Timetable

As the space industry continues to expand, the need for a robust and comprehensive supply chain is becoming increasingly important. This spans everything from sourcing materials and components for rockets and satellites, spacecraft manufacturing and system development, launch operations, and data utilization, to emerging fields such as space debris removal and the development of commercial space stations beyond the International Space Station (ISS).

The next era of space activity will also require critical technologies such as Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS), enabling people to live and work safely in spacecraft and space stations.

Join leading experts and innovators as they explore humanity’s next chapter in space and discuss the future of the global space industry.

As global competition in drug discovery intensifies, translating groundbreaking science into innovative medicines requires more than excellence in research and development. It calls for a robust and interconnected drug discovery ecosystem that brings together global risk capital, experienced entrepreneurial and management talent, pharmaceutical companies, research institutions, incubators, and other key stakeholders.

Through initiatives such as the Strengthening Program for Pharmaceutical Startup Ecosystem and the Drug Discovery Cluster Campus Development Program, the Government of Japan is working to create an environment that connects innovation originating in Japan with global markets. These efforts include strengthening collaboration with domestic and international venture capital firms, providing funding and hands-on support for drug discovery startups, and developing innovation hubs that support research, development, and commercialization.

In this session, policy advisors to the Government of Japan and leading international life sciences venture capital investors will discuss, from a global perspective, the potential of Japan’s drug discovery ecosystem and the challenges that must be addressed to realize its full potential.

How can Japan’s world-class science be connected with global capital, talent, and drug development expertise? What will it take to attract greater investment from international venture capital firms and enable startups emerging from Japan to scale successfully into global markets? And what kind of ecosystem should government, venture capital, academia, pharmaceutical companies, and startups build together for Japan to become a Global Drug Discovery Hub that attracts leading entrepreneurs, investors, and researchers from around the world?

The session will explore the pathway for transforming Japan’s drug discovery ecosystem from a framework primarily supporting domestic startups into a globally connected platform where world-class science, capital, and talent converge—and where the next generation of global drug discovery companies can emerge and grow.

Japan has strong scientific and clinical capabilities in healthcare, but startups often face challenges when moving from domestic validation to global commercialization. International clinical networks, strategic investors, regulatory insight, and platform partnerships are essential for companies seeking to scale beyond Japan.

This session brings together Mayo Clinic, healthcare investors, and global platform leaders to discuss how Japanese healthcare startups can build credible pathways to overseas markets. The conversation will focus on partnership design, investment readiness, clinical validation, and what global stakeholders look for when engaging with Japanese innovation.

Biotechnology and life sciences are being reshaped by advances in AI, diagnostics, therapeutic platforms, medical devices, and translational research. For Japanese startups, the opportunity is significant, but global success requires clinical relevance, regulatory strategy, international partnerships, and investors who understand long development cycles.

This session will bring together leading life science investors, ecosystem builders, and Japanese startup perspectives to discuss how healthcare and biotech innovation can scale globally. The discussion will examine investment themes, partnership models, and the capabilities Japanese startups need to compete in international markets.

Japan’s startup ecosystem is maturing rapidly, and the fundraising environment for seed and early-stage companies has improved significantly. At the same time, for companies aiming to expand into global markets, accessing global capital during the growth stage and building networks with overseas investors remain major challenges.

In this session, Benhamou Global Ventures—which has invested in innovative companies worldwide for many years—Alumni Ventures—home to one of the world’s largest venture communities—and MPower Partners—a Japan-based, globally-oriented venture fund—will take the stage to discuss what characteristics startups that succeed globally have in common.

What perspectives do the world’s top VCs use to make investment decisions? What should Japanese startups focus on refining, and how should they approach overseas investors? And what kind of ecosystem is necessary to foster global companies from Japan?

Leading investors connecting Silicon Valley, Japan, and the world will share practical insights based on their real-world experience to help the next generation of entrepreneurs, investors, and companies take on the global stage.

Fusion energy is entering a pivotal new phase—evolving from a field of scientific research to the formation of a new global industry bringing together national governments, research institutions, major corporations, startups, and investors.

