How Local Governments Can Jumpstart DX — Lessons from a Yakitori Shop Kid Turned Web3 Founder

どうも〜おかむーです！

• Small towns struggle with scattered data and outdated administrative APIs — that hurts service delivery and startup collaboration.
• From running apps in university clubs to building ReCone and GawainAI, I learned how small teams and human-centered design scale tech into real communities.
• Proposal: a lightweight Municipal API + Open Data Starter Kit, paired with civic hackathons and an "analysis bureau" for data-driven local policy.

結論

Local governments can dramatically improve services and attract startups by opening interoperable APIs, packaging open data into usable modules, and running short, funded pilot programs with clear KPIs. Tech alone won't save anything — but human-centered design, community-led pilots, and measurable governance (the "analysis bureau") will.

本文

I grew up in my family's yakitori restaurant, 焼鳥ほどほど — 5 years old running around the counter, meeting everyone who came in. That experience taught me that technology has to be human-first: if people don't trust it or feel it helps them, it won't fly. In university I led the P&D club (Planning and Development), shipping fast prototypes with students who weren't working for money. That taught me how to motivate people without bureaucratic levers. After graduating I spent half a year as a "neet" writing stuff I cared about, then in 2014 I joined Kayac as an iOS/backend engineer and learned how playful products find audiences. I later left, went freelance, and in Oct 2019 founded no plan inc. to bring Web3 tech into mainstream use. We shipped ReCone (the NFT community work with actress Non / 能年玲奈) and GawainAI (auto-generating short-format promo videos from a single image) — both projects taught me how to take complex tech and wrap it in delightful UX so everyday people can use it.

So here's where this matters for municipal DX. Right now local governments face a familiar, structural problem: data and services are fragmented and hard to use — both for citizens and for startups who want to build on top. These are not abstract complaints. Look, これ見てくださいよ — the Cabinet Secretariat's startup policy notes (2026/03/16) that current transaction and administrative rules assume older tech and block new business models. And the My Number / マイナポータル API report (2025/04/24) highlights practical issues in API adoption and integration. At the same time, e-Gov API catalogs exist (see the API catalog listings) but they're underutilized because municipalities don't have packaged, ready-to-use modules or the governance to operate them.

This is the same structural mismatch I saw with my first startup attempt (婚タクト). We built something useful, but reality on the ground — how people use things during a wedding ceremony — killed adoption. The lesson? Design for the real flow of human behavior, and don't expect policy or tech alone to change that.

From my wins — winning hackathons at university, launching the 5-hour-only matchmaking app that actually led two friends to marry, choosing non-dilutive financing (we raised ¥30M in debt to keep control while scaling no plan) — I learned three practical truths:

Ship small, measure fast. Launch a minimal piece of value, see whether real people use it in real contexts, iterate.

Incentives matter. Creators and citizens need clear upside to participate (see how ReCone used NFT membership to create a lively community).

Open and democratic processes win. In my companies I practice "democratic decision making" and show leadership vulnerability — that helped us recruit and retain great people.

Putting A + B against C (local governments' challenge) suggests a concrete, implementable policy/operational idea: a Municipal API + Open Data Starter Kit with an accompanying "Analysis Bureau" pilot.

What that looks like (practical steps):

• API Packaging: use the e-Gov API catalog as the baseline. Create a municipal-level hub that wraps common services (business licensing, event permits, tourism data, welfare notices, public procurement) into well-documented, auth-ready endpoints. Make them SDK-ready for JavaScript, Python, and mobile. This lowers the integration cost for startups.

• Data Modules: publish curated open datasets (transport schedules, local facility inventories, event calendars) as "modules" that can be dropped into apps. Provide sample apps — e.g., a tourism pack that any micro-startup can deploy in a weekend.

• 90-Day Civic Hackathons: fund 3-month pilots where city staff, local creators, and startups form teams to ship usable prototypes. Use lightweight procurement (microgrants or small debt-style contracts) so startups can be paid without lengthy RFPs. これ見てくださいよ — the problem isn't lack of APIs, it's slow adoption and procurement friction, which these pilots bypass.

• Analysis Bureau: create a small cross-departmental team (data scientists + designers + citizens) that continuously measures KPIs (uptake, time-to-serve, satisfaction) and publishes dashboards. This borrows from my policy idea to create an "analysis省" that evaluates policy by data, not intuition.

• Community Incentives: use membership models (inspired by ReCone) to give early users and local creators privileges — access to test data, co-branding, even tokenized benefits for participants who contribute data or moderation. Keep things simple: NFTs or membership passes are optional tools for engagement, not speculative instruments.

• Human-first UX: involve counter staff, seniors, and local business owners in co-design workshops. My yakitori days taught me that a product's success is decided at the counter, not in the boardroom. If a citizen can't use a service in the moment of need, it's useless.

Why this can work now

• There are existing APIs and catalogues (e-Gov, MyNa APIs) — the plumbing is there, but the packaging and governance are missing.
• The central government itself has recognized the mismatch in rules vs new tech (Cabinet Secretariat note, 2026). That political space makes pilots feasible.
• Startups are eager to partner if cities make it low-friction and offer small guaranteed revenue or procurement pathways (we did similar deals at no plan with project financing rather than equity to keep alignment).

Concrete pilot KPI suggestions (so this isn't just an idea):

• Reduce average processing time for a common permit by 40% within 90 days.
• Achieve 1,000 monthly active users for a pilot citizen-facing app within three months.
• Onboard 5 local creators/businesses to use an open data tourism pack in 90 days.

まとめ

• Problem: fragmented municipal data and procurement rules slow DX; central APIs exist but aren't packaged for local use.
• My take: use small, measurable pilots that combine open APIs, data modules, community incentives, and an "analysis bureau" to iterate policy by evidence.
• Concrete: build a Municipal API + Open Data Starter Kit, run 90-day hackathons with microprocurement, and publish KPIs publicly.

おかむーから一言

僕は焼き鳥屋で人と話すことが全部の原点です。テクノロジーは道具であって、人が喜ぶことを起点に設計すれば、地方の課題は必ず解けます。さあ、現場で一緒に作りましょう！