The following are the outputs of the captioning taken during an IGF intervention. Although it is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid, but should not be treated as an authoritative record.
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>> AKINORI MAEMURA: It is top of the hour. Thank you for joining us from the Kyoto center and in Zoom. This session is Day 0 event Talk With Metaverse Residents, a New Identity and Diversity. This session is basically presentation session, but really quite different than the normal session. Because this session is a feature Metaverse resident. The main part of this is the presentation from the Metaverse.
Before we go into detail let me make a round of some introduction. I'm from Akinori Maemura. I am the organizer and proposer of this session. I have another organizer if you make your own introduction. I'm Keisuke Kaneyasu from NEC. Thank you for coming.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: We have two presenters. One is Liudmila Bredikhina. Please introduce yourself.
>> Liudmila Bredikhina: Thank you for inviting me. I'm Liudmila Bredikhina, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Malta.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: And Metaverse Evangelist. I'm happy to talk with you today. I'm Nem.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Before I get into the presentation I will introduce the history of the session. This session was first introduced in Japan Internet Governance Forum 2022. We have that in the same day 0 session, by the way. It was real interesting for us to experience the Metaverse resident's life pi. I was quite convinced this kind of session would be needed in Kyoto. Here I am. Thank you for the MAG and Secretariat to accept this proposal for the make it real.
Before I go along, at least I would hand over the microphone to Nem for her presentation. Thanks.
>> Nem: Thank you. Super kind introduction. And thank you people coming to Internet Governance Forum, we're happy to talk to you. Me and Liudmila Bredikhina have a research unit to impact on Metaverse on V tuber on humanity. I will talk about Metaverse and identity and after that Liudmila Bredikhina will talk about diversity. My name is Nem. Do you know millions of people around the world are already spending their lives in the Metaverse? I am one of them. As a Metaverse Evangelist, I'm spending time in the Metaverse every day and conveying the culture to you people in the physical world. I'm introducing the character as a YouTuber and this is what I'm progressing and getting Rapporteur Group by Japanese book club. Today, I'm going to talk about in the first I will do demonstration of my Metaverse life. After that, I will talk about Metaverse identity and communication.
Okay. Go to the first one. Demonstration of Metaverse life. In the beginning, let me explain my equipment. What kind of equipment Metaverse people use? Um, this is VR headset. Some of you may use this already. This is the device that allows me to enter the perspective of this avatar and wholly dive into the world of Internet in my entire body. My physical body is something like this, wearing this big headset. By the way what is this big sensor, this one? This is really terrible, when I drink beverage. This is a special sensor. This sensor allows me to watch my facial movement and apply the movement to the avatar. Look at my eye? Winking. Oh, face movement. And movement, everything. But using this my avatar's face is something like my real body and also I am attaching so many devices, equipment on my real body that allows me to move my fingers. My finger movement is real‑time and apply to this avatar.
And total body tracker, headset and controller, I'm attaching so many sensors like this on my stomach and legs. This allows me to move the avatar and even I can stand up. Ha‑ha. In my real room, my.
>> CHAIR: Is around here. So I can sit down here. It is equipment.
By the way, why do you think we Metaverse people use this kind of tracking mechanism? The reason is to gain a sense of unity in the avatar, feeling the avatar body as if it were my own physical body. As a result of experience in the Metaverse is super realistic. And in addition to VR equipment I am using voice changer. Now, I am speaking with my voice for (?) voice. So putting my avatar and voice, everything. It feels like I've been a totally different person in Metaverse. This is VR equipment. And in the Internet let me talk about where we are. Currently I'm here. This is my study room. In VR well, I live with a sense of freedom. And the great nature. My physical body is in a very small room. But I never feel confined because I'm feeling like I'm very in the Metaverse world.
Now I am opening up a vast space, only for me. Spanning thousands of kilometers for myself. In the Metaverse you can create a variety infinitely and for free. You can also use teleportation of Metaverse. The concept of maneuverment doesn't exist. You can teleport to a friend anytime or summon a friend to your place. And you can set free access restriction to this world. Unlike reality you can create access to the spaces. Usually I allow my friends to enter my world freely. And I will spend time with my friend talking to each other, watching TV show or something like that. Ultimately I can create a space that only people who have paid can access and hold paid event. For example.
