NEWS

Rakuten Optimism 2019, the largest event in the history of the Rakuten Group, was held from Wednesday, July 31 to Saturday, August 3 at the Pacifico Yokohama event center. The four-day conference included a series of events, including business conferences with global keynote speakers, live performances, and hands-on events to share perspectives on the future.

Rakuten Institute of Technology (RIT) held event booths with the latest technologies shaping the world of tomorrow as part of “Future World,” a free-to-enter exhibition portion of the conference where users can make “new discoveries at every turn.” RIT hosted facial payment, Hololens, and 5G wallshop booths to delight and surprise participants.

The facial payment booth gave shoppers the opportunity to purchase goods with just a turn of their heads. RIT had many visitors and received lots of positive feedback. Mr. Nakamura Koichi, President of Rakuten Payment, stopped by the booth during the conference (below).

RIT also showcased Hololens headsets with FISE to demonstrate how mixed reality can enable more immersive experiences in business and sports, in this case extreme sports like BMX and skateboarding. RIT’s booth was particularly popular among Japan’s youth.

Finally, in collaboration with Yunikavision, Animax, and Rakuten Travel, RIT supported the conference with a 5G wallshop, giving shoppers the ability to browse and purchase items from a digital storefront with Rakuten Fashion, Rakuten’s online fashion mall. RIT first introduced the wallshop last year in collaboration with BEAMS, a Japanese street fashion brand.

We want to thank everyone involved for making Rakuten Optimism such a great event and the largest one to date. We look forward to exhibiting more advanced technologies at future events.