Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter Yamaha Motor) has announced the third installment of its event series “PLAYERS for REGENERATION”—which seeks new business opportunities at the intersection of “play” and “regeneration”—to be held on Monday, November 9, 2026. The venue is YAMAHA MOTOR Regenerative Lab (Rege Lab), the company’s co-creation space located in Minato Mirai.
Artiql Inc., the company that operates Circular Yokohama, is collaborating on the planning and management of this event series.
How Can We Transform Getting Around into Time Spent Experiencing the Best a Region Has to Offer?
This event takes as its starting point a question posed by a Yamaha Motor employee involved in electric mobility development: “Can mobility regenerate local communities?” It brings together people whose work draws visitors to a region—spanning tourism, urban development, food and beverage, design, and more.
The vision: for visitors, every journey becomes time spent savoring what a region has to offer; for residents, the same vehicles serve as reliable everyday transport.
Participants will explore this vision of mobility through collaborative workshops, and find both ideas they can bring back to their own regions and businesses, and partners with whom they can begin testing them.
“Can mobility regenerate local communities?”
“I’ve arrived at the station, but there’s no way to get to my destination.”
“It’s a great place, but once you’ve seen one spot, you just head home.”
Whether you’ve visited a region yourself or work to attract visitors to one, you’ve likely felt this at some point.
No matter how many tourist attractions or key destinations a region has, if the journeys between them remain something to be endured, stays grow shorter and the prospect of a second day—let alone a return visit—becomes harder to imagine.
Yet the tools of mobility are changing. Electric boats that glide silently across the water. Electrically assisted bicycles that make hills effortless. Low-speed electric vehicles that invite you to slow down. Can these vehicles transform travel time into time spent savoring scenery, fresh air, and conversation?
Perhaps compact electric mobility is not meant for covering long distances, but for short trips within a community. Could tourism provide the demand needed to put these vehicles to use more often—while also sustaining them as everyday transport for local residents? Those who build these vehicles want to explore this question together with those whose work brings people to a region.
Event Overview
Title: Can Mobility Regenerate Local Communities? ── How to Transform Getting Around into Time Spent Experiencing the Best a Region Has to Offer [PLAYERS for REGENERATION Vol.3]
Date & Time: Monday, November 9, 2026, 5:00 PM–8:45 PM (Doors open at 4:30 PM)
Venue: YAMAHA MOTOR Regenerative Lab (Rege Lab) / Yokohama Symphostage West Tower, 9F
Nearest Stations: Minatomirai Line “Shin-Takashima Station,” approx. 2-minute walk / JR & Yokohama Municipal Subway “Yokohama Station,” approx. 8-minute walk
Capacity: 40 participants (advance registration required; lottery may apply if oversubscribed)
Admission: ¥1,500 (includes zero-waste light refreshments)
Registration: Please register via the Peatix page
※ Participants must be 18 years of age or older. Please note that children may not accompany attendees due to the nature of the event program. We appreciate your understanding.
Who This Event Is For
- Local government officials, DMOs, and tourism operators who see challenges in encouraging visitors to explore multiple sites, extend their stays, or return to a destination
- Professionals in transportation, urban development, and area management working on secondary transport and last-mile connectivity within communities
- Those involved in piloting or operating low-speed electric mobility services, such as green slow mobility
- People creating locally rooted experiences in food and beverage, music, art, design, wellness, or education that could be integrated with mobility
- Those looking to connect mobility and electrification technology to value and business opportunities beyond the product itself
- Anyone who feels that “people come, but they don’t stay long or come back”
What You Will Take Away
- The challenges those who develop mobility products see in local transportation, and the mobility options available today
- Perspectives on what people from different fields—tourism, government, design—see when they look at “getting around” in a community
- Seeds of ideas combining mobility and experience that you can bring back to your own region or business
- A partner to consult when you’re ready to run a small-scale trial
Talk and Workshop Program
Understanding the “Now” of Mobility
The first half opens with an inspiration talk from Takahiro Ichikawa, of Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.’s Mobility Development Division—the person who posed the question at the heart of this event. During his studies, Ichikawa researched control technologies for electrically assisted systems for bicycles and wheelchairs. He now leads software development and evaluation for motor controllers used in electric mobility products, and is involved in developing new electric mobility products for Yamaha including golf cars, outboard motors, and motorcycles. On the day, he will speak from the perspective of someone who builds vehicles, sharing the challenges he sees in tourism and local mobility, and the potential of the mobility options available today.
Next, Ryuhei Oishi (Ryūhei Ōishi) of Artiql Inc., who will serve as facilitator, will introduce domestic and international case studies, including examples of waterway mobility. The first half will close with a cross-talk between the two speakers, weaving in Ichikawa’s own travel experiences to deepen the central question.
Imagining the “Future” of Local Communities
The second half—approximately two hours—is dedicated to dialogue among participants. Where in the regions you are involved with are there places or moments full of appeal that remain out of reach because getting there is a barrier? If you were to turn that journey into a reason to visit the region, who and what would you combine? And to sustain the ridership generated by tourism as everyday transport for residents, who would support it, and how?
Participants will begin by broadening ideas with people from a wide range of backgrounds, then form groups around the themes of “I want to try this in my region” that emerge, and work toward giving those ideas concrete shape.
Yamaha Motor’s electric mobility products are one resource to think with. The inspiration talk will introduce the mobility options currently available, and during the workshop participants can browse a reference page on their smartphones. Rather than designing vehicles from scratch, the focus is on exploring how existing options can be combined to turn a region’s appeal into a tangible experience.
Here are some examples of the perspectives participants might bring:
- Tourism operators and DMOs: Could the secondary transport from the station to a tourist site become a highlight of the trip?