Yeah. This is my music live event. Yeah, this is me. Many people were coming. Yeah. In the music lab, I have up to 1 or 2,000 people at most. If you try to hold a big event in physical reality, it requires big cost such as venue fees and in the Metaverse you can operate it for free just by yourself. This is really fantastic.
Also Metaverse is accelerating creativity. In the space you can work on programming, loading, everything without removing your VR helmet. On the screen, the creative is very intuitive. This is like the 3D model. In this world. There is more creative. Yeah. This is very wonderful and after they let me talk about my avatar. In the Metaverse, you can freely design your avatar and live in any form you like. My avatar for example, is unique in this world. This is only designed for me. It is designed by my favorite artist based on this one. This is something he drew for me and I created a 3D model. It is hair styling and recalling tailor made clothing in reel. But if Metaverse, everything can be edited, including your head, face, everything. Also you can change your avatar. I have so many avatars. They're created by another artist. Let's try. Now my soul moved from this avatar to this avatar. Now this is me. Switching avatar changes my mood. Wearing this avatar I can be more cute. Yeah, this is ‑‑ this is all my avatar. Hey! But when I'm wearing this, I'm more how can I say I'm more comical. Avatar changes my feeling. It is very interesting.
Okay. Well, now okay. Now this is me.
Okay. This is the secret of my avatar. How do you think I'm watching all of you right now? The avatar is virtual display. Well, this one. Ha‑ha. Yeah. I'm watching you using the window and not only this, I can open so many windows under my body. Don't save it. Anyway, this is like having several huge smartphone and they're floating around my body. Yeah, it is super useful. You can make them invisible. Yeah. It is super useful.
Yeah, this is the demonstration of my Metaverse life. Let's go back to my study room.
Okay. Have you started getting an image of Metaverse life? From now on let's talk about Metaverse. What is Metaverse? The word is coming from the meta, meaning beyond and verse. Universe. That means a world surpassing physical reality. Now, the world is getting attention of the next generation of the Internet. It is originally coming from the super famous SF novel named snow crush. In the novel, the Metaverse word is something like the people can lose themselves in the VR goggle and communicate. What I am showing you is something that show up on the snow crash Metaverse.
Then what actually is the definition of Metaverse? Actually the definition of the Metaverse is not really so clear, but in my book I'm defining by the space meets seven criteria. Spatiality, self‑identity, massive simultaneous connectivity, creativity, economic availability, accessibility and immersiveness. I don't explain each of them, simply that is not a game. It is where you can live your life. That is your Metaverse.
Okay. Metaverse world that have several criteria already exist. That is social VR. There is VR chat, and this is neo‑VR, what I am using now. Cluster, virtual cast and so many others out there. They have protocol. They're not perfect. They're under hard development. Yes.
And then how many people are there living in Metaverse world? Currently the population is dynamically increasing. It increase by more than five times in the last three years. The reason is COVID. By the COVID situation people wanted to have the communication. They wanted body to body communication. And second reason is quest 2. The goggle is super expensive. And quest 2 is more cheap. As a result the population is estimated to be between 7 million to around 10 million people worldwide. The population is increasing, even right now.
Then how that people spending their time? It is a big question. Yeah.
to rebuild the lifestyle of the Metaverse people we (?) in 2021, we conducted 1,000 responses worldwide. In 2023 the number reached 2000. Thank you.
And this is the service. This is number one virtual service. The other services are used depending on the country. For example, virtual cast is popular in Japan. And neo‑VR is popular in America and Europe. The trend is different depending on the Region. The age, how old are the Metaverse people? Yeah, every range ‑‑ every age people are living in Metaverse. But more than half is 20s. Yes. It is a little young.
And play frequency. How frequently do we use VR into coming to this VR world? It is very shocking data. Almost half of them are using Metaverse almost every day. Also how long time do they spend in one time? The reason is work. Mar than half the people spend more than three hours in one session in one day. It is so long. Yeah. I am also like that.
And what actually is the purpose to use Metaverse? This is also interesting. For various reasons. Well, to socialize with friends. Walking around the world. Play game, participate in an event. Broadcasting. Making avatar, creating something. Everything. Yes. In the Metaverse, you can do everything. Yeah.
Today, I think that the revolutionary point of Metaverse is these three environmental right identity, communication, economy. Metaverse will result in big evolution of further humanity.
