Upon election to the position of Mayor of the City of Otsu, a prefectural capital with over 340,000 residents, became the youngest woman ever to be elected mayor of a Japanese City. Since taking office, has focused on issues related to gender equality and childcare. LLB and LLM, Hokkaido University; LLM, Harvard Law School. Visiting Fellow, Columbia Business School. Practised law at Nishiura & Asahi, Tokyo and Debevoise & Plimpton, NYC.

Ms. Matsuko is Head of Engagement, Sustainability Office at OMRON Corporation headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. OMRON is a manufacturer of market-leading products using sensing and control technology with AI for the betterment of industry and society, and currently focuses on factory automation, social automation and healthcare domains.
Prior to that, Nami was appointed to lead Corporate Citizenship team to promote CSR activities of the group as Managing Director at Nomura Holdings, Inc., the largest investment bank in Japan and produced the first Integrated Report in financial industry in Japan, before supporting global team to engage with overseas public and private asset owners at Nomura Asset Management.
As an investment banker at Nomura Securities Co., she was engaged in financial advices to Japanese companies (corporate governance, re-organization of group management, Takeovers, IR etc.) and in policy recommendation related to capital market (corporate related laws and regulations, tax).
She holds a BA in International Law from Sophia University in Tokyo, LL.M from Georgetown Law Centre and New York University School of Law in US. Loves to play the violin in the orchestra and create IKEBANA (Japanese traditional style flower arrangement). Member of the New York Bar Association.

Yasukane is the founder and CEO of Josys, a startup established in 2021 that is revolutionizing the hybrid work environment by providing automated IT device and SaaS management solutions worldwide. The company raised USD125M within its first two years.

Yasukane founded Raksul in 2009 after a stint at A.T. Kearney. Raksul, a leader in the sharing economy, specializes in online printing services and became Japan’s largest online printing provider. The company went public in 2018 with a billion dollar market cap. Yasukane’s leadership at Raksul earned him top honors in Forbes’ Entrepreneur Ranking in 2017, and the company was featured in a Harvard Business School case study in 2019. He was also selected Young Global Leaders in World Economic Forum. He has served as Chairman of Raksul since 2023.

Born 1970.
Spent Childhood living in South Africa.
Started her first venture, AGASTA, a company exporting second hand cars to the world, at the age of 26. She was the youngest woman in Japan who made her company public.
2014, she formed People Worldwide co.,Ltd, a cross border Man power agency.
2017, she formed WORK JAPAN Co.,Ltd providing services
dedicated to foreigners living in Japan.
​Selected as, Young Global Leader/World Economic Forum 2005
Women of the Year 2005
Independent Director at BASE Inc (TSE 4477)

Akiko Naka is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wantedly, a social networking service for professionals. Following its official launch in February 2012, Wantedly grew to 2.5 million monthly active users and 30,000 corporations. Wantedly has become the leading professional social networking service in Japan. Naka was the youngest female founder to take a company public in Japan.

Yusuke Narita is an economist, (social) entrepreneur, and public speaker/writer working across multiple countries and fields. He is an Assistant Professor at Yale University in the US and the founder of the startup Hanjuku-kaso Inc. in Japan. As a researcher, he develops methods that use algorithm, data, and evidence to improve social decision making. He deploys his research output to solve real-world business and policy problems, especially education and health policy issues. He is also active on the media and one of the most widely known academics in Japan. At the intersection of academia, industry, media, and policy, his work won several prizes, including The Prime Minister Prize, the Japanese government’s Open Innovation Award, MIT Technology Review’s Innovators under 35 Japan, KDDI Contribution Award, among others. He obtained a Ph.D. from MIT and a bachelor from the University of Tokyo (with the best undergraduate thesis award given to an outstanding thesis once every few years). He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor at Stanford University, Visiting Associate Professor at Hitotsubashi University, and currently hold research affiliate positions at MIT, University of Chicago, University of Tokyo, among others.

