Kanematsu launches Hyogo AAM Laboratory in Japan with Chuo Fukken Consultants, Pasona Group and Buzzport

Japan­ese firm Kane­mat­su has launched the Hyo­go Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) Lab­o­ra­to­ry by work­ing with uni­ver­si­ty and high school stu­dents in part­ner­ship with Chuo Fukken Con­sul­tants, Pasona Group, and Buz­zport.

The Hyo­go Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (HAAM) part­ner­ship agree­ment was signed to devel­op ini­tia­tives for region­al revi­tal­i­sa­tion through the pro­mo­tion of an AAM lab­o­ra­to­ry at Japan’s Hyo­go Pre­fec­ture.

The par­ties signed an agree­ment to coop­er­ate on human resources and tourism in the fol­low­ing areas:
1) Region­al revi­tal­i­sa­tion
2) Tourism devel­op­ment
3) Men­tor­ing high school and uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents on research activ­i­ties and imple­ment­ing relat­ed col­lab­o­ra­tive activ­i­ties
4) Activ­i­ties for increas­ing pub­lic accep­tance to the social imple­men­ta­tion of AAM
5) Oth­er activ­i­ties for increas­ing res­i­dent con­ve­nience and dri­ving com­mu­ni­ty revi­tal­i­sa­tion through AAM

HAAM aims to become a future-ori­ent­ed think-tank that approach­es AAM from the user’s per­spec­tive, work­ing togeth­er with the younger gen­er­a­tion to explore the sky of the future.

The lab­o­ra­to­ry aims to increase pub­lic accep­tance by shar­ing the pro­pos­als it has devel­oped, and by serv­ing as a hub for nur­tur­ing young lab­o­ra­to­ry mem­bers to dri­ve the AAM indus­try for­ward.

Ini­tia­tives include the oper­a­tion of a vir­tu­al lab­o­ra­to­ry, an AAM sem­i­nar for uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents and an AAM divi­sion in a next tourism con­test, ‘Kanko Kohshien’.

HAAM plans to build a vir­tu­al space where lab­o­ra­to­ry mem­bers and stake­hold­ers may share infor­ma­tion accu­mu­lat­ed, and the knowl­edge and ideas dis­cussed with­in the space.

The AAM sem­i­nar will be offered to uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents who attend uni­ver­si­ty at the Hyo­go Pre­fec­ture, who have inter­est in tourism and region­al revi­tal­i­sa­tion, and who want to learn about util­is­ing AAM.

In this inter-col­lege sem­i­nar, stu­dents will par­tic­i­pate in project intern­ships and con­duct sur­veys and research on the social imple­men­ta­tion of AAM from a tourism and region­al revi­tal­i­sa­tion per­spec­tive.

The lab­o­ra­to­ry plans to estab­lish an AAM divi­sion in a Kanko Koshien tourism con­test based on a nation­wide net­work of high schools, when con­tes­tants will present plans for projects to solve local social issues and pro­mote tourism.

After the pre­lim­i­nary round and semi-finals, the finals will be held in Feb­ru­ary 2023 to deter­mine the grand prize and run­ner-up teams.

Going for­ward, the five par­ties will share their knowl­edge, expe­ri­ence and resources to pro­mote col­lab­o­ra­tive pub­lic-pri­vate ini­tia­tives and facil­i­tate social imple­men­ta­tion of AAM in Hyo­go Pre­fec­ture.

In March, Sky­ports raised $23 mil­lion in part­ner­ship with Kane­mat­su and oth­er investors for infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, where Kane­mat­su will take a seat on the Sky­ports board.

In April last year, Sky­ports has signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing with Kane­mat­su to oper­ate pas­sen­ger and car­go AAM ser­vices, with a focus on ver­ti­port infra­struc­ture and joint research.