Today I will talk more about identity.
Identity, yeah. In the Metaverse you can freely design your identity, name, avatar, voice, everything. Identity transform from what you perceive to what you design, exploring new selves, live life as the desired self or switching between multiple selves. I am also switching the selves in the VR world and Metaverse world. The Metaverse allows the Saul to be passed in 3D and awakening of yourself that cannot be recognized in physical reality world. One interesting fact is the difference of the physical sex and avatar appearance. This is the majority in the physical reality of VR user. This is the avatar appearance amongst male users. And this is by female users. Both female and male use female avatar. This is almost 80%, very interesting. Do you think it is only about Japan? No. In Europe and America, the trend is the same. Feminine avatar is popular. Why do you think? Fashion and communication.
The feminine avatar prefer the visual appearance of their avatar. The communication is second reason. It is very interesting.
Yes. And yeah. Not only is the avatar appearance, go to the type. We have so many type of avatar in the Metaverse world. We category the avatar into different categories. Human, semihumanoid, robot, animal, which is used most. Sub humanoid. In the physical reality world humanoid type is very popular. But in the Metaverse world more fantasy state avatar is popular. The use depends on the Region. For example, in United States, the animal type avatar is more popular. And well, in Europe, oh, an avatar like this. The world is different, depending on the area. In Metaverse world you can design yourself and how they communicate. Well, we investigated the communication distance, skinship and love. In the Metaverse world, features such as age, gender and titles are eliminated. And accelerating more essential conversation. This is the most wonderful point of avatar Metaverse communication. Yes. It is the distance. 75% of people say in Metaverse world their avatar to avatar distance is getting more close. And also skinship extreme increased. 74 percent of people say they do skinship. Do you skinship in physical reality world. I think this is interesting data. And love, this is also interesting.
This is the world you can spend your life. Love is also popular. Love exists, but it is very different. For example, in the Metaverse world they fall in love because of their personality, not the visual. If you do submit a question in the physical reality world, number one answer is basically the beginning. But in the Metaverse that is 10. And one more interesting thing is when you fall in love in Metaverse. The biological sex of your VR lover important for you. 75% of people say it is not important. It is very different from the love in the physical reality world. Communication also changes in the Metaverse world.
Conclusion, for the past 4 million years, humanity has lived in physical reality. Existing I.T. technology has been great, but it has only served to make life in physical reality more convenient. But in Metaverse is fundamentally redesigned new universe where various magics are possible and allowing humans to live in more humane way. Many live there, creating unique cultures with more freedom. The evolution of virtual reality has begun. Thank you. I hope this conversation help you better understand Metaverse. Then, let me pass over to my best friend Liudmila Bredikhina.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Thank you, Nem. Very good presentation. Maybe give her that.
>> Nem: Thank you!
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Okay. Liudmila Bredikhina, your turn. You can spend full 20 minutes and we will have the question Q&A time for 10 minutes. So the ‑‑ if you had any question to the Nem part. You can make it in the last part. I will secure some time for the Q&A. With that, thank you Liudmila Bredikhina, you are up.
>> Liudmila Bredikhina: I will share my presentation. Can you see it?
>> Nem: Yes! Liudmila Bredikhina ‑‑
>> Liudmila Bredikhina: Thank you, Nem for your presentation and into the presentation of the Metaverse and captured well the overall aspect of the virtual world.
My part will focus more on gender and diversity especially from the academic perspective. I will introduce myself. I obtained my master's degree in Asia studies in 2021. My research is Japanese men using feminine presenting characters in virtual worlds as a form of general fluid in Japanese arts. After completing my master's degree, I received the gender prize in 2022. Since 2019 I published a number of peer‑reviewed publications, in which it uses gender identity and social interactions. I shared my findings at several events. And as of this year I had the opportunity to lecture a Japanese University such as Kyoto University. As a Ph.D. student since 2023, I continue to work on the research a started in 2019 but focus on gender practices among users in the Metaverse. This comes from feminist and critical men studies and describe it in local context. I have my online spaces and I do virtual ethnography. I find it informative to go in beyond the physical world barrier and how changes on and beyond the screen can impact who we are, especially in terms of gender.