Tomomi Nishimoto is the current Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the IlluminArt Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Royal Chamber Orchestra. She also serves as Visiting Professor at Osaka College of Music. Nishimoto has been designated the first Honorary Ambassador for the city of Hirado and the first International Cultural Ambassador for Osaka. She is the first non-Russian to hold conductorial posts with the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia and the Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, and she has been invited as a conductor to approximately thirty countries around the world. Beginning in 2013, Nishimoto has been invited on a yearly basis to the Vatican Music Festival. The following year, she received the Honor of Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra in Vatican, making her the youngest recipient ever of the award. In 2015, she appeared as a Japanese national active on a global basis in television commercials by the Japanese government that promoted Japan overseas for the G7 Summit.

Kohei Nishiyama is a serial entrepreneur and investor in the IT field and a pioneer in crowdfunding, setting up the world' s first prototype in 1997. He is a co-founder of ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS ltd., a venture investment company focusing on online platform technologies, and founder of CUUSOO SYSTEM co., ltd, an online open innovation platform that aggregates distributed intellectual resources. Kohei's strong interests in innovation, new technology, design and robotics coupled with "thinking-outside-the-box" attitude have lead him to become an expert in the fields of innovation management, new product development and design management. One of his projects, LEGO CUUSOO, a crowdsourcing/crowdfunding site jointly operated with LEGO SYSTEM SA., had its exit to LEGO and is now operated by its official service, LEGO IDEAS. At present, Kohei is applying his knowledge to emerging technologies by building an open innovation platform in the electricity industry.
Prior to ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS, he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company where he primarily handled new product development projects. Kohei holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo and continues his postdoc research at Copenhagen Business School.
Kohei grew up in South America until 19 and is fluent in Japanese, Spanish, and English.

Genki Oda is the serial entrepreneur. I have changed the era in many meanings. I founded my first company when I was the University Student. I sell-offs my business and invest many venture companies in Japan. At that time, 2002-2004year, in Japan most venture capital required the venture company to show the phase 3 worth financial statements and the performances. But I thought it was wrong. From my own experiences, most venture companies don't have the performances. They just have the passion and plan , and they need the money. I invest for the entrepreneurs who don't have the evidence or the performances even don't have the company yet. My work have succeeded and many venture capital imitative the start-up venture capital now. So, today in Japan the number of the venture company is increasing.

Second, I familiarized the concept of the Social Entrepreneur. I have donated and supported many NPOs and the social entrepreneurs and generated their activities through many media. I was the first member of the Ashoka Japan and the Social Venture Partners Tokyo-Bay. With my works, today working in the NPOs has become one of the choice for the students. Today, I challenge the revitalization for company and entrepreneurs. Most Japanese think the failure is critical and regard the failed people as a garbage. But I think everyone have a mistake and sometimes unfortunately one mistake is critical one. I want to change the mind for the failure. I have revived the Remixpoint which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange markets and the market capitalization have raised from 400million JPY to 100Billion JPY in this 5 years. And the Remixpoint is the attention as the successful company.

Taro Otsuka is President of the Otsuka Warehouse, part of the Otsuka Group, which achieved net sales of JPY 1,200 billion in the 2012 fiscal year. Prior, he was the Otsuka Group's Marketing Manager for healthcare, food and beverage products, including the Pocari Sweat drink and Oronamin drink, which are popular in Asia. Otsuka is an adventurer who successfully climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and visited the South Pole.

Japanese/British artist based in Tokyo. Known for film and multi-media installation works which explore the social and ethical implications of emerging technologies. Has recently presented works in exhibitions such as the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial (2019, NY), Milan International Design Triennial (2019, Milan) and Setouchi Art Trienniale (creating a permanent art pavilion at the Benesse Art Site on Teshima). Currently an Associate Professor at the Tokyo University of Arts. From 2013 to 2017, Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab, founding and directing the Design Fiction group. To date, has had pieces included in the permanent collections of museums such as the V&A and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

Graduate, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. Formerly, 10 years with Sony Corporation, working with global leading companies such as Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Lenovo, and Panasonic in more than 10 countries. 2007, Founder, Fourth Valley Concierge Corporation.Committee member of the Foreign Workers’ Employment Policy Survey Project, administered by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.