Meet Key3: Japan's Leading Web3 Education DAO

Written by Bryan Lam

Reviewed by Brady Werkheiser

Published on May 29, 20243 min read

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Let’s overview two web3 use cases that were made by Japanese companies with Hakuhodo KEY3:

The first case is about Japan Airlines (JAL) and the “Kokyo NFT”, a project that aims to improve the experience of the visitors of Japan in local regions.  

The second use case is Calbee, leader in Japanese Snack Food, and how they used web3 to gamify the consumption of potato chips in Japan.

Using Web3 to Promote Tourism in Japan

To promote tourism in lesser-known regions, JAL aims to create a sustainable flow of people through its partnership with Hakuhodo KEY3. The airline company released two rounds of collectible NFTs in February 2023 and 2024. Using web3 technology, the business co-creation project between Japanese companies and local craftsmen was titled “Kokyo NFT”.

At first, JAL launched the experimental NFT project to revitalize the market and increase the involvement of visitors. As a matter of fact, Japan possesses a variety of fascinating regions with their own specialized experiences and crafts, but there are many that are not widely recognized. 

The idea behind Kokyo NFT is to build a system that allows visitors, mainly inbound tourists, to maintain long-term relationships with the region before and after their trip. Indeed, the digital tokens are high-quality renders of goods and items unique to the region.  

After their visit, owners of a NFT can receive physical goods over a long time period, for example: in the Kagoshima prefecture, the shochu bottle NFT serves as a ticket to visit the Kagoshima’s distillery and repeat the experience until 2026 to observe the aging process of the liquor. In addition, three bottles of the alcoholic beverage will be delivered to the NFT’s owner at the end of the fermentation.

Through this experiment and in collaboration with Hakuhodo, JAL is communicating the attractiveness of lesser-known Japanese regions to the rest of the world and driving the engagement of its visitors. Because the first round was considered a success, JAL dropped a second round of NFTs in the beginning of 2024.

Using Web3 to Gamify Consumer Goods

In a similar fashion, Calbee, a confectionery manufacturer, also developed a web3 project to augment their customer experience. 

In partnership with Hakuhodo, they promoted the first-ever campaign in Japan to give away NFTs that steadily grow and evolve with each purchase.

Indeed, Calbee’s NFT Chips Campaign offers consumers who buy a pack of three popular flavors of potato chips will be able to claim a free, evolving Potato NFT, as pictured above, by participating in an origami-style game nicknamed “Ori-pake” (a wordplay with Origami and Package).

The game requires players to follow the instructions that are printed on the package and to fold the chips wrapper, much like an origami. The player can then confirm a successful origami by scanning it with Calbee’s smartphone application.

Each time someone registers a new Ori-pake after consuming a bag of chips, their Potato NFT will evolve and grow. After registering five Ori-pakes, the Potato NFT will transform into its final form, which randomly features a character from the dozens of characters from the “Jagaverse” virtual world.

Like the Kyoko NFT project, Calbee’s NFT Chips Campaign is not only collectible figures but also grants benefits in the real world: a hundred lucky winners will end up harvesting a special “gold character” Potato that entitles them to six free packets of Calbee potato chips. Moreover, the project promised to give access to new digital experiences in future to the holders of a fully evolved Potato NFT.

Through these two use cases, KEY3 and these Japanese companies demonstrated new ways to generate consumer engagement with the latest web3 technology.

Start-ups and companies that are interested in working with KEY3 are welcome to write their inquiry on this form.