The theme of today's talk is gender and diversity in the Metaverse. For a while, the target set by U.N. Sustainable Development Goals as you can see on the left‑hand side. Those are among other issues, diversity, safety, inclusion to rebuild the physical world. Ensuring the diversity, ethical behavior and providing a sense of community and belonging should not be limited to the physical world. As professional of journalism and media studies in the book the future of communication, there is lack of developers in tech related industries. In the recent Article about designing the Metaverse, it was proposed 10 principles for designing a better Metaverse that you see on the page. The big black picture. So in that Article the authors outline several ideas for social equity and inclusion. They highlight specifically the importance of empowerment of diversity through self‑expression among the other principles to instruct a good and inclusive Metaverse. I want to focus specifically on the gender safely expression part of the Metaverse.
So today, we'll have three parts, I will start with some very brief academic Foundations. Not too long but it is good to build on research. I will present case studies, one from my masters and one on research on Nem, one you heard about a little bit. And I will go to potential issues stemming from self‑expression and what could be good to consider if you want a safe experience for everyone.
So let's start with building on the Foundation with the academic research.
So first an avatar's appearance entails specific interactions. If you have a small character, it is probable you are welcoming and warm. If you use a strong, big character, people might have a different interaction. In the physical world our appearances might determine certain interactions. Users know they are judged on their looks. The second aspect is in the visional characteristics can impact user confidence and behaviors. Once again, depending on the character you use, you might act differently. Might give you confidence or self‑fulfillment and might impact how you interact. Especially if you use a character different than the gender you identify as in the physical world. Ma what is most relevant is tools that enhance the individual and make them virtual. It is empowering them to become who you want them to be in the book.
An interesting phenomena that is highlighted in a number of western academic Articles that occurs in gaming spaces is what is called gender swapping. Gender swapping is I as a woman would be using an avatar that has a masculine appearance. You change it using the character that is distinct from the one in the physical world.
So through the virtual representations, for example, you can try out, play, even try to identify yourself to a different gender identity. According to researchers, among male users to use feminine characters in games they can deploy for tactics to enhance appearance and in‑game benefit. There is literature that highlights that users swapped gender appearance in virtual worlds because they want to try an identity or it provides them what they cannot arc tine in the physical world.
This should not be just this avatar anybody can incarnate. Sometimes there are consequences when you try to this or that to the appearance. It is not lich limits to the room. Detached from the physical world and hits an online and offline phenomena. The virtual cell is not separated from the physical face. The physical world, right? For example, if it is based on certain on your cultural background, sociocultural background, you can pick their certain actions in the virtual world.
Gender roles influence the discourse of identity. Many things help bring the setting. Through avatars individuals can submit and challenge gender norms. It is crucial for gender and identity search. The suggestion is the virtual space and physical world influence one another. Never detached by the opposites. The gender norms are the physical world. They encourage gender diversity and representation through the virtual characters.
While not all users are my desire to swap genders in the Metaverse, we cannot overlook the fact that the virtual room allows certain people to experience an alternative gender identity and indulge in self‑expression.
I am to the key studies now that we see there is quite amount of research done in the virtual realm. It is something that has been going on since the beginning have gone the Internet, let's say.
I want to share with you a graph from last year's project called harassment in Metaverse. Together with virtual girl Nem. This reminds you of the situation. And from another study we did in 2021. Just briefly. But to be legible and participate in the studies, a user had to use virtual VR. And it is five times from last year. Users could answer their Google phone to 2022. And collected 876 answers from users worldwide I won't go into details. Consult the full report available online entitled harassment in Metaverse. You have the link written below. Just as a brief note we did not inquire about the user's gender as it is currently physical world gender in the assigned sex at birth. To avoid confusion, you can have one sex of user, we wanted to use terms that are most inclusive and most understandable by majority of the users.
In the graph similar to what Nem had shown, more than 70% use fem nan appearance, be they male or female users. 13% of female users played with male avatars. Can you see the gender swapping especially amongst males is common. Has Nem touched about it, you can see the numbers are similar to the 2022 reports. With the difference being more female users in 2022 compared to 2021. The 21 report, we asked for those with avatar appearance. What I want you to pay attention to is for many of the choice was from simply the appearance. For about a quarter of overall users deploying an avatar enabled them to express themselves better and communication with others.
So that implies that through the avatar, they achieved certain self‑expression that was not attainable to them in the physical world.