In Japan, fusion energy has been designated as a priority area in the growth strategy. Efforts are progressing in the following areas: research and development, power generation demonstrations, regulations and standards, human resource development, and the establishment of supply chains.

ITER represents far more than an experimental facility. It serves as a unique global industrial platform that brings together technologies, companies, and talent from around the world to integrate, manufacture, and construct fusion systems at unprecedented scale.

The expertise accumulated through ITER—in design and manufacturing technology, quality assurance, system integration, and project execution—has the potential to lead to a wide range of business opportunities, extending beyond the reactor itself to include advanced materials, manufacturing and inspection, digital technologies, remote maintenance, and operation and control.

In this presentation, an overview of the current state of global fusion development and the role of ITER will be provided. The presentation will also offer insights on how Japanese startups and companies can leverage their participation in ITER and the knowledge gained there to advance technological sophistication, foster talent development, strengthen international collaboration, and enter the supply chain—thereby establishing a strong presence in the global market.

Guided by its mission to contribute to the future of society through the integration of Convergence Knowledge and Practical Competence, The University of Osaka continues to take on the defining challenges of our time. President Shojiro Kumanogoh will share the University’s vision for the future and its ambition to transform knowledge and discovery into meaningful societal impact.

Joining him, Professor Shimon Sakaguchi, recipient of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, will offer a unique perspective that bridges the worlds of scientific discovery and entrepreneurship. As both a distinguished scientist and researcher and a founder of RegCell, Professor Sakaguchi brings firsthand experience in translating frontier science into real-world innovation and commercial application.

Drawing on these perspectives, this keynote session will explore how groundbreaking scientific discoveries can move beyond the laboratory to create tangible value for society. It will illuminate the challenges and opportunities involved in translating science and technology into real-world impact—and how researchers, universities, and entrepreneurs can work together to push the boundaries of knowledge, address society’s most pressing challenges, and help shape the future of humanity.

CVC leaders from Kyocera and Mitsui Chemicals discuss what success really means in corporate venture capital. As CVC activity accelerates across Japan, many corporations still struggle to define and measure strategic returns. This session explores the challenges of building successful CVC programs, securing internal alignment, engaging business units and executive leadership, and turning investment activity into long-term business value. Through candid perspectives and real-world experiences, the speakers will share lessons for corporations seeking to maximize the impact of their venture initiatives.

Fusion energy is attracting growing global attention as a next-generation industry with the potential to contribute to both decarbonization and energy security. As development accelerates worldwide, the focus of competition is shifting from research and development toward commercialization and market creation.Japan possesses not only world-class scientific expertise built over decades, but also a broad industrial base essential to realizing fusion energy, including advanced capabilities in lasers, materials, precision engineering, and plant engineering. Translating these strengths into commercially viable businesses and establishing a competitive position in the global market will require the creation and growth of startups, active participation by established corporations, access to long-term capital, and the development of resilient supply chains. This session will explore how Japan can bring together its technological capabilities, talent, and industrial expertise. It will also examine the roles that industry, research institutions, financial institutions, and investors must play in building a globally competitive fusion energy industry originating from Japan.

Japan’s deep tech startups (DTSUs) cannot yet be said to be globally competitive.

This session examines the roles that industry, government, academia, and finance should play in transforming DTSUs into globally competitive industries, exploring the issue from local, national, and global perspectives.

Topics include collaboration between DTSUs and corporations (government SBIR programs), the role of Japan’s designated Universities for International Research Excellence, the creation of new industries and transformation of industrial structures, the importance of establishing global hubs in Japan, connecting to the global ecosystem, and the role of NINEJP.

Quantum computing is transitioning from a field centered primarily on fundamental research to a new phase in which it has the potential to shape and create entirely new industries. In Japan, quantum technology has been identified as a strategic national priority, with significant progress being made across multiple fronts, from hardware to software. At the same time, however, many Japanese companies—the prospective end users of quantum computing—remain at the proof-of-concept stage. Without a clear understanding of its advantages over conventional approaches or a viable path to return on investment, many have yet to move toward full-scale adoption.

