I am a PR consultant in Japan, a science fiction powerhouse. From here, I would like to introduce SF prototyping, a method of internal communication adopted by government agencies such as Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), large Japanese companies such as SONY, Nissan, and Panasonic, and large global companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and more.

From Japan, we have “Doraemon,” “AKIRA,” “Ghost in the Shell,” “Godzilla,” and so on. From Hollywood, “Blade Runner”, “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Star Wars” saga, the “Back to the Future” series, and many others. From Russia, “Solaris”. From the UK, Netflix's “Black Mirror” series. As for games, “Death Stranding” is directed by a Japanese director, while “Cyberpunk 2077” is the work of a Polish company. “Detroit: Become Human” was created by a French game company. The “Three-Body Problem” series of novels, which have won readers around the world, were written by a Chinese author. Did you notice that many of these well-known works that readers are familiar with are science fiction works?

This raises the following questions. Do these well-loved works of science fiction have a common appeal that attracts many people? If we can become aware of this attraction, we can transmit information with greater appeal, can't we? What if we applied this knowhow to PR? Wouldn't this be an effective framework for communication in general?

The method that the author is researching and practicing with these facts and questions, and which is gaining momentum in the Japan market, is a method of future prediction and idea design called SF prototyping. In the PR category, SF prototyping is an internal communication method.

How popular is SF prototyping in Japan?

“SF is attracting attention in business, government, and other fields”. In recent years, articles with this kind of description have become common in Japan. When specifying the search term “SF prototyping” in Nikkei Telecom, a Japanese-language article search tool, 287 articles were found as of October 20, 2024, an increase of 126 articles in two years, or about 1.8 times the total number of articles, since the number of articles was 161 until October 20, 2022.

SF prototyping is a technique that utilizes the genre of science fiction (SF) and the styles are characteristic of the genre, but what is SF?

The term SF is commonly considered to stand for Science Fiction. It is commonly believed that this was the idea of Hugo Gernsback, the first editor of Amazing Stories, considered the world's first science fiction magazine. In the 1960s and 1970s, a period in science fiction literature called the Science Fiction New Wave took place, and science fiction became known as Speculative Fiction (SF).

Robert A. Heinlein, who, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, is considered as one of the three great science fiction writers, believed that the genre was “based on a thorough knowledge of the past and present real world and the nature and importance of the scientific method. Rod Serling, an American screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for the TV series “The Twilight Zone,” described science fiction as “fantasy, in which the impossible is written as if it could happen; science fiction, in which the improbable is written as if it could happen”. He differentiated science fiction from fantasy in that science fiction is based on scientific logic and is somehow connected to reality. Importantly, he said that science fiction brings a “sense of wonder” to the audience.

“Sense of wonder is a concept that was introduced in the U.S. in the 1940s,” he said, and it is a term that describes a moment when a distant world that is nothing more than a picture in a novel suddenly becomes familiar, when the boring reality in which you live suddenly becomes a strange world, by showing a part of the logic behind it.

So, let us consider the appeal of science fiction as the effect of bringing a sense of wonder to the audience, based on science and technology. We will then review the methods of SF prototyping that take advantage of this appeal.

What is SF prototyping?

The specific method of SF prototyping is often conducted in the form of a workshop, in which staff and SF authors familiar with SF prototyping and the client work together to come up with ideas for a future product or service, or sometimes a vision of the society of the future. Step 0 is to align the client company's perspective on the issues and goals. The program is flexibly customized to meet the specific needs of each individual client. In Step 1, we create the future world starting from the questions and themes. In Step 2, the framework is used to create a science fiction story. In Step 3, back-casting, instead of forecasting, is used to explore the points of change to reach the future depicted in the story. In Step 4, we go to the implementation of the product or service.

Implications for public relations

Focusing on the information dissemination aspect of SF prototyping, we have found that, first of all, it contributes to the activation of internal communication in particular.

