Makoto Maeda Appointed as Advisor

We are pleased to announce that Mr. Makoto Maeda has joined Plural Reality as an advisor, effective April 1, 2026.

Makoto Maeda As a coordinator at KOSO NIPPON, a Japanese policy think tank, Mr. Maeda has facilitated "Residents Councils" across numerous municipalities throughout Japan, including Ota City in Gunma Prefecture. He has built an extensive track record in consensus building through dialogue between local governments and citizens using randomly selected resident assemblies.

Plural Reality supports citizen-participatory municipal assemblies through the development and deployment of its AI-powered facilitation technology, "Cartographer (Baisoku Kaigi)." Mr. Maeda collaborated with our team as a facilitator during the Residents Council held in Ota City, bringing deep expertise in both AI-assisted and in-person consensus building. Building on this experience, he will advise on our business development and strengthening partnerships with local governments.

Throughout my years as a facilitator for Residents Councils, I have relied on three core strengths: deep knowledge of public administration, the ability to organize and guide discussion, and the trust that puts participants at ease. Working alongside the Plural Reality team in Ota City, I saw firsthand how their technology is transforming these from personal skills into accessible capabilities.

With "Cartographer," we can move beyond the traditional approach of flip charts and sticky notes to capture every participant's voice in real time. The quality questioning and issue structuring that used to depend entirely on a facilitator's experience is now handled by AI for each individual participant. It structurally resolves the most dreaded scenario in public dialogue — where people stay silent because they cannot push back against the loudest voice — making it an ideal tool for surfacing unspoken opinions. It also includes mechanisms to ensure discussions move beyond abstract demands toward concrete, actionable proposals*¹.

Randomly selected citizen assemblies are an excellent way to include those who would not volunteer on their own, but Cartographer goes further by addressing the challenge of "those who attended but could not speak up." I believe the time has come to fundamentally rethink how public dialogue is conducted, and I look forward to contributing to that transformation as an advisor.

Leveraging Mr. Maeda's extensive field experience and nationwide municipal network, we will further accelerate the social implementation of AI facilitation technology. We remain committed to enriching dialogue between government and citizens, and we look forward to your continued support.

Plural Reality LLC CEO Shunsuke Takagi Contact: info@plural-reality.com