Good News: Japanese rail company JR East has finished its shining new station, Takanawa Gateway (高輪ゲートウェイ), just in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics!
Oh…well, at least the station will be there in 2021.
Joking aside, the new train station in one of Tokyo’s busiest neighborhoods looks amazing. It also features a number of features design to make life easier for business people and tourists.
However, not all of Takanawa Gateway’s high-tech features are without controversy. In particular, one of the station’s AI-powered virtual assistants has drawn criticism online for promoting sexual harassment towards women.
Takanawa Gateway: A Name Beloved by…36 People?
The ambitious Takanawa Gateway station is the first time that a new stop has been added to Tokyo’s busy Yamanote line in 20 years. So naturally, it’s generated a lot of discussion – and a fair share of controversy. One of the more famous controversies was over exactly what to call the thing.
To help determine the station’s name, JR East held a public survey in 2019. And the winner was…”Takanawa,” which received some 8,398 votes. The second-place winner? Shibaura (芝浦), the nearby port bordering Tokyo Bay. “Takanawa Gateway” didn’t even finish in the top 10: it came in at 130th place with a mere 36 votes.
When JR East announced it was going with the 130th place choice of the public, Japanese users lit up social media in disgust. What was the point of a public vote, they asked, if JR East was going to ignore it?
In a press release defending the announcement, JR East said it went with “Takanawa Gateway” because of the area’s importance as an entranceway to Edo (old Tokyo) in the pre-Meiji era and as a connecting point for railroads during Meiji. JR East said that, while it wanted the public’s opinion on the new name, it wasn’t going to be bound by it. The magazine President Online says that officials likely determined beforehand that the name managed to capture the station’s symbolic importance, while also preserving a sense of history with the name “Takagawa”.
In the end, the name probably doesn’t matter much. Given that “Takanawa Gateway” is such a mouthful, most residents seem to have settled on “Takage” (タカゲ) as the go-to abbreviation.
The Traditional Meets the Modern at Takanawa Gateway
Japanese TV program Ohayon! (NTV) served up images of the station before it opened. The station’s design aims to integrate traditional elements of Japanese design with modern technology. The station’s interior sports wood finishes on the walls and floors in an attempt to bring an air of “warmth” and “Japanese-ness” to the location.
But the station also boasts several modern conveniences that should prove useful to locals and foreigners alike. In particular, the station sports one of Japan’s more unique Starbucks: a store with a “Smart Lounge” consisting of a series of half-private rooms and individual seating areas. The concept, according to Ryuutsuu News, is an attempt by JR East and Starbucks to live up to the station’s name by providing innovative new solutions for busy people on the go.
“I’m Blushing!”: Two Virtual Agents, Two Very Different Demeanors
Unfortunately, it isn’t all swanky cafes and wood paneling for Takanawa Gateway. Some of the innovations that JR East has introduced to the station have stirred up controversy. The most controversial is one of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems.
JR East and other stations have experimented in Japan with virtual assistants for years now. With more and more people visiting Japan every year — and a dearth of fluent English speakers working at train stations — AI assistants that are programmed to speak in multiple languages are an incredible convenience.
Takanawa Gateway Station has two assistants: a “male” and a “female” assistant. But for some reason, both assistants are both programmed and rendered very differently. The male assistant, for example, is a semi-realistic, 3D-rendered attendant. The female assistant – nicknamed AI Sakura (AIさくらさん) – is a female anime character.
While that in itself raises a few eyebrows, it’s what Sakura says that has angered some Japanese residents. For some reason, Sakura’s designers sought fit to program her so that she would respond positively to questions that, if she were an actual person, would clearly be sexual harassment. For example, if you ask AI Sakura for her “three sizes” (breast, waist, and hip sizes), she coyishly responds, “Let’s pretend you didn’t ask that.” Ask her age, and she tells you without hesitation that she’s 21. If you tell her she’s cute, she responds, “Thank you! I’m blushing!”
The responses resulted in a backlash online. One user commented that AI Sakura’s answers were “exactly what a dirty old man would want her to say.”
To JR East’s credit, it appears at least some of the answers were corrected once they came to light. That led at least one frustrated Twitter user to complain that feminists in Japan had ruined his good time:
“Have You Mistaken Me for a Dolphin?”
On the plus side, some of AI Sakura-san’s comebacks are not only innocent but pretty funny.
One reply that went viral recently was when an Internet user asked, “How do I hide you?” The question is a reference to the character Kairu, the dolphin help assistant in East Asia editions of Microsoft Office. Kairu is the Japanese counterpart of the infamous Clippy, whose annoying presence incensed English users of Office for years.
Some user got it in their head to ask AI Sakura-san this question. Her response: “Have you mistaken me for a dolphin?”
I’m not quite sure how those answers to questions ended up in Sakura-san’s data bank. But it’s good to see that her developers, while they might need some education on sexual harassment, have a sense of humor.
Despite the controversies, the new station looks amazing. I’ve long been a fan of neighboring Shinagawa station, with its ever-bustling corridor and its nearly endless sprawl of shops and eateries radiating from every direction. Once the COVID19 crisis laps and we can get back to Tokyo, I can’t wait to explore the station and the surrounding area and see what it has in store.