In order to create a virtuous cycle that draws out the strengths of each and every member of the organization, creates value, and increases productivity, it is important to have opportunities to verbalize, agree, and preserve the shape of the organization, society, and future by writing down and discussing the ideal organization and society in an environment where psychological safety is guaranteed, whether with superiors or subordinates. In addition, to disseminate the organization's purpose, mission, vision, and values in the correct context and share them as the organization's culture, it is necessary to have mechanisms and opportunities for each individual to recognize them as his or her own. SF prototyping has the effect of activating internal communication in public relations activities.

In a workshop conducted by the author, a participant commented, “the process of repeated discussions among members of various specialties is a process of bringing together a wide variety of ideas from different positions and perspectives and incorporating them into a single theme – a story – is a process of collective creation”.

Many participants commented that the ability to discuss based on science fictions helped to loosen the atmosphere that normally makes it difficult to speak up. The role of SF in building consensus among employees is significant, as it promotes sharing of the company's purpose, mission, vision, values, and so on. In many cases, the usefulness of SF prototyping is recognized as a way for organizational members to make the company's vision their own and have their own vision. Many also commented that the internal communication activated by mixing with staff from different departments and experts from different industries on the occasion of SF prototyping workshops led to a high level of satisfaction with the method.

Second, it was suggested that the verbalization in narrative form and the emotional impact of SF prototyping on the workshop participants encouraged them to become self-activated. The following comments were obtained from participants in workshops conducted by the author.

“I think it's important to use the novel as a platform to convey the context, background, and emotions of the characters in the novel. That way, when I said customers like Mr. XXX, I thought all employees could share the same image. I thought it would be very easy to understand how to share the future while using the characters as if they were a common language. From those two things, I knew that when talking about something as hyper-uncertain as the future, a novel would get the message across”.

The resulting effect seems to increase the credibility of the implementer's products, services, and vision with external audiences.

In the case of a major global company, their report says, “the draft version of the science fiction novel, unlike the published version, contained some negative (dystopian) elements. We have not often discussed negative elements in the past, so this was a new experience for us. Discussing how to turn a negative context into a positive one was something that could only be done through SF prototyping. It was also the first time for me to have this kind of discussion, so it was stimulating even though I felt unfamiliar with it”. The report added, “the science fiction novels that emerge from SF prototyping do not face the exact opposite direction of the future vision that our company envisions. Rather, it is an effort to envision a future that is slightly ahead of the company's vision, and to give form to that vision. In other words, it does not negate the company's vision, but rather affirms it while looking to the future”. This seems to be in line with the appropriateness of conveying even negative facts in a sincere manner to fulfill accountability and moral responsibility in terms of crisis management.

And finally, the effect of the sense of wonder associated with the SF style to arouse attention expectations from the audience could be pointed out as well.

“Companies can be broadly divided into B2B and B2C, but in either case, I feel that we are in an era in which we need to incorporate entertainment elements into our thinking. We believe that it is especially effective for B2B companies, whose customers are companies, to introduce SF prototyping, which provides a more flexible and customer-oriented way of thinking”, a workshop participant commented.

In the case of other companies, “I feel that it is also effective in terms of information dissemination to the outside world. We hope that the novelization of our research will generate interest and make it easier for people to deepen their understanding of our concept and worldview, and that as a result of facilitating discussion from there, the consideration of the technology and its penetration into society will progress”.

We may want to avoid dystopian narratives. However, the important thing is to get useful ideas, and one significance of using science fiction for inspiration is the fundamental sense of excitement. It is neither unhealthy nor inappropriate for the imagination to be engaged by extreme situations, even dystopian ones, and for the imagination to be stirred.

The use of science fiction prototyping is not unhealthy or inappropriate. It is reasonable to infer that the utility of science fiction prototyping in public relations must also be attributed to the excitement and sense of wonder that characterizes the science fiction genre and its style.

Conclusion

Finally, as for the current status of the introduction of SF prototyping, it was reported that there are many orders from the design and development departments, but few orders from the sales department. If this article encourages the use of SF prototyping in public relations practice around the world, the planet will have a tomorrow filled with a sense of wonder.