This page is written for the operators of spaces who are deciding whether to host Kaeru-chan figurines. It answers the questions we have been asked most often by spaces considering participation. If your question is not addressed here, please write to [email protected] in Japanese or English.
Last updated: September 10, 2026. The project launches in March 2027, and a small number of operational details remain unsettled. Those details are identified as such in the final section.
Hosting requires two things of a participating space. The first is that the space keeps between one and five frog figurines and one A5 placard somewhere on its premises. The second is that the space answers a two-question check-in once a month, which takes under thirty seconds to complete.
Participation carries no cost. There is no fee for hosting, and the project covers all shipping in both directions. Participation is also uncompensated, meaning that hosts receive no payment.
Participating spaces receive visitors who arrive through the project, an optional listing on the public Kaeru-chan map, and acknowledgement in the published documentation of the work.
Hosting is an agreement to keep an object on the premises. Host sites are not subjects of the research, and neither are their visitors.
The project launches in March 2027 and is expected to run for between eight and eighteen months.
One hundred small frog figurines are attempting to reach Akiya Collective's community makerspace in Komoro, Nagano. Each figurine contains an NFC chip. A figurine moves only when a member of the public finds it, scans it with a smartphone, and decides either to carry it toward Komoro or to hand it to another person who will carry it further. The project operates without staff, schedule, or central routing, so each figurine's progress depends entirely on the decisions of the people who encounter it.
The figurines will be seeded at between twenty-five and thirty-five partner sites distributed across Japan.
The project is run by Akiya Collective, a nonprofit organisation based in Komoro, Nagano that converts akiya into creative residencies, makerspaces, and community infrastructure, in collaboration with the Henkaku Center at Chiba Institute of Technology.
The installation functions simultaneously as a participatory artwork and as a study of how people respond to a shared object that invites care. The research protocol has been approved by the Chiba Institute of Technology Ethics Review Committee for Research Involving Human Subjects. We will send the full approved protocol to any space that wishes to read it before deciding.
We refer to participating spaces as Kaeru Satellites. Our correspondence and the hosting agreement also use the terms "partner location" and "host site." All three terms refer to the same arrangement.