TOKYO >> Artificial intelligence is being used in new and diverse ways during the New Year’s holidays.

This year, it is informing drivers about congested parking lots and roads near shrines, and offers new menus for osechi dishes (cuisine for New Year’s Day). And as more people have stepped away from the tradition of sending out New Year’s cards, a new AI service makes it easier to produce the cards.

Temple visits

Mitsumine Shrine in Chichibu, Saitama prefecture, attracts about 30,000 New Year’s visitors every year.

Now, when its website is accessed on a smartphone, a notification shares the status of parking areas, displaying “some vacancies” when there are open parking spaces at a nearby municipal lot, and “full” when it is crowded. The site also notifies users of traffic near the lot.

The website is managed by Vacan, Inc., a Tokyo- based IT company. Using footage from four cameras installed near the shrine, AI analyzes how crowded the area is and posts that information on the site.

The shrine is located deep in the mountains, and traffic jams that can last several hours occur frequently during holidays. Chichibu introduced the system in February to reduce the congestion.

This is the first year that the system is assisting New Year’s worshippers.

Vacan’s service has been adopted by more than 20,000 facilities across the country and is used at major shrines such as the Ise Grand Shrines in Mie prefecture and Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine in Fukuoka prefecture.

“We would like to expand our service for greater convenience,” said Vacan CEO Takanobu Kawano.

Revitalizing osechi

AI has also breathed fresh life into osechi dishes, which add color to the table during the New Year’s holidays.

Last year, Aeon Retail Co. marketed its first batch of osechi dishes developed by generative AI. It was developed based on AI-generated images using such prompts as “future,” “luxury” and “color.”

The offerings are novel New Year’s Day dishes including not only standard fare such as salted herring roe and boiled abalone, but also unique menu items such as chocolate and deep-fried chicken sprinkled with decorative dust in five colors.

“The unexpectedness of using AI for osechi … has received a greater response than we had expected,” said an Aeon Retail official.

According to Fuji Keizai Co., a Tokyo-based research firm, the market for osechi dishes in 2024 declined 1.5% from the previous year.

“How to add value equivalent to (an) increased price is the key in the sales battle over osechi dishes,” said Miwa Funase, a senior researcher at Fuji Keizai. “Entertainment features such as ‘AI Osechi’ will be needed more.”

Convenience is in the cards

Although sending New Year’s cards has been on the decline, one company has launched a new online service for the tradition. Greeting Works Co., an Osaka-­based firm that handles postcard printing, uses AI technology to suggest unique designs for the cards, making the process more convenient.

“We would like to make writing New Year’s cards easier with the use of AI,” said a Greeting Works official.