SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 drew 60,000 participants from around the world, underscoring Tokyo’s push to position itself as a major Asian hub for startups and urban innovation.
The three-day event, held at Tokyo Big Sight from April 27 to 29, brought together 700 exhibiting startups, investors, companies and local governments, and recorded 10,000 business meetings.
The conference was organised under the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Sustainable High City Tech” concept, which focuses on using advanced technologies to help build sustainable cities.
This year’s programme centred on four themes: artificial intelligence, robotics, resilience and entertainment.
Discussions covered the social implementation of AI, the integration of AI and robotics, the development of cities resilient to disasters and crises, and the role entertainment can play in improving quality of life.
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike opened the event by announcing the Tokyo Startup Database, a platform intended to make the city’s startups more visible, and SusHi Tech Global, a new initiative to support international expansion.
Koike also reiterated Tokyo’s goal of creating a $1 billion startup investment flow through public-private collaboration by the next fiscal year, highlighting the city government’s effort to deepen its support for early-stage and growth companies.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also attended the event and expressed the national government’s support for startup development, signalling broader policy backing for Japan’s innovation economy.
One of the event’s main programmes, the SusHi Tech Challenge 2026, attracted 820 applicants from 60 countries and regions. Qarbotech won the Grand Prize, which carries a 10 million yen cash award, after the semifinal and final rounds were held on April 27 and 28.
LIFESCAPES Inc. received the TechCrunch Prize, which recognises startups with strong innovation, a bold vision and high global growth potential, particularly for expansion into North America.
The SusHi Tech Award 2026 recognised startups, pavilions and ambassadors that showed strong engagement during the conference. EQUES inc., Spectee Inc., NTT QONOQ Devices Inc., Tripbooking Inc. and Rikkeisoft Corporation were named Most Engaged Startups.
Swissnex in Japan and Japan University Startups were selected as Innovative Pavilions, while Antler Japan was named Outstanding Ambassador.
Business News Asia
