Japan's government uses Minecraft to show off a huge, real-world infrastructure project

Mojang/国土交通省 九州地方整備局 via YouTube
(Image credit: Mojang/国土交通省 九州地方整備局 via YouTube)

A branch of Japan's government has used Minecraft to demonstrate how it plans to build a real-world dam.

As Automaton Media reports, a YouTube account linked to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism has uploaded the video just below. The video's title is 'We tried making the Tatsuno Dam in Minecraft!' because it's actually a recreation of a real-world dam project currently underway in Kumamoto, Japan.

In just over a minute, the YouTube video gives viewers a bird' s-eye view of what the Tatsuno Dam will look like when it's eventually completed. The dam is fully there in its finished form, and the Minecraft recreation has even factored in the surrounding landscape and vegetation on either side of the dam once it's been completed.

The brief video is quietly very funny - it's got a 'homemade' vibe to it, what with the Apple desktop bar still very clearly visible at the top of the screen. Certain sections were seemingly recorded at eight in the evening - please stop working and go home, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism worker! 

According to Automaton Media, the video has caused a bit of a stir in the Japanese online community, with some jumping to praise the detail displayed in the recreation. It's even got people speculating about the hardware the dam was reconstructed on, since there's a lot of pop-in during the presentation.

Tatsuno Dam will apparently be up and operational in the real world at some point next year in 2024. Nagano Prefecture already has plenty of dams, from a cursory Google search, but it looks as though Tatsuno Dam will stand head and shoulders above these smaller counterparts once it's finished.

Last month, Minecraft became the first game to sell over 300 million copies ever, and we wonder how many of those copies have been purchased by Japanese government workers. 

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

Read more
Minecraft Netherite Armor
A developer porting Minecraft to the Dreamcast is now able to "Blast through an existing world file at 2,800 km/h"
A screenshot shows Breath of the Wild's map recreated in Minecraft.
Minecraft experts dedicate 3 years to building Breath of the Wild's entire open-world map out of blocks: "I put everything else aside"
Minecraft Vibrant Visuals
16 years after Minecraft first released it's getting a modern visual upgrade with a retro lighting trick that Mojang hasn't seen "in any other game"
Minecraft key art showing Steve holding a pickaxe.
Minecraft modder uses "3 hours of my life that I'll never get back" to create a new mod that gives Steve Jack Black's voice
Project Artemis early render
PUBG creator's goal for his new open-world project is to make "realistic Minecraft" complete with real geology
A Minecraft Movie
New Minecraft Movie trailer sees Jack Black and Jason Momoa race to save a colorful and cubic zombie-filled world - but not without a visit from Jennifer Coolidge
Latest in Adventure
Pokemon Legends: Z-A screenshot
Pokemon Legends: Z-A will allegedly introduce 27 new Mega Evolutions, leakers claim, and we can only hope Flygon gets its chance this time
Minecraft Vibrant Visuals
16 years after Minecraft first released it's getting a modern visual upgrade with a retro lighting trick that Mojang hasn't seen "in any other game"
Minecraft movie image of Jack Black as steve
Don't expect Minecraft to go free-to-play anytime soon, as Mojang says "It doesn't really work with the way we built it"
Putting cigarettes in fish mouths in Thank Goodness You're Here
Thank Goodness You're Here's developer says it was trying to design a game normally before realizing "we're s**t at video game design"
Shiny cards in Pokemon TCG Pocket
How to get Shiny Pokemon in Pokemon TCG Pocket
Pokemon Legends: Z-A screenshot
Pokemon Legends: Z-A's director appears to be a Xenoblade Chronicles fan, and I'm now feeling very validated about a tiny detail I spotted in the upcoming RPG's gameplay trailer
Latest in News
Mario faces the camera with a thumbs up pose in Super Smash Bros. Ulimate.
Nintendo Direct March 2025 live – all the Switch news, trailers, and reveals as they happen
Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady's rumored single-player Batman game is in development for PC, PS5, Xbox, and "the next generation of consoles"
The Last of Us Part 1
The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann wanted to make sure the first game "was complete" because "I wasn't sure they would ever let me direct a game again"
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp