From Japan to the World: An On-Site Report from KDDI’s “Future Street-Corner Experience” at MWC26

The world’s largest mobile-related exhibition, MWC26 Barcelona, was held in Barcelona, Spain, from March 2 to 5, 2026.

For KDDI, this was its third time exhibiting, and the booth concept it presented was “THE GATEWAY TO TOMORROW'S LIFE.” By bringing a “future street corner” inspired by Takanawa, Tokyo onto the global stage, KDDI offered visitors a chance to experience a future in which life becomes richer in the AI era.

In this article, we spoke with the employees in charge of four particularly lively areas of the exhibit to hear their thoughts on an exciting future.

A Takanawa Street Corner Appears in Barcelona

Standing at the entrance of the KDDI booth, the first thing to catch your eye is a giant gate. KDDI’s booth drew strong attention from visitors with its distinctly Japanese, animated presentation, as companies from around the world showcased videos expressing their national cultures.

Beyond the gate, five areas modeled after familiar urban facilities line the space—such as a convenience store, flower shop, parking lot, and bus stop. The setting of this “future Tokyo—Takanawa” overlaps with KDDI’s own present.

On July 1, 2025, KDDI relocated its new headquarters to TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY and held its grand opening. The city’s concept is a “Connectable City: evolving the power to connect and continuing to share an exciting future.” The booth effectively brought this testbed, a city-like place where internal and external partners gather, straight to Barcelona.

Communications Infrastructure Supported by an AI Data Center and the “Power to Connect”

Directly facing the entrance is an exhibit showcasing the communications and AI foundation that supports the entire "city.” The full picture of the infrastructure that delivers AI services to the world unfolds before visitors. At its center is an exhibit on KDDI’s newly established AI data center.

KDDI’s AI Data Center in Sakai, Osaka, which began operations in January 2026, repurposed a former factory site and was built in just six months. It has the advantage of data sovereignty—data remains fully contained under KDDI’s management, a strength not found in public clouds.

Closely connected to the Sakai Data Center is TELEHOUSE, KDDI’s interconnection data center business that it has expanded globally for over 30 years. Operating in 10+ countries and 45+ locations, TELEHOUSE enables low-latency, high-security communications by directly connecting different companies’ networks within data centers. If the Sakai Data Center is the “factory” for AI processing, TELEHOUSE is the “distribution network” that delivers services worldwide.

Kota Ooganna, who was in charge of this booth area, explained: “AI response speed varies greatly not only with model performance, but also depending on the network and infrastructure,” highlighting KDDI’s strength in having both.

Ooganna then described his vision of an exciting future:

“One future I personally imagine is an AI agent that can manage things like friends’ schedules and work tasks by aggregating daily conversations—just by having your smartphone sitting there. Of course, because it handles personal information, a highly confidential environment is essential. I believe the closed environment of KDDI’s Sakai Data Center could play a major role in providing the value of ‘peace of mind’ for those kinds of future services.” (Ooganna)

Smart City Personal Recommendations That Increase Enjoyment

At the flower shop set up on the street corner, visitors are welcomed by the virtual character **#kzn (Kizuna)**.

In this area, visitors can experience “personal recommendations.” Based on interest data created by combining (1) hobby and preference information registered in an app with (2) purchase data held by au, the service delivers optimal information in real time.

In the demo, selecting one of eight hobby/preference categories immediately displayed a coupon. Visitors also enjoyed the extra touch of receiving a flower matched to the "flower language" (hanakotoba) associated with the chosen category.

The key to this service is timeliness. Using JR East’s “touch trigger,” ticket-gate passage data is linked with the app to deliver notifications aligned with the moment a person visits the area. The open rate is more than four times that of typical in-app banner ads.

Erika Yamaguchi, who oversaw this booth area, shared her thoughts on an exciting future:

“The best part of this service is that it can bring out latent needs that even the person hasn’t noticed—for example, someone who likes music might also be interested in sunglasses used at outdoor festivals. Because we have TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY as a testbed, we can keep proving what excites everyone. That’s the source of my motivation.” (Yamaguchi)

An AI That Fully “Becomes the Customer” as a Partner in Product Planning

In the area designed like a convenience store, visitors could try “AI product planning support.”

By selecting a category such as “bread” or “dessert,” along with keywords, generative AI produced a product name, features, and an image on the spot.

The generative AI then “became the customer” and provided feedback, allowing people and AI to refine the concept through dialogue. In this way, a proposal for a new product is completed. Looking ahead, KDDI envisions linking this with its real customer data to further advance everything from market research to planning.

This exhibit transformed generative AI’s major potential into an intuitive, hands-on experience. Mizuki Yoshida, who handled the UI (user interface) design and usability, spoke about her commitment and her vision of an exciting future:

“We’re in an era where AI can create UI to some extent. That’s exactly why we thoroughly focused on details beyond AI’s reach to create a truly refined experience value. In the special environment of this exhibition, we designed it to deliver the best demo experience by factoring in the positions of the booth staff and the user. For the tool itself as well, we polished every detail—down to each button and motion—so it can be operated intuitively, aiming to create an environment where people involved in product planning can bring out more of their creativity. Imagining a future where products born from that process ultimately reach customers is truly exciting.” (Yoshida)

If You Can See the Sky, You Can Connect Anywhere: au Starlink Direct and AI Drones

In the parking-lot-themed area, an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals was on display, drawing visitors’ attention.

Even more buzz gathered around “au Starlink Direct” and the AI-equipped drone “Skydio X10.”

au Starlink Direct is a service that allows smartphones to communicate directly with satellites. Under the slogan “If you can see the sky, you can connect anywhere,” it enables communication even in mountainous regions or at sea where there are no base stations.

By deploying Skydio X10 and drone ports used for takeoff/landing and storage during remote flights, KDDI aims to build social infrastructure that can send a drone to anywhere in Japan within 10 minutes. During the presentation, KDDI remotely operated a drone stationed in a permanent dock in Ishikawa Prefecture and delivered real-time video to a screen in Barcelona.

Aoi Yamaguchi, who led this booth area, spoke about her exciting future:

“Whenever I hear news of rescues using Starlink, I feel proud and happy, realizing that our service is truly solving social issues that used to be caused by communications outages. Being on the provider side means I can quickly turn my desire to ‘do more like this’ into reality. I believe that accumulation strengthens the service and becomes the power to support the lives of even more people.” (Yamaguchi)

From Japan to the World

Exhibiting at MWC26 was a meaningful challenge for KDDI and for each of its employees standing at the booth, as a chance to present their services to the world. Common to the words of the employees was a shared sense of momentum toward an exciting future.

KDDI aims to evolve the power to connect and create a society where anyone in the world can realize their aspirations. Beyond connecting the world through communications and AI, KDDI will work to solve global social issues as a platformer shaping the future—expanding the scope of its business further together with partners overseas.