Ibara Hiyori

Ibara Hiyori (Japanese: 茨ひより) is a Japanese virtual YouTuber who serves as the official VTuber of Ibaraki Prefecture. She is presented as a prefectural government employee and works as the announcer of the prefecture's online video service, IbaKira TV. She is known as the first VTuber to be officially certified by a Japanese local government.

Profile

Item	Detail
Debut	August 2018
Nickname	Hiyorin
Affiliation	Ibaraki Prefectural Government (IbaKira TV)
Role	Official announcer of IbaKira TV; Virtual Public Relations Department, VTuber Team (setting)
Represents	Ibaraki Prefecture
Character designer	Harutask

Career

Ibara Hiyori began her activities in August 2018. In her character setting, she is an employee of the Ibaraki Prefectural Government who was transferred to the Virtual Public Relations Department's VTuber Team and appointed the official announcer of IbaKira TV, the prefecture's internet video site and YouTube channel. She received an official letter of appointment from the prefectural governor, and the prefecture describes her as Japan's first VTuber certified by a local government.

In 2019 she was featured by English-language Japan news outlets such as SoraNews24 and Japan Today. These articles described her as Ibaraki's official virtual spokesperson. They highlighted her introduction video, in which she answered questions from Twitter users about her role.

Later, the voice recognition company Advanced Media created an AI version of the character called "AI Ibara Hiyori." It combines the company's AI voice dialogue avatar system, "AI Avatar AOI," with OpenAI's ChatGPT so that visitors can hold free conversations with her in natural spoken language. To reproduce the character's emotional expressions, motions and animation, the system uses voice synthesis based on recordings of Ibara Hiyori's voice. According to the company, this was the first time a local-government-certified VTuber had been turned into an AI. AI Ibara Hiyori appeared at Niconico Chokaigi 2023. Before that event, IbaKira TV released a collaboration video in which she talked freely with Weathernews caster Saya Hiyama. AI Ibara Hiyori later appeared at the 12th Taipei International Comics and Animation Festival. From October to December 2024 she was also installed at the standing bar "Ibaraki Jizake Bar Mito" at Mito Station, where she used image recognition to recommend local sake to customers.

Activities

Streaming style

Ibara Hiyori's activities center on public relations videos for IbaKira TV, which are collected in a dedicated playlist on YouTube. She says her purpose is to showcase the charms of Ibaraki Prefecture. In her introduction video, she acknowledged that Ibaraki had been ranked the least attractive of Japan's 47 prefectures in a popularity survey. Her work includes promoting local products and tourism. Through her AI version, she has also appeared at events and in real-world locations such as Mito Station.

Characteristics

Her design features short brown hair, a blue blazer and a yellow skirt. She has said she is proud to represent Ibaraki in professional clothing. Media coverage describes her as an honest, outspoken character who always says exactly what she feels and thinks. Japanese viewers have praised what was described as her feisty personality. She is also portrayed as fiercely proud of her home prefecture, and press coverage named this as a key part of her appeal.