Daiwa LifeNext Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Junko Ishizaki; hereinafter “Daiwa LifeNext”), which is a part of the Daiwa House Group, and Rikei Corporation (Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Satoru Isaka; hereinafter “Rikei”) are pleased to announce that they have concluded an alliance agreement regarding the joint research & development of next-generation condominium disaster preparedness content (hereinafter, the “Agreement”) with Yokohama City on March 26, 2021.

Under Yokohama City’s supervision of matters regarding disaster preparedness, we will produce next-generation condominium disaster preparedness virtual reality (VR) content.

VR content

Background behind the Agreement

It is said that more than 6.655 million condominiums are being supplied across Japan, housing approximately 10% of the population. The percentage of owned homes that are condominiums in the Tokyo metropolitan area is higher than the national average, and it is approximately 40% or 391,000 in Yokohama City.

Recently, many disasters have occurred in many areas throughout Japan. It is said that active disaster preparedness activities are required for people living in condominiums as well. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, condominium fire and disaster drills have not been carried out to avoid the three C’s: closed spaces, crowded places, and close-contact settings.

Rikei has decided to enter the Agreement to contribute to a new form of disaster preparedness for condominiums combining the knowledge of solutions to problems encountered in management association activities that Daiwa LifeNext possesses with the VR content production technologies of Rikei.

Overview of the Agreement

Under the Agreement, we will carry out activities as part of Yokohama City’s Co-creation Front public-citizen cooperative project.* The roles of the three parties are as follows:

*Yokohama City has opened the Co-creation Front to be a contact point receiving requests for consultations and proposals regarding public-citizen cooperation from private operators.

Timing of Service Provision and Future Plans

Our goal is to provide the results of this joint research & development project as a service that can be delivered to the residents of owned condominiums that Daiwa LifeNext is entrusted to manage from July 2021 and will expand it in the future.

We also plan to provide a VR content service for visitors to the Yokohama Disaster Risk Reduction Learning Center. By utilizing the competitive expertise possessed by each company, we will work to provide disaster preparedness activities that go a step beyond for the residents of our managed condominiums and citizens of Yokohama City.

About Daiwa LifeNext Co., Ltd.

Daiwa LifeNext Co., Ltd. supports the lives of people through the management and operation of condominiums, the repair and construction of buildings, livelihood support services, and other activities. It delivers services that embody security, comfort, and things that are one step ahead and will become standard in the future.

About Rikei Corporation

Rikei is a solution provider for the IT and electronics industries. The company offers a broad range of solutions centered on the world’s cutting　edge technologies and advanced products in the fields of system and network solutions and electronic components and devices. In VR development, the company focuses on technological development for the creation of VR spaces that recreate real spaces. It has provided VR development for disaster drill technologies to more than 300 locations since its launch in 2017. They are employed at automobile manufacturers and other locations.