folk.

Now look at municipalities: this is a real challenge. For example, Okazaki City has taken a concrete step by allowing My Number cards to be used as medical recipient certificates (Okazaki City official site). At the same time, national guides (e.g., the CAO’s guidebook on promoting startup participation in public procurement) show the policy push: governments want startups in procurement but the entry path is still bumpy. The gap is clear — tech is ready, people want better services, but procurement and citizen engagement are two weak links.

So here's a practical idea that mixes my yakitori-rooted human-first mindset (A) with what worked in ReCone (B) to solve the municipal problem (C):

1) Open a rolling "Startup DX Sandbox" for Cities

• Publish lightweight, modular RFPs publicly (think GitHub repo for city needs: specs, evaluation criteria, small grant amounts). This mirrors the transparency I practice with my own policy repo and lowers legal friction for startups.
• Make rounds monthly so teams can iterate quickly rather than wait for annual procurement cycles.

2) Fund tiny community pilots, not monoliths

• Allow cities to buy or sponsor 3–6 month pilots under ¥3M thresholds (low risk). Use standard APIs (identity via My Number where appropriate, LINE official accounts for messaging — Okazaki already uses LINE for citizen contact) so solutions plug into existing channels.

3) Prioritize human-first engagement tech

• Sponsor services like avatar-driven short videos (inspired by my team's content automation work) to explain policy changes, vaccination info, or municipal events in a friendly, localized way.
• Support community membership models (in the spirit of ReCone) for participatory budgeting, volunteer coordination, or heritage projects — people pay attention to belonging.

4) Measure and publish results

• Require open dashboards and public postmortems. This reduces duplication and creates a marketplace of proven micro-solutions that other cities can adopt.

This approach answers both sides: municipalities get fresh, usable services (and real pilot data), while startups get repeatable, low-friction procurement opportunities encouraged in national guides to expand startup participation.

まとめ

• Problem: municipalities are digitizing (My Number for medical cards is an example) but procurement and citizen engagement still block impact.
• Root insight: human rituals and community matter — learned at my parents’ yakitori shop.
• Practical fix: rolling DX sandboxes, small pilot funding, human-first tech (avatar videos, membership communities), and public results. Simple, repeatable, and scalable.

おかむーから一言

I want cities to feel like your favorite local spot — familiar, useful, and full of people you trust. Tech can make that happen without losing the human touch. Let’s build it together!