The barriers to broader adoption are not limited to the technological challenges of quantum hardware. Business-level challenges are equally significant, including the difficulty companies face in determining where and how quantum computing can deliver meaningful value within their own businesses.

Drawing on the perspectives of leading pioneers in the application of quantum computing, this session will examine the factors that continue to impede full-scale deployment and discuss what is needed to accelerate corporate adoption and engagement. Looking ahead to a future in which quantum computing reaches widespread practical application, the session will also explore the capabilities, ecosystems, and strategic foundations that Japan must begin building today to ensure that it does not become merely a consumer of quantum technologies, but instead plays a leading role in creating new industries and value in the quantum era.

It has now been six years since NTT first introduced its vision for IOWN (Innovative Optical and Wireless Network). Today, the IOWN Global Forum has grown to more than 170 members, while the All-Photonics Network (APN) has already entered commercial deployment, enabling a wide range of use cases and real-world implementations.

TBC

As we look toward the advent of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), AI is becoming increasingly embedded across every sphere of society and industry. Competitiveness in this new era will be determined not by semiconductors and AI models alone, but by our ability to build a next-generation industrial ecosystem—one that encompasses AI data centers capable of meeting rapidly expanding computational demand, reliable and sustainable power supplies, advanced GPU and computing infrastructure, and the startups and industries that harness these capabilities to create new value.

At the same time, AI is moving beyond the digital realm and entering a new phase of real-world deployment. By converging with robotics, mobility, manufacturing, logistics, energy, and other physical industries, AI is evolving into “Physical AI,” with the potential to fundamentally transform how our economies and societies operate. The critical question is how investment in AI infrastructure can be translated into the creation of new industries and startups, and ultimately into broader societal and industrial transformation through the deployment of Physical AI. Achieving this will require new forms of collaboration and strategic alignment across computing resources, energy, technology, and industry.

This session will bring together leaders from the key domains underpinning the next generation of the AI economy—including AI data centers, accelerated computing and Physical AI. Together, they will explore the infrastructure required for the AGI era, the creation of new industries and startup opportunities enabled by that infrastructure, and the path toward the real-world deployment of Physical AI.

With Nakanoshima Qross serving as a central hub, this session will explore the development of a globally connected bio and life sciences cluster that brings together pharmaceutical companies, investors, universities and research institutions, and startups from Japan and around the world. The ambition is to build a dynamic ecosystem that transforms Japan’s world-class scientific discoveries into globally competitive businesses and innovations.

To realize this vision, the session will discuss the potential of next-generation cell manufacturing platforms, including VMaCS (Value Chain Consortium for Development of Mass Cell Culture System), to accelerate the industrialization of regenerative medicine and other emerging fields of advanced healthcare. It will also examine how these capabilities can strengthen Japan’s global competitiveness, foster internationally competitive industries, and ultimately establish bio and life sciences as a new engine of growth for the Japanese economy.

Climate tech is moving from demonstration projects to industrial deployment, supported by regulation, standards, public finance, and private capital. Europe has become a leading testbed for climate innovation in areas such as carbon removal, green hydrogen, renewable energy, and industrial decarbonization.

This session will examine how European institutions, investors, and startups translate policy ambition into bankable businesses. Panelists will discuss the role of standards, blended finance, corporate demand, and cross-border partnerships, with implications for Japanese climate tech startups seeking global growth.

AI’s growth is no longer limited by algorithms — it’s limited by land, transformers, cooling, and electrons. As models move off the screen and into robots, factories, and physical infrastructure, the binding constraint shifts from software to power. This panel brings together a frontier-tech investor, a decarbonization growth investor, and an operator building energy intelligence for AI workloads to ask: where does the constraint actually bind, who profits from solving it, and what should founders in Japan and Asia be building right now?

