| East Japan Railway Company (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo / President and CEO: Yoichi Kimura) will fully open “PLATFORM13” at Ueno Station, a model station for the “Beyond Stations Concept,” on Thursday, August 1, 2024.○By equipping the station platform with a video projection function spanning approximately 100m in length, a one-of-a-kind video experience space will be created that can express an overwhelming worldview, and it is anticipated that it will be used in a variety of ways to communicate new value.
As the first step in the overall opening, we will be teaming up with “Blue Period” and carrying out a project to take over the entire Ueno Station through various displays, including decorations inside the station, starting with “PLATFORM13”. |
1. Overview of PLATFORM13
A total of 17 projectors (approximately 2.4m high and 100m long) will be installed on the walls of Ueno Station’s ground-level platform 13, and will project video art works, content movies, and other content on an overwhelming scale and with a sense of realism, making the entire platform a space for experiencing video, and serving as a starting point for attracting customers to Ueno Station. In addition to speakers, power supplies, picture rails, etc., it also has a color adjustment function that allows for color production to match the world view of the content being broadcast, making it possible to create a variety of spatial presentations. (Platform 13 will continue to be used as a train departure and arrival platform.)
(1) Full opening date: Thursday, August 1, 2024 (Partial opening on Wednesday, January 24 of the same year)
(2) Projection surface: (height) approx. 2.4m, (total length) approx. 100m, (area) approx. 240㎡
(3) Facilities: 17 speakers and projectors, approximately 100m of picture rails, 9 power supply facilities, indirect lighting around pillars and on walls
(4) Location: Inside the ticket gates at Ueno Station, platform 13
PLATFORM13 Image
Ueno Station 1st floor location map
2. Initiatives based on PLATFORM13
Taking advantage of its strengths as a unique video experience space, PLATFORM13 is expected to be used as an event space for tie-up promotions with partner companies, PR activities in cooperation with local governments, new product introductions, corporate branding, and more. In addition, we are considering plans to use JR East vehicles as a production unique to the platform space. In addition, with PLATFORM13 as the starting point, we will also take on complex and multifaceted initiatives that involve the entire Ueno Station through various developments, including the Ueno Hirokoji Exit Vision, which opened in January 2024, Poleia Square, and station interior decorations.
(1) Ueno Station takeover in collaboration with “Blue Period”
Deployment period: Thursday, August 1, 2024 to Sunday, August 25, 2024
As the first initiative of the overall opening, we will develop a tie-up project with “Blue Period”. Specifically, “Blue Period” will take over the whole of Ueno Station, including original video screening at PLATFORM13, art graphic decoration in collaboration with Tokyo University of the Arts students, a limited-time stamp rally that can be enjoyed while wandering around the station and surrounding commercial facilities such as Atre Ueno and Ecute Ueno, and original art content on the walls.
©Tsubasa Yamaguchi/Kodansha ©2024 “Blue Period” Film Production Committee
(2) Broadcasting of railway and art content
We plan to broadcast railway x art content around autumn this year. Utilizing the entire wall of PLATFORM13, famous trains that have colored the history of Ueno Station will be brought to life as a powerful digital art video that can only be enjoyed here, in collaboration with graphic design and calligraphy art of the train’s nicknames written by calligraphers. Please take a look and reminisce about nostalgia.
[Reference] The vision of the “Beyond Stations Concept”
Starting with the goal of enriching people’s lives, we will transform the layout and function of station spaces while taking advantage of the strengths of stations as real-world exchange hubs, and by expanding the JRE POINT living area, we will transform stations from “transportation hubs” to “life platforms.”
At our model station, Ueno Station, we will continue to expand our services that combine the real world and online, and realize the “enriching lifestyle” that only we can provide.
[Reference] About “Blue Period”
This hugely popular comic (originally written by Tsubasa Yamaguchi and currently being serialized in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine) has won numerous manga awards, including the 2020 Manga Taisho Award, and has sold over 7 million copies in total. It is a moving story about a protagonist who has lived a flawless life, but whose world changes when he encounters art for the first time, something he is passionate about, and who devotes his youth to the challenge of entering the most difficult art school in Japan. It has been made into an anime, collaborated with YOASOBI’s “Gunjo,” and won an overseas manga award, and has been attracting a lot of attention both at home and abroad. And this summer, a live-action movie starring some of the most brilliant young actors today, including Go Ayano, Fumiya Takahashi, Rihito Itagaki, and Hiyori Sakurada, will be released on Friday, August 9, 2024.
