A next-generation life-sized portal redesigned to be simpler, more versatile, more powerful, and easier to deploy at scale — addressing the rising demand for seamless connection across Asian countries

NOVEMBER 20, 2023 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tokyo — tonari K.K. today announced tonari 3, the newest generation of its life-sized spatial portal that lets people work together as if they share the same room — instantly, across any distance. Built from the ground up to be the world’s fastest and most natural communications medium, tonari 3 is redesigned to be simpler, more versatile, more powerful, and ready to scale across entire organizations.

As companies across Japan navigate talent shortages, fragmented cross-border operations, and increasing pressure on collaboration speed, tonari 3 introduces a new category of a portal network: technology designed not just to connect remote teams, but to create shared environments where real work, creativity, and trust can happen every day.

tonari, a life-sized spatial portal for natural, in-person collaboration across distance

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tonari creates life-sized video portals — built on next-gen technology, with no perceptible lag and over 10x the quality of video conferencing like Zoom or Teams — enabling people to be together in-person, instantly anywhere.

Since its foundation in 2018, tonari is now approaching its 100th deployment. To date, tonari has been installed across 13 prefectures in Japan and in 8 countries worldwide, with particularly high usage between Tokyo–Nagoya–Osaka (the “Tōmeihan” region) and Japan–Vietnam connections.

With its simple yet powerful promise of enabling people to “be together in person, anywhere,” tonari has been embraced by organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.

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• NTT West (telecommunications) — Strengthening incident response between Tokyo–Osaka offices.
• Education First (education services) — Connecting Tokyo and Nagoya to allow managers to oversee distributed teams while maintaining work-life balance.
• JR East (transportation) — Linking Shinjuku and Takanawa Gateway to support collaborative work on the Shinagawa Development Project.
• Frontier Consulting × WELAGO (community) — Connecting Frontier’s Tokyo headquarters with the WELAGO coworking space in Izu Ōshima, promoting diverse workstyles between urban and regional areas.
• TECH-Tokyo (education) — Linking Tokyo corporations with Harvard professors and researchers to accelerate cross-border collaboration and innovation.
• Normal Lab (manufacturing) — Using multiple tonari portals in Hawaii and Silicon Valley to speed design and engineering collaboration while remaining accessible to investors and business opportunities. </aside>

tonari 3 introduces major upgrades designed for scale:

The newly launched “tonari 3” evolves the tonari experience to a whole new level. Redesigned for ease of deployment, flexibility, and use in any space, it is perfect for a wide range of environments — from multi-location enterprises to startups, schools, creative studios, retail spaces, and even homes. tonari 3 is the most accessible and versatile tonari yet.

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• Simpler installation — wall-mounted, wall-leaning, or free-standing
• More versatile display options — use tonari’s screens or bring your own
• Works wired or wirelessly — WiFi, 5G, Starlink, or private networks
• Up to 80% lower bandwidth, enabling more portals per network
• Setup in under 2 hours, relocatable and easily serviceable
• Standalone operation through a new OLED dial and refined interface
• More affordable than ever, opening access to small businesses, schools, startups, and homes
• More powerful performance — 3K 60fps, <100ms latency, transparent multi-channel audio, and new live-performance mode </aside>

With these upgrades, tonari can now live in creative studios, workshops, labs, classrooms, clinics, retail spaces, offices, and even private homes — and can be deployed as a network of portals connecting entire organizations.

Why now? - APAC’s fragmented infrastructure and the limits of traditional remote tools

Asia is one of the most difficult regions in the world for distributed collaboration. Unlike the EU or US, APAC lacks cross-border rail and highway infrastructure, forcing teams to rely on flights for routine alignment, inspections, and joint work.

Systemic Challenges

• Slow iteration between R&D, manufacturing, and HQ
• Limited real-time access to expertise
• Heavy travel costs and carbon impact
• Delays in supervision, troubleshooting, and decision-making
• Fragmented cultures and isolated regional teams

Limits of traditional remote tools

• High-context work does not translate over flat video calls
• Non-verbal cues are lost — slowing trust, clarity, and speed
• Young talent loses everyday mentorship and shoulder-to-shoulder learning
• Teams report twice the isolation and weaker cohesion

Organizations are stuck between two broken options: shallow digital tools, or expensive, slow, travel-based collaboration. tonari 3 creates a third option — a spatial medium that brings the benefits of being physically present, without the need to move.