  Currently, the development of the metaverse lies in the hands of industry.
Citizens have little influence on this process. Instead, to do justice to the
pluralism of (digital) societies, we should strive for an open discourse
including many different perspectives on the metaverse and its core
technologies such as AI. We utilize a participatory speculative design (PSD)
approach to explore Japanese citizens' perspectives on future metaverse
societies, as well as social and ethical implications. Our contributions are
twofold. Firstly, we demonstrate the effectiveness of PSD in engaging citizens
in critical discourse on emerging technologies like the metaverse, offering our
workshop framework as a methodological contribution. Secondly, we identify key
themes from participants' perspectives, providing insights for culturally
sensitive design and development of virtual environments. Our analysis shows
that participants imagine the metaverse to have the potential to solve a
variety of societal issues; for example, breaking down barriers of physical
environments for communication, social interaction, crisis preparation, and
political participation, or tackling identity-related issues. Regarding future
metaverse societies, participants' imaginations raise critical questions about
human-AI relations, technical solutionism, politics and technology,
globalization and local cultures, and immersive technologies. We discuss
implications and contribute to expanding conversations on metaverse
developments.