What happens when a world-leading accelerator, a top-tier global VC, and one of Japan’s largest venture capital firms join forces?​ This session brings together Techstars—ranked No. 1 in TIME and Statista’s America’s Best Incubators and Accelerators 2026—Lightspeed Venture Partners, a leading global multi-stage VC firm, Global Brain, one of Japan’s largest and most active venture capital firms, and JETRO.​
The speakers will explore how their networks, investment capabilities, and market expertise can help build the next generation of global winners—from creating startups with global ambitions from day one to scaling internationally after achieving product-market fit.​
Techstars will share how it helps Japanese startups gain access to global mentors, customers, investors, and markets.​ Lightspeed will offer a global VC perspective on what it takes to identify exceptional companies early and help them scale globally after achieving product-market fit, particularly in AI and other frontier technologies.​ Global Brain will discuss what its partnership with Techstars can create for founders, as well as how it can help portfolio companies of global accelerators and VCs enter Japan through investment, customer development, and corporate partnerships.​ Together, the panelists will present a two-way model for taking Japanese startups to the world—and bringing the world’s most promising startups to Japan.

Leading global VCs will discuss how they identify deep tech startups with the potential to become global category leaders. Beyond technological breakthroughs, what distinguishes the most promising companies in terms of founding team, market opportunity, commercialization strategy and global scalability? The panel will also explore what founders must demonstrate to attract global capital, navigate longer development timelines and turn breakthrough technologies into globally competitive businesses.

Fusion energy is moving from an ambitious scientific vision toward potential commercial deployments. At the same time, growing electricity demand and the push for decarbonization are creating new opportunities across the energy sector.

Bringing together investors, startup experts, and a pioneering Japanese fusion company, this session will explore what is driving today’s fusion investment, how close the technology is to commercialization, and what it will take to successfully build and scale the next generation of energy companies. The panel will also discuss the role Japan can play in shaping this rapidly emerging global industry.

Japan’s deep tech ecosystem has no shortage of world-class science — the harder problem is turning that science and research into commercially viable, globally competitive companies.

This session brings together three vantage points that together define how that transformation happens: government policy, academic research, and hands-on venture building. Panelists from Japan’s Cabinet Office, a leading university startup office, and SRI’s GSC Venture Build program — which works across Silicon Valley and Japan — will share how each piece of the ecosystem contributes to turning breakthrough science into globally competitive companies.

What does it take to build a deep tech pipeline that actually works, from policy to campus to market? And where is this model headed next, as it extends toward incubating deep tech for governments and investors around the world?

Bringing together national policy, academic, and venture-building perspectives, this session offers a high-level look at how Japan’s deep tech ecosystem can come together to compete on a global stage.

TBC

The semiconductor industry is entering a new phase driven by AI workloads, edge computing, custom silicon, and open architectures such as RISC-V. For startups, this shift creates opportunities to challenge established value chains through specialized chip design, design automation, and new approaches to hardware-software integration.

This session will explore how RISC-V and next-generation semiconductor ecosystems are reshaping innovation, investment, and industrial collaboration. Speakers will discuss how universities, accelerators, investors, EDA leaders, and startups can work together to build globally competitive chip-design companies.

Quantum computing is crossing from research into strategic infrastructure. With IBM, Google, Fujitsu, and RIKEN racing toward fault-tolerance by decade’s end, Dr. Dimitri Kusnezov (former U.S. DHS Under Secretary for S&T) and moderator Tomotaka Kuwahara (METI Startup & VC Group) discuss what this shift means for U.S.–Japan cooperation, industrial competitiveness, and where founders should build next.

Stanford anchors one of the world’s most productive innovation ecosystems, where talent, research, and a generous founder community compound into billion-dollar companies. StartX CEO Cameron joins two StartX founders to explore what makes it singular — and how StartX’s non-equity, founder-first model unlocks it. The founders share what the ecosystem gave them that they couldn’t find elsewhere. The conversation closes by looking outward, to Japan as StartX’s next bridge. A candid look at how unicorns get built.

Corporate venture capital leaders from two globally recognized industry leaders, Cargill and Siemens, will share how their organizations have successfully driven innovation through long-term CVC initiatives.

Google’s vision is to make AI useful for everyone.

Gemini is a state-of-the-art reasoning model designed to understand even the smallest clues and solve complex problems.