When it comes to my finding data collection the surveys interviews and participant observations I can summarize them, Japanese men that used cute avatars in digital spaces. They were freed in the space of manhood. Not all men claim so. I ones I focused on did. The virtual character enables something that some people cannot attain in physical world. Anterior during the master experience, 80% expressed being a man in Japan is difficult. It is a lot of responsibility. You can see the testimonies here. Most men cannot fulfill the requirements. One in four men enumerated the difficulties. If you don't work hard, don't get ahead, don't earn money, many women will not look at you. That is difficult. Another user said the depiction of man is strong and man's life becomes work. It is easy to give an image of failure. Males are oppressed, mainly because of old fashion ideas still present in Japan. And quite normal for men and women to have to add that into the masculine and feminine standards.
As such conforming to that, people should want an assigned sex at birth. In reaction to the everyday difficulties, the participants I interviewed turn toward the cute looking avatars to get away from expectations and free themselves from being male or because they were tired of sociocultural expectations and because they couldn't express themselves as they wanted to.
Those are the difficulties, partially for the socioeconomic stagnation we see everywhere in the world right now. Several academics have highlighted on the left‑hand side of the graph, painful since the 90s there has been economic stagnation which resulted in employment difficulties amongst men and women. And the life has been more and more precarious. To note, the writer that corrects love story of men and women and published on the frame of love and gender. People seek remuneration of others, leading to difficulties in everyday masculinities. It is not to paint a negative image of the physical world, but to highlight there are certain issues that my informants experience have been noted by academics around the globe, right?
And while vulnerability might seem to be a fundamental human right, many of the informants said as men they didn't have access to or be allowed to be vulnerable in daily lives. According to researchers, deploying what can be called feminine aesthetics, men distance themselves from dominant masculinity. We can connect online in the free time to challenge the daily gender expectations that they're discontent with by becoming other identities in the Metaverse. This here, like the socio or economic conditions that influence the virtual environment. Everyone uses avatars in different ways, for different means. That is what make the Metaverse more diverse. To live in society we have to pay attention to, listen and acknowledge the expressions in the Metaverse going beyond the avatar appearance. Achieving diversity is not enough. Make it a space place to readdress yourself.
I am going back to the study I mentioned previously. You can see from the chat, harassment in the Metaverse is significant as you can see. A lot of users from Japan, North America, Europe, male or female have experienced it.
The findings regarding harassment is similar to other scholars. Woman was experiencing unwanted behavior. And our data demonstrated that the feminine avatar because you are welcome or with a character with feminine representations tended to be reason for harassment. Identity slurs were are common. These fundings demonstrate the exploration of the avatar can be a double‑edged sword. The met verse plays for an experience, the users are harassed for what they do.
In the Metaverse I want to discuss what we can do to make everyone's experience better. As we see in this chart, most don't want limitations. Many believe that platform guidelines are sufficient and idea of excessive restrictions to prevent harassment is unappealing. Rather than having legislation, the people ask the questions to wrote they want to make everyone's experience safer.
I want to conclude by presenting their suggestions. We summarized everything in request to platforms. Users would like more flexible. The user in the community could defend themselves. Tools to hide things blocked or have a safety zone. Users want stricter moderation and better reporting system to make it easier for Moderators to punish the harasser. Users have an adjustable safety measure and block for offenders. Whether it is an account or HMD. There might be further restrictions that could hinder their experience and make it ‑‑ less enjoyable. That is probably why they don't want any implemented with their VR space. The survey is interesting. I think in terms of how to make the metaverse a better place, this is valuable information. Thank you for having me today. This is a brief presentation. I want to conclude by saying to make everyone's experience we have to acknowledge everyone's difference. Mine is in the virtual space. And the virtual room is where people can express their Agenda and go beyond the experiences they might have in the physical world. Thank you.
>> Nem: Thank you.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Thank you, Liudmila Bredikhina. And thank you for keeping your presentation in the said 20 minutes. That's great.
We will have the Q&A session for 10 minutes until the top of the hour. The first question is it is already giving in the chat window from the neo. He or she, I'm not so sure. He think that ‑‑ I'm sorry. The gap between the real gender and avatar gender might be because the supply of the avatar is dominated by the female one? What do you think about this? Am I clear for the questioning.
