By Ryoji Itako, Shavinya Abeywickrema, and Catherine Yong
SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, organised by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, returns to Tokyo Big Sight from 27–29 April with ambitions to serve as a true platform city for technology and startup-driven urban transformation. A special pre-event gathering was held mid-February to officially announce its return as well as offer the city’s tech / startup ecosystem and members of foreign press a sneak peek into what to expect.
Morning sessions included tours to three of Tokyo’s startup support hubs – Sakura Deeptech Shibuya (SDS), Takanawa Gateway Link Scholar’s Hub (LiSH), and Tokyo Innovation Base (TIB).
At SDS, in addition to facility tours, an interview with Jorge Cortell, former Senior Advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs, was part of the itinerary. At Takanawa, the entire district functions as one of Japan’s largest real-world testbeds – a presentation was offered about its origins and latest initiatives, while TIB is an innovation platform operated by the Tokyo government that serves as a NODE – it connects diverse players from across Japan and around the world.
Fourth time running
In the afternoon, during an insight-filled Pre-event Gathering Day media briefing, Tokyo Vice Governor, Manabu Miyasaka, stated, “SusHi Tech, which will be held for the fourth time, has grown into Asia’s largest innovation conference. It is distinguished by its concept of realising sustainable cities through high technology, a forum gathering of startups, major corporations, investors and city leaders from across the world to discuss future society.”
The event focuses on four core themes shaping future cities – AI, robotics, resilience and entertainment – through sessions, demonstrations and partner events across Tokyo that spotlight technology and the city’s cultural appeal.
Organisers expect 700 startups, 10,000 business meetings and 60,000 attendees, underscoring the city’s strategy to position Tokyo as a global hub where innovators, investors and city leaders convene to solve urban and societal challenges.
For enterprise and government technology stakeholders, SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 offers an agenda led by global innovation leaders, including CEOs of major Japanese and international technology companies, researchers from top universities, and senior executives from organisations such as NVIDIA, NEC, Fujitsu, and Trend Micro.
Sessions will examine sustainable smart cities, AI-human collaboration, autonomous mobility, resilience and startup ecosystem development, complemented by investor-led discussions on capital flows into Japan, and open networking with venture capitalists (VCs).
The Vice Governor also added, “Last November, the Tokyo government released a global innovation strategy. It is a policy that fully supports startups and scaleups, with a strategy that calls for Tokyo to also partner with the national government, major corporations, academia to provide incentive support and funds to promising growth industries.”
SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 aligns closely with Tokyo’s 2050 Strategy to empower startups to scale globally while using technology to build more sustainable, resilient cities. This aligns with one of the city’s goals to develop an environment that fosters genesis and growth of startups.
SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 ‘Built by Everyone’
After the Vice Governor’s main announcement, key players of the event came on stage to speak about new initiatives, participants, and expectations for SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026.
For example, Enterprise Singapore’s Amanda Dizon talked about her organisation’s participation last year and enthused that this year, it was going to expand its pavilion presence. “The feedback from companies that took part in our pavilion is that SusHi Tech is a platform that allows them to meet businesses, universities, policy makers, and also investors.
“And these are very valuable contacts for startups who are looking for their second and third markets… they have matured their market presence in the region and are looking to expand and do something differently.”
Others who joined Enterprise Singapore on stage were Yamato Holdings, Tier V Inc, Sony Group Corporation, Shibuya City Government, and more.
Tokyo’s advantage
When asked by EITN about Tokyo’s advantage compared to other innovation hubs around the globe, Miyasaka-san explained that Tokyo’s startup ecosystem is built on four major strengths: a large and mature capital market that makes fundraising relatively accessible within Asia; a high concentration of global corporations, including one of the world’s largest clusters of Fortune 500 companies which creates open-innovation opportunities; a sizeable and affluent domestic market of over 100 million people; and a dense network of leading universities and research institutions that provide accessible academic and talent resources.
He concluded, “These factors are what make Tokyo’s ecosystem distinctive compared to other ecosystems around the world, and we would like to further strengthen and refine these advantages.”