「METoA Ginza」プレオープニングイベント

Event Report

「METoA Ginza」pre-opening event

Date: Mar 28, 2016 (Mon.)

Guests: Keiko Toda and the Audrey comedy duo (Masayasu Wakabayashi and Toshiaki Kasuga)

METoA Ginza is the new face of the Ginza district of Tokyo.
A pre-opening event took place on March 28 before the official opening.
Guests included actress Keiko Toda, who appears in Mitsubishi Electric commercials, and Masayasu Wakabayashi and Toshiaki Kasuga, who make up the Audrey comedy duo.
Together our three special guests helped put on a lively and colorful event.
Here’s a review.

The pre-opening event happened at METoA2, a space for planned exhibitions on the second floor. Backed by the METoA VISION 64-screen liquid crystal interactive display system, Mitsubishi Electric Senior Vice President (at the time) Isao Iguchi greeted visitors as the Company’s representative.
Iguchi commented, “Mitsubishi Electric will turn 100 years old in FY2020 (in February 2021). We have taken this opportunity to open METoA Ginza as a place for visitors to come experience our Group’s technologies and services. This is actually the first time in 29 years since Mitsubishi Electric last had an exhibition facility in Ginza. But METoA Ginza is not your ordinary showroom. This space will feature collaborations between a wide variety of technologies and art. The key concepts here are to look, to touch, to experience. We think you will discover much and find many surprises here.”

Next, METoA Ginza Manager Koji Imagawa gave an overview of the facilities and the services available there and delivered the following message to visitors.
“METoA stands for ‘Mitsubishi Electric: Touch of Advancement.’ Tucked inside this name is the idea that with Mitsubishi Electric, you can touch the future. METoA Ginza aims to create new value by bringing Mitsubishi Electric technology together with art, tradition, and culture. I hope you’re as excited about this as I am.”

Actress Keiko Toda and the comedy duo Audrey (Masayasu Wakabayashi and Toshiaki Kasuga) took the stage at the opening ceremony. Appearing in a bright pink dress, Toda smiled and said, “METoA Ginza is not about high tech but high sense. I’m so happy to see what a wonderful place this is.” Wakabayashi seemed a bit surprised by the elevator that took him up to the event area: “Somehow when I was on the elevator I could hear the sound of ping-pong balls. Even the sound quality of that was so good, I felt wrapped in it. I want to ride it again, because I bet there are many more sounds to enjoy!” Kasuga was pumped up enough to say, “I come to this ceremony with the hope that METoA Ginza will become an international destination. You can do it!”

A box with a lighting button was placed in front of the three to signal the start of the pre-opening. And with that, the lighting ceremony began. First Toda, then Wakabayashi, then Kasuga put their hands on the button. With a loud shout of “3, 2, 1, METoA Ginza is open!” they pushed it. At that moment, the site filled with excitement as the giant METoA VISION multi-display screen, measuring 2.7 meters high and 19.4 meters long, sprang to life with an opening movie.

Looking at the big screens on display, Toda said, “4K definition is really amazing. The beauty spreads out so suddenly to the entire display. It’s such a good feeling to watch.” The Audrey duo added, “It would be nice to see our act on here sometime.” Finally a statement from METoA Ginza was read, and the lighting ceremony was over.

METoA Ginza is about technology, art, culture, tradition, and one more thing: people. This facility will bring people in touch with all manner of things, building new value in the process. One thing people will encounter is the attendants’ uniforms. With their gentle lines, the uniforms stress elegance. The design comes courtesy of the Y’s brand from Yohji Yamamoto Inc. Stylist Masaru Kondo directed production of the uniforms, which use material from Ono Meriyasu Kogyo Corp., one of Japan’s premier fabric makers.

Attendants wearing the uniform took the stage. The guests gave their approval. Actress Toda remarked, “Very smart-looking, and it has a good balance of length. I like that it looks so dynamic without looking too much like a uniform.” Wakabayashi added, “That’s a very bold design but it also looks very dignified.”

Next to take the stage were the Mitsubishi IH jar rice cookers Ginpaku (with a silver foil shell) and Tsukiita (with a wood veneer finish). These special products are the work of Mitsubishi Electric combined with the skill of craftsmen. METoA Ginza plans to show customers ideas for “home appliances they can love for years to come” by combining state of the art technology with traditional crafts of Japan.

As Toda said, “Home appliances with the look of wood [like the Tsukiita model] would go really well with the home’s furniture. And the Ginpaku is fun–it looks like a rice cooker from outer space!” When asked which model he would want to have, Kasuga admitted he was torn: “I like the wood because it looks so warm and calming. But the silver is nice too. It looks high-tech, like something from the near future.” The two models are unfortunately not for sale, but METoA exhibits other products like refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, and other special products at METoA3 on the third floor.

Up on the stage, the guests also spoke enthusiastically about foods they had enjoyed at METoA Cafe & Kitchen on the first floor and about some ideas for collaborative home appliances. But finally the time came to end the opening ceremony. Each of the guests gave a final brief message to bring things to a close.

Toda said, “METoA Ginza is a place where you can enjoy all kinds of experiments and gadgets. I was especially impressed by the collaborative video of flowers I watched on the big screens of METoA VISION. It was so beautiful. I want to come see it again when the facility is open.”
Kasuga remarked, “A new Japanese landmark has been born. It’s still a baby, but I hope you will all support it so it gets big and strong like me. That’s my wish.”
Then playing his usual role as serious one to the joking Kasuga, Wakabayashi commented, “I hope METoA Ginza will be a place where people have good encounters with Mitsubishi Electric technologies.”

Mitsubishi Electric would like to thank all three of our guests.