For over a decade, Google has been integrating AI into its products and services to benefit users. For example, Gemini is making it easier for people to navigate and discover places on Google Maps. Furthermore, by combining AI with the data accumulated through our products and services and making it accessible to businesses and startups, it unlocks substantial business opportunities.

AI holds the potential to address climate change, urban planning, and public health. From here in Osaka, Google will contribute to solving the critical urban and social challenges facing our world today.

Japanese companies are seeking innovative solutions to address increasingly complex business and societal challenges.

This session explores the potential of expanding the search for solutions beyond Japan to startups around the world, leveraging ATR’s global innovation network.

Bringing together a financial institution with extensive networks among major Japanese corporations and government-affiliated innovation agencies from two countries, the discussion will focus on how the needs of Japanese companies can be matched with solutions offered by global startups, and how these connections can lead to concrete business opportunities.

As AI moves from experimentation to enterprise-wide deployment, trust is becoming the essential infrastructure that enables scale. Organizations can no longer rely solely on model performance—they must establish governance, transparency, security, human oversight, and measurable business outcomes. Trust is what gives leaders the confidence to deploy AI in mission-critical workflows, regulated industries, and public services.

This panel will explore how startups, enterprises, and policymakers can build AI systems that are not only powerful, but dependable, accountable, and worthy of adoption at scale drawing on examples from Silicon Valley and Europe.  We’ll discuss how trust can become a strategic competitive advantage, accelerating innovation while ensuring AI delivers lasting economic and societal value.

While deep tech is attracting growing attention within Japan’s startup ecosystem, significant hurdles remain on the path to commercialization and large-scale fundraising. How can Kansai create and grow research-driven startups capable of competing globally? This question holds the key to the growth of the Kansai economy, and of Japan as a whole.

This session features Mr. Sato of Holoway, Inc., which was selected for the second cohort of the Kansai incubation program “KIDOU” and subsequently closed a Series A round led by Globis Capital Partners (GCP), together with Mr. Nakamura of GCP, who led the investment. They will trace the real journey from their first encounter before the program, through deepening the business during the program, to securing funding.

Joining them is Mr. Matsumoto of WiL, who has been involved with “KIDOU” since its conception. Together, they will discuss what it takes for entrepreneurs to succeed on the global stage, the role “KIDOU” plays within the Kansai ecosystem, and how the region can generate breakthrough innovation.

Japan is advancing deep tech startup policies to accelerate the commercialization of science and technology. At the same time, many scientific and technological seeds remain dormant within academia and research institutions.

This session takes a broad view of the process of industrializing deep tech, exploring how both researchers and startups can demonstrate entrepreneurship.

It will also examine what kind of industrial cluster strategy—bringing together industry, government, academia, finance, and regional communities—is needed for Japan to truly compete on the global stage, including from the perspective of talent development.

Major cities worldwide are grappling with worsening traffic congestion and underdeveloped public transport. While solutions like metro lines and LRT systems are being considered, high costs and profitability concerns have hindered their implementation. Glydways, a company that has devised a revolutionary, AI-powered, autonomous “pod” transport system. Operating on dedicated lanes, this system offers transport capacity comparable to the Midosuji Line—yet provides a “dream” experience featuring on-demand service, private cabins, congestion-free travel, and flexible boarding and alighting. It transports not only people but also goods. Notably, while Glydways conceived the concept, the vehicles are developed and manufactured by Suzuki, and construction in the U.S. is handled by Obayashi Corporation—a true “Designed by Silicon Valley, Made by Japan, Constructed by Japan” collaboration. The Glydways model cuts both construction and operating costs to one-fifth of traditional levels, shifting the paradigm from local governments subsidizing public transport deficits to generating revenue for them. This team is poised to usher transportation systems—whether globally or in cities like Kyoto and Osaka—into a new era. We invite you to witness this prime example of how the fusion of AI and transportation solves societal challenges through a collaboration between Japan and Silicon Valley.

