A Development of Digital FUKUWARAI a Traditional Japanese Game to Accelerate Intergenerational Communications

Abstract

With the prolonged reality of Japan’s low birthrate and aging population, the importance of communication among children but also between the different generations is becoming critical. In order to solve such problems, traditional play or games are considered good tools to support them, and “Fukuwarai” (lucky face making game) is a typical such game. Fukuwarai is known that all players get lough while they are playing, since it is difficult to make serious face. Moreover, not only players but all audiences get lough. Therefore, we think that Fukuwarai is a good method to support communications between different generations. In this study, we have developed a serious game named “Waraukadoniha FUKUWARAI” which enable to play Fukuwarai at anywhere without preparing any special tools but only smartphones. In this paper, we describe the outline of “Waraukadoniha FUKUWARAI” and the preliminary evaluation results.