>> Nem: That is a very good question. Previously the supply of the masculine avatar is very limited. But that is also increasing so the gap is decreasing I think. So as I explained, this is the reason why they are switching the gender in the virtual world. Half of them are choosing because of fashion. The supply might be impactful for them. They might choose an avatar because of the supply. But less than half of them say the reason is communication. They say having an avatar is more. The avatar can be more good communication together this these kind of people are not depending on the supply. For your answer to the question, if you had to know.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: I hope this answer your question Neo-san.
>> Nem: Thank you.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Floor is open for another question. Please never hesitate to make yours. This is a good chance for you to make that directly to Nem or Liudmila Bredikhina.
>> Nem: Come on.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Please come up with the microphone, state your name and make it in English, please.
>> ATTENDEE: I'm come ITU AJ. I'm afraid that I'm too tired because you are virtual world, but your physical body is real. So brain may cause special confusion or something like that. I'm too tired every day.
>> Nem: It is also very good question. Well, yeah, again the answer is yes and no. In the beginning, I started the Metaverse world, my brain sometimes confused. After three, four, five years, I completely accustomed to this life. How can I say, switching Metaverse life and virtual reality life. It is busy for me. For example, you are in the suit joining the conversation. You are in formal state. You might go to your home, you wear pajama and talk to your family. This mood switching is also basic thing for people. But the expansion is wide. People can be accustomed to switching the life. Today, I can super quickly change myself. Just wearing VR goggle. Thank you.
>> ATTENDEE: Thank you, good comment. This is comment. I expect this confusion, kind of stress, it is good training and ageing? So good inspiration to the brain. I wish in future we would have eternal life in Metaverse world. Thank you very much.
>> Nem: Thank you.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Very much. Great comment. I need to do this then for that.
(Chuckling)
Any other questions? We still have five minutes. Please? State your name and go ahead with your question.
>> ATTENDEE: I'm Maria. Thanks first of all for the presentation it was quite interesting. The question is more around, I don't know much about the Metaverse but I have heard for example, that there is a lot of companies that are trying to launch marketing strategies via the Metaverse. Because I don't really fully understand how it works. I was wondering if Nem could tell us about it, how does this usually work in the Metaverse? Is it still everything free or can you interact with money on the Metaverse. Do companies have a place? How are the users also interacting? What is the clinical effect of this? Thank you.
>> Nem: Maybe you care about some company has a super big power that can be future progress in Metaverse, right?
>> ATTENDEE: Yes. Of course there are. Yeah, that is possible. That is possible question but at the moment we are making very good communication between users and the companies. To making the good Metaverse is something like to be a god. You can set the physical form and everything to the world. Yes. The form is a thought. I can understand ‑‑ can it. To make the useful service, the communication with the actual user is important. These services always have very good communication. Big tech watching on in the Metaverse world. Their activity is not getting real at the moment because they're not making good communication with the customer. I have am optimistic for the Metaverse. Can they make good communication with the customer, the people, don't use the service. The business wouldn't work. I think we can make the communication, keep good communication even in the future, I think. How do you think, Liudmila Bredikhina?
>> Liudmila Bredikhina: I think it depends on what are the company's motivations, whether exploitative or not. Why, like the U.N. Charter is about promoting diversity and ethical well‑being. And we have to apply the same to the Metaverse. If we do so, I think we can have a good experience between the economy and users, without having the monopoly and things like that. It depends on the intention of certain companies and on the way the leaders of the company want to market themselves and use the Metaverse. People in the Metaverse are people, not just avatars.
>> ATTENDEE: Thank you.
>> MODERATOR: Thank you very much. It is almost the top of the hour. Now I need to close the session. But before that, I would like to have the last few words from my presenters. Then Mila first, please.
>> Liudmila Bredikhina: Thank you for listening to us. We're really happy to have this opportunity to share our research and our recent reports with all of you. And we hope that our presentations will spark some future discussions and new possibilities to collaborate and explore the Metaverse. Thank you.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Thank you. Nem?
>> Nem: Thank you for listening to the talk. I was super happy. The Metaverse is great, as I explain. At the moment it is very small world. Yeah ... big body Internet Governance Forum. We can talk to each other. This is very good next step. Thank you so much.
>> AKINORI MAEMURA: Thank you Mila and Nem. Give them a big hand for the great presentation.
(Applause)
Thank you very much. This session is closed thanks.
(Thank‑yous)