Who is Yoichi Ochiai?

A Japanese media artist and researcher who puts forward the idea of "Digital Nature" (計算機自然, computational nature). Ochiai has held several conversations with Audrey Tang, and essays published under Ochiai's name set out what Digital Nature shares with Plurality and where they differ: whether humans or the environment take the lead.

This name does not appear in the book Plurality, but when the book is discussed in Japan, it is often set beside this person: someone who has appeared again and again as Audrey Tang's conversation partner, and who has put into words how Ochiai's own ideas differ from Plurality.

In short

Yoichi Ochiai (落合陽一) is a media artist, and a researcher who leads a Digital Nature laboratory and research center at the University of Tsukuba [1][2].

Ochiai calls the state in which computers stop being tools and become an "environment" merged with light, sound, objects and bodies "Digital Nature" (計算機自然, computational nature), and has promoted this idea for about ten years [3].

Connection to Plurality

Ochiai does not appear in the book Plurality. The points of contact are conversations with Audrey Tang and essays published under Ochiai's name.

A series of conversations with Tang. Ochiai interviewed Tang for an NHK program (footage dated January 2023, published on YouTube by Taiwan's Ministry of Digital Affairs) [4]. On May 6, 2025, the two held a conversation at Yasuda Auditorium of the University of Tokyo [5]. In March 2026 they talked again on the NewsPicks program WEEKLY OCHIAI; an English verbatim transcript of that episode is released under CC0 (no rights reserved) [6].

Setting out what they share and how they differ. Just before the Yasuda Auditorium conversation, Ochiai wrote a memo on note (an essay published under Ochiai's name; only the free portion). As common ground, it names a fundamental affirmation of open source (software whose contents are published so that anyone can reuse it), seeing technology as the foundation for designing society, and a recognition that the human-centered thinking of the modern age has limits [7].

The decisive difference is summed up as a question: does society hand agency over to the environment (computational nature), with humans becoming part of it, or do humans remain the agents who keep adjusting the environment? In this arrangement, Ochiai's side heads toward an algorithm-led "post-democracy", and Tang's side toward a democracy that builds agreement through dialogue among people [7].

What was said at Yasuda Auditorium. According to a note post by an attendee, Ochiai used the phrase "digital fermentation": the process of using AI resembles fermentation, which is left to microbes and cannot be finely controlled. On regulating bad AI, Tang is recorded as saying that rather than chasing a runaway car with police cars, one should put a steering wheel on it (a record by an attendee, who notes that it includes loose paraphrase) [5].

WEEKLY OCHIAI (March 2026). Ochiai asked whether the content of the word "nature" differs a little between China (Daoism) and Japan. Tang quoted a line from the Daodejing and answered that "conflict is a source of co-creation, which is a fundamental thesis of the Plurality book." She added that "the Japanese interpretation sees, of course, those conflicts, but they don't dwell on the dynamic of the conflict. There's a slight difference." [6]

In the same episode Tang called the state in which division keeps people from seeing their surroundings a "fog of war", and named the measure for reducing it "PPM" ("Polarization Per Minute"). She also said that broad listening, which listens to many voices, "just like broadcasting, needs to be a universal right" [6]. → Broad listening

Quadratic Voting and institutionalizing luck. In "Homo Convivium", a long English essay from August 2026 (an essay published under Ochiai's name), Ochiai presented Posner and Weyl's Quadratic Voting as a mechanism that builds redistribution into the arithmetic of voting itself. The essay writes that in talking with Tang, too, the conversation returned to the same design problem: selection by ability has already been captured by those who are advantaged, so "luck", like a lottery, should be built into institutions [8].

Links with Mitou

In the first half of fiscal 2009, Ochiai was recognized as a "Super Creator" in IPA's Mitou Youth program for "developing a device and software that make electricity visible". The project manager, Kazuyuki Shudo, praised the work, in substance, for showing something that had never existed in the world before, something truly "unexplored" (mitou) [9]. From fiscal 2023 Ochiai has been listed as a PM (project manager) of Mitou IT, and writes of judging applicants less by their theme than by whether they seem likely to become interesting people [2]. Ochiai is also a board member of the Mitou Foundation [1].

