Tech for Impact Summit 2026 Opens Tomorrow, April 26

Tech for Impact Summit 2026 opens tomorrow, April 26, at the Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioi Conference. On the program: a former minister, the founder of Cardano, a fusion engineer, the head of Japan’s largest business school, the CEO of SmartNews, the author of Womenomics, and the co-developer of impact-weighted accounts at Harvard Business School.

Venue

Kioi Conference is a short walk from the Diet Building and the Imperial Palace. It is a small venue.

Keynote and Headline Sessions

Yoshito Hori, founder and president of GLOBIS, gives the keynote. Hori spent three decades building the largest business school in Japan and one of Asia’s larger venture capital platforms. His subject is the obligation of leaders to build institutions that outlast them.

Former Minister Taro Kono ran digital transformation inside the Japanese government. He speaks about what that changed for startups and for multinationals operating in Japan.

Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, presents decentralized infrastructure beyond cryptocurrency: identity systems, governance frameworks, and financial services for people without bank accounts.

Stage sessions are followed by breakout sessions and bilateral meetings.

Topics Covered in the Pre-Summit Articles

Over the past month the summit published twenty-seven articles, roughly one per speaker.

Energy and AI. Kiyoshi Seko of Kyoto Fusioneering presents the state of commercial fusion, a possible source of clean baseload power within two decades. The next generation of AI needs more electricity than renewables alone can supply. Seko’s talk covers milestones, timelines, and the companies building fusion components today.

Capital and measurement. David Freiberg co-developed impact-weighted accounts at Harvard Business School and now leads the practice at EY. His method puts a monetary value on environmental and social externalities. Regulators in Europe and Japan are moving in the same direction. Ken Shibusawa of Commons Asset Management speaks on patient capital. Jesper Koll of Monex Group maps Japan’s capital market reforms.

Media, Web3, and venture. Ken Suzuki of SmartNews built a news app that ranks stories by information quality rather than engagement. Sota Watanabe of Startale is building Web3 rails for digital identity and asset ownership. Kathy Matsui, who wrote Womenomics, now runs MPower Partners, a venture fund with impact criteria written into every term sheet.

Health and longevity. The sessions cover AI systems that may eliminate some categories of disease, longevity research aiming at healthy lifespans of 120, and brain-computer interfaces, the first of which are entering hospitals now. People in the room tomorrow sit on healthcare budgets, regulators’ advisory boards, and workforce plans.

Governance. Hiroshi Aoi of Marui Group runs a stakeholder-capitalism model and reports financial outperformance from it. Kono returns to talk about the digital-government reforms he ran. There are also sessions on plurality, data rights, and democratic technology.

Tokyo in April 2026

The summit is a partner event of SusHi Tech Tokyo.

Japan is implementing mandatory sustainability disclosure standards through the SSBJ. Corporate governance reform is under way. Venture capital flows into Japanese startups are at record levels. The government is positioning the country as a regulatory home for Web3, digital assets, and emerging technology.

Format

Seats are allocated by invitation.

Theme

The theme of Tech for Impact Summit 2026 is “Beyond Boundaries: Building 2050 Together.”

A Note From the Founder

Seira Yun founded the summit so that founders, investors, and policymakers would meet in one room. Tomorrow is the third edition.

The Tech for Impact Summit 2026 takes place on April 26 at the Tokyo Garden Terrace Kioi Conference. Seats are by invitation. Membership details are here.