With the rapid evolution of AI technology, determining how to integrate AI into organizations and workflows—whether as a tool for operational efficiency, or as a trusted partner and “alter ego”—has become a critical issue directly tied to strategic executive decisions across all sectors. Furthermore, there is a pressing need to bridge the gap between data-driven personas and real individuals, redefine human creativity in the AI era, and discern which tasks can be delegated to AI versus what core responsibilities humans must retain.

In this session, leading experts from academia, corporate leadership, and frontline business operations will gather to explore “coexistence with AI” through multiple perspectives. Moving beyond abstract technical discussions and philosophical concepts, the panel will examine who will design a “human-centric” society and organizational framework over the next decade and how it will be achieved. The session aims to deliver practical, actionable insights that business professionals, startup founders, and AI leaders can immediately apply to their own strategic decision-making.

As AI rapidly expands demand for computing power, semiconductor competition is no longer defined by chip performance alone. Advanced manufacturing, new materials, advanced packaging, energy, and the resilience of the surrounding supply chain are becoming critical sources of competitive advantage. Japan enters this new era with one of the world’s deepest semiconductor ecosystems, built on longstanding strengths in manufacturing equipment, materials, precision engineering, and industrial know-how. Yet technology roadmaps are moving faster, and discontinuous shifts such as new materials and 3D integration are becoming increasingly difficult for any single company to address through internal R&D alone.

At the same time, global capital is moving earlier into Hard Tech, while leading companies are positioning themselves for future technology shifts through startups, external innovation, and strategic investment. How can Japan turn today’s industrial strengths into leadership in the next technology roadmap?

This session will explore how the AI era is reshaping semiconductor manufacturing and the broader physical infrastructure behind it; where the next bottlenecks and business opportunities are emerging; and how Japanese companies can combine world-class internal capabilities with external technologies and startups. Drawing on real-world models including SOSV’s Plasma Forge initiative, the discussion will examine what Japanese companies need to do now to turn today’s strengths into sustainable competitive advantage for the next generation.

In just three years from its founding, Deel became a decacorn valued at over $10 billion. Since 2019, Deel has grown into a global people platform that helps more than 40,000 companies hire, manage, and pay their teams across 150+ countries, reaching over $1.5 billion in ARR and a $17.3 billion valuation. Two things drove that growth: a product designed for global markets from day one, and the operating discipline to keep a distributed, cross-border organization moving at speed. For startups in Japan, however, the barriers to competing globally often sit outside the core business. Establishing overseas entities, staying compliant with local labor and tax regulations, and managing multinational teams can stall excellent technology long before it reaches the world. In this session, we will trace Deel’s growth story and discuss what it takes to build a global-first product strategy, how to time and sequence market entry, how to build culture in a multinational organization, and how to turn technology and ideas into industries in global markets. Attendees, including deep tech founders building from Japan, will leave with concrete guidance for going global.

TBC

Researchers are walking away from OpenAI and Anthropic, calling the race to build self-improving superintelligence irresponsible — a warning that the technology could become an uncontrollable risk to humanity. Yet Silicon Valley’s money keeps pouring into AI, with Physical AI standing out as the area gaining the most momentum right now.

In this fireside chat, renowned angel investor Jason Calacanis — who has spotted numerous unicorns — joins us for an unfiltered conversation on how he, as an investor, weighs the warnings researchers are raising, and why capital is rushing into Physical AI specifically. From there, the conversation turns to where Japan’s startup ecosystem stands amid this global shift. Forty-five minutes of straight talk from a top angel investor on where Deeptech and AI stand today — and where they’re headed.

Quantum computing is attracting unprecedented levels of investment, but capital alone will not determine how quickly the industry advances. Progress is increasingly constrained by physical infrastructure, specialized supply chains, scarce talent and the absence of trusted, industry-wide benchmarks. These challenges make it difficult for investors to assess technical progress, for enterprises to compare competing platforms and for founders to plan credible paths to commercialization.

This panel will examine the “quantum readiness gap” between growing financial ambition and the ecosystem’s actual capacity to deliver. Comparing the distinct approaches of Japan, Singapore and the United States, the discussion will explore what each market gets right, what they can learn from one another, and how founders and investors can navigate the mismatch between conventional fund timelines and the longer development cycles of quantum technology.