Main ideas

Digital Nature (computational nature). A 2026 English overview (an essay published under Ochiai's name) gives its shortest definition as a state in which computation stops being an external tool and becomes a living, organism-like layer of perception, objects, memory, bodies, rituals and human relationships. It describes a situation in which the boundaries between nature and the artificial, body and data, and people and machines are rearranged by computation [3]. → Digital Nature

Digital fermentation and Homo Convivium. The same overview names "digital fermentation" as a word for the stage after generative AI, and "Homo Convivium" as an image of humans who live together, and also uses the phrase "Matagi Drive", inspired by the Matagi hunters of the Tohoku region [3][8].

Political tools that depend on neither party nor company. In a February 2026 note written in the form of a paper (an essay published under Ochiai's name), Ochiai defined "PoliTech" as distinct from the digitization of government (GovTech) and technology by citizens (civic tech). It compares examples from Taiwan, the UK, the US, the EU and Japan along six axes, such as whether they are independent of parties and independent of companies. Its references include the book Plurality. It argues that being open source is the precondition for checking AI for bias, and that building an AI whose workings cannot be seen into politics is the same as putting unverifiable bias at the center of democracy [10].

Dialogues with Hiroki Azuma. Ochiai has also talked with Hiroki Azuma several times on WEEKLY OCHIAI (their first conversation in January 2023, and an episode on elections and AI in December 2024) [11][12].

What is debated

Should political tools be partisan? In February 2026, Ochiai wrote on note that, while counting both Tang and Takahiro Anno as friends, Ochiai takes the position that it is undesirable for tools used in politics to be partisan. From that position, Ochiai said that Taiwan's g0v and Japan's Team Mirai are quite different things, and announced having built "Open Japan PoliTech Platform (OJPP)", a foundation for agents (systems in which AI carries out tasks automatically) that depends on neither party nor company [13].
Humans or the environment in the lead? As in the memo above, Ochiai places the difference between Plurality and Ochiai's own thinking in whether humans remain the agents or hand agency over to the environment [7].

Note that the 2025–2026 writings on note and Medium that this article marks as "essays published under Ochiai's name" (not including the OJPP announcement) appear to have been written with the help of AI. Because they are published under Ochiai's name, they are presented here as Ochiai's claims.

Sources

Mitou Foundation, board member profile (Yoichi Ochiai) (in Japanese) — https://www.mitou.org/board_ochiai.html
IPA Mitou IT, fiscal 2023 PM introductions (in Japanese) — https://www.ipa.go.jp/jinzai/mitou/it/2023/pm.html
Yoichi Ochiai, "Ten Years of Digital Nature" (2026-05-17) — https://medium.com/@ochyai.manage/ten-years-of-digital-nature-from-computational-materialization-to-fermentative-conviviality-967fcf79b7a1
Yoichi Ochiai's interview with Audrey Tang for an NHK program (YouTube) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6soX3owK4Q
An attendee's report on the special lecture of the University of Tokyo AI study group (note, 2025-05-06, in Japanese) — https://note.com/ekoron/n/n042c8fc6339c
Weekly Ochiai (2026-03-25) — https://archive.tw/2026-03-25-weekly-ochiai ［CC0］
Yoichi Ochiai, "〈デジタルネイチャー／マタギドライヴ〉と〈Plurality〉" (2025-05-06, in Japanese) — https://note.com/ochyai/n/n2904ec32f363
Yoichi Ochiai, "Homo Convivium" (2026-08-18) — https://medium.com/@ochyai.manage/homo-convivium-c4d2a9980208
IPA Mitou Youth, first half of fiscal 2009, Super Creator recognition document (in Japanese) — https://www.ipa.go.jp/jinzai/mitou/it/qv6pgp000000ilp8-att/000050678.pdf
Yoichi Ochiai, PoliTech paper (note, 2026-02-13, in Japanese) — https://note.com/ochyai/n/n6aa9a2a161a8
WEEKLY OCHIAI, Yoichi Ochiai × Hiroki Azuma (YouTube, 2023-01-19, in Japanese) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGQCTJgyk1c
WEEKLY OCHIAI, episode on elections and AI (YouTube, 2024-12-19, in Japanese) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGSpBVTlIQs
Yoichi Ochiai, "Open Japan PoliTech Platform をつくってみた" (I tried building the Open Japan PoliTech Platform) (note, 2026-02-13, in Japanese) — https://note.com/ochyai/n/n66d8d67242bf

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