- Local government and urban development professionals: Could scattered ports, parks, and shopping streets be connected by mobility to encourage visitors to explore?
- Those working in food and beverage, music, design, and other locally rooted fields: Could your content be woven into the journey itself?
- Those working in transportation, welfare, and other fields that touch residents’ daily lives: Could vehicles used for tourism also serve as community transport on weekdays?
Participants who haven’t yet settled on a theme, or who simply want to help develop someone else’s idea, are very welcome.
Bring your region’s mobility challenges to the table, and let’s think together about how to build places people want to visit.
Schedule for the Day
● 4:30 PM | Doors Open & Registration
● 5:00 PM | Opening
Introduction to the event series; self-introductions
● 5:10 PM | Inspiration Talk
① The Potential of Mobility × Tourism | Takahiro Ichikawa (Yamaha Motor)
· Can journeys that people simply pass through by car become time spent savoring a region?
· Mobility options available today, and their potential
② Domestic and International Case Studies | Ryuhei Oishi (Artiql)
· Initiatives from communities in Japan and abroad
● 5:35 PM | Cross-Talk & Audience Dialogue | Ichikawa × Oishi
· What prompted the question “Can mobility regenerate local communities?”
· Beyond simply connecting scattered tourist sites, how do we enrich the “lines” between them?
· Could vehicles used for tourism also serve as everyday transport for residents on weekdays? What might that mean for community life?
● 5:50 PM | Break & Welcome Toast (drinks will be provided)
● 6:00 PM | Dialogue Workshop (120 minutes)
Participants will first broaden ideas, then work in theme-based groups to give them shape.
· Broadening ideas
Talk with participants from a wide range of backgrounds about how mobility could turn a region’s appeal into a real experience
· Forming groups
People who want to explore a theme together gather around the “I want to try this in my region” ideas that participants have raised
· Giving ideas shape
Which region? Which mobility options? What kind of experience, and for whom? Could tourism-driven ridership also serve as transport for residents?
· Full-group sharing and reflection
● 8:00 PM | Closing
● 8:05 PM | Networking (sustainable light refreshments and drinks will be provided)
● 8:45 PM | End
Speakers
Takahiro Ichikawa
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Mobility Development Division, Mobility Systems Development Unit, Component Development Department, Design Group 42
During his studies, Ichikawa researched control technologies for electrically assisted systems for bicycles and wheelchairs. He now works at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. on software development and evaluation for motor controllers (MCUs) used in electric mobility products. Involved in developing new electric mobility products for Yamaha—including golf cars, outboard motors, and motorcycles—he works to improve product performance and ensure reliability in preparation for mass-market launch, with careful attention to functional safety and quality requirements.
MC & Facilitators
Ryuhei Oishi (Ryūhei Ōishi)
Artiql Inc. · Futures Design Lab · Sustainable Business Designer
Graduate of University College London, where he studied architecture alongside philosophy and anthropology, exploring concepts of life and time. After returning to Japan, he worked as a childcare professional, developing an educational perspective and skill set.
He currently leads next-generation education initiatives, sustainability awareness and capacity-building programs for corporations, and event and community-building projects—designing processes of change and receptivity through an educational lens.
Having been connected to the ocean since childhood, he also focuses on marine issues.
Representative of sakana harbour. Head of the Marine Education and Communication Course at Japan Sakana Vocational School.
Natsumi Nishiyama
Artiql Inc. · Futures Design Lab · Co-creation Process Designer
She facilitates “Future Sessions”—cross-sector creative dialogue spaces—supporting companies and local governments in developing visions and long-term strategies, and fostering collaborative action across the civic, public, and private sectors.
She leads CURULY LAB, a co-creation platform that advances circular design from a consumer perspective, and Zero Carbon Drinks, a sustainability co-creation session series held over zero-carbon sake.
Yuki Sakamoto
Artiql Inc. · Futures Design Lab
He facilitates “Future Sessions”—cross-sector creative dialogue spaces—supporting companies and local governments in developing visions and long-term strategies, and fostering collaborative action across the civic, public, and private sectors.
He leads projects focused on the regeneration of natural environments and local communities, including “Tabi Suru Ikimono Daigakko!” (Traveling Nature School!), a community-based regenerative tourism initiative in Ikatsu Village, Nagano Prefecture, aimed at nature-positive outcomes and building a “second hometown.” He also independently manages a community dedicated to reviving abandoned tea fields in Umegatō, Shizuoka.
About the Organizer and Planners
YAMAHA MOTOR Regenerative Lab (Rege Lab) | Organizer
Rege Lab is a co-creation space operated by Yamaha Motor, themed around “Regeneration.” It serves as an experimental ground for thinking about the future of people, nature, and cities—a place where people from diverse backgrounds come together and ideas for the future take shape.
Facility information: https://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/regenerative-lab/
Artiql Inc. | Planning & Management
Artiql Inc. was formed in June 2026 through the merger of Harch Inc.—operator of the sustainability media platform IDEAS FOR GOOD—and Future Sessions Co., Ltd., which has led co-creation projects for corporations and local governments. Drawing on both an editorial perspective honed through covering mobility and community initiatives in Japan and abroad, and facilitation experience in designing and running dialogue spaces, Artiql plans and manages this event.
https://artiql.jp/
Sustainable Light Refreshments: WiLLD
WiLLD is a coined name combining “Will” (intention and the future) with “Wild” (nature and the untamed).
Partnering with ten contracted farms in western Kanagawa Prefecture, WiLLD serves original organic dishes that put seasonal vegetables center stage, paired with fermented condiments and spices.
【Reference】[11/9 @ Yokohama] Can Mobility Regenerate Local Communities? ── How to Transform Getting Around into Time Spent Experiencing the Best a Region Has to Offer [PLAYERS for REGENERATION Vol.3] | Peatix
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