Deep tech breakthroughs are reshaping industries from AI and robotics to semiconductors, energy, and advanced computing. Yet turning scientific and engineering advances into enduring companies often requires navigating technical uncertainty, long development cycles, significant capital needs, and markets that may not yet fully exist.

This session will bring together venture investors with perspectives spanning frontier technology, early-stage company building, and new models of venture capital. The panel will explore how investors identify breakthrough opportunities, build conviction before markets become obvious, and support founders from technical validation to global scale. It will also discuss how the evolving venture capital landscape can connect Japan’s deep tech strengths with international capital, talent, and networks.

Universities and regional innovation ecosystems are vital sources of breakthrough technologies and deep tech startups.Yet research excellence alone is not enough to build globally competitive companies. Many promising technologies struggle to cross the “valley of death” between academic research, commercialization, and market adoption.

Deep tech founders need support in developing robust intellectual property strategies, validating real-world customer needs, securing patient and growth capital, and recruiting experienced management talent. They also need international networks that connect university research and regional strengths with global investors, corporate partners, customers, and markets.

This session will explore how universities, research institutions, accelerators, investors, and public ecosystem builders can work together to transform scientific breakthroughs into globally scalable deep tech companies. The panel will discuss best practices in technology commercialization, IP strategy, venture creation, management talent development, ecosystem design, and cross-border expansion—and examine what it takes to help university- and region-based startups successfully cross the valley of death and compete on the global stage.

Fusion energy is attracting growing global attention as a next-generation energy source capable of supporting a carbon-neutral future. In recent years, the focus has expanded beyond technological breakthroughs to include commercialization, supply chain development, and private investment.

Europe has become a major source of deep tech innovation, supported by strong research institutions, public funding mechanisms, industrial customers, and increasingly sophisticated venture capital. At the same time, European investors are expanding their global reach and looking for differentiated technologies beyond their home markets.

This session will explore how European venture capital firms evaluate deep tech opportunities, support commercialization, and build cross-border investment strategies. The discussion will also consider what Japanese startups and ecosystem builders can learn from Europe’s approach to research translation, patient capital, and industrial collaboration.

TBC

Most of the debate about AI and energy is about how much power AI will consume. This session turns the question around: what can AI do for the energy system we already have? Across upstream, refining, power generation, grids, and logistics, AI is beginning to run assets more safely and more efficiently — predictive maintenance, process optimization, autonomous operations. Yet the gap between a successful pilot and full deployment inside an energy major remains wide. They discuss where AI is already delivering value inside energy assets, why deployment stalls, and which mechanisms — corporate venturing, venture-client models, structured pilots — actually move a startup’s technology into a plant. With practical takeaways for deep-tech founders aiming to sell into the global energy industry from Japan.

As Japan strengthens its deep-tech innovation ecosystem, collaboration between national initiatives and regional innovation hubs will be essential. This session will discuss how global talent, mission-driven R&D, and entrepreneurial leadership can accelerate breakthrough innovation across Japan.

With a focus on Kansai and initiatives such as KSAC, the conversation will explore how regional strengths can be connected to global networks, investment, and commercialization opportunities, creating a distributed innovation ecosystem that drives both global impact and regional growth.

AI sovereignty is not about isolation or building everything at home—it is about strategic agency. As AI becomes a defining driver of economic competitiveness and national power, countries must ensure sufficient control over the technologies, infrastructure, talent, capital, and partnerships that shape their future. Sovereignty therefore extends well beyond compute: it requires vibrant innovation ecosystems, entrepreneurial capacity, smart public-private collaboration, and access to global markets. Drawing on the distinctive experiences of France and Israel, this panel will explore how nations can strengthen domestic capabilities while using cross-border collaboration as a force multiplier—and what lessons these models offer Japan as it defines its own path toward AI sovereignty.

Leaders from Nippon Life’s Corporate Venture Capital and New Business Development team, the President of the group’s venture capital arm, and the President of Granstory, an innovation platform dedicated to creating meaningful connections, will come together to discuss how Japan can unlock the potential of regional startups.