Speakers
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Riku Sugie
Paidy Inc.
Riku Sugie
Paidy Inc. / Executive Advisor
After working at Fuji Bank (former Mizuho Financial Group), Accenture, and GE Consumer Finance, Riku became President and CEO of Shinsei Financial in 2012. From 2016, he also served concurrently as an Executive Officer of Shinsei Bank. In November 2017, he assumed the role of President and CEO of Paidy, which was acquired by PayPal for ¥300 billion in October 2021. Starting November 2021, he also served as Vice President at PayPal headquarters. Beginning in 2025, he started serving as Executive Advisor at Paidy.
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Ruriko Tsushima
Medical Corporation Women's Wellness Life Clinic
Ruriko Tsushima
Medical Corporation Women's Wellness Life Clinic President
Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Doctor of Medicine. Chairperson of Women's Wellness Women's Life Clinic Ginza Shinjuku Medical Corporation. Graduated from Hirosaki University School of Medicine in 1984, and opened Women's Wellness Ginza Clinic (now Women's Life Clinic Ginza) in 2002. Provides comprehensive medical care for women. In 2003, established the NPO Women's Medical Network with a comprehensive view of women's minds, bodies, and society. Provides information on lifelong health support for women, conducts awareness-raising activities, and makes policy recommendations. Established the Japan Women's Foundation in 2020, a system in which supporters work together to help women who are in poverty and have nowhere to go.
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Ryan Graves
Saltwater
Ryan Graves
Founder & CEO, Saltwater
Ryan Graves is the Founder & CEO of Saltwater, his family office, incubation, and investment firm. The Saltwater portfolio holds Restless Energy, owner of @Art on instagram, GPX, a logistics & supply chain SaaS business, Mayven Studios, a world class software design and development firm, along with a growing venture portfolio. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of charity:water, Pachama Inc. Formerly, he served as Board Director and SVP Global Operations for Uber Technologies Inc. from founding to IPO. Graves was the first employee, first CEO, and a member of Uber’s founding team. Ryan's career has been a mix of business and technology roles ranging from startups such as Uber and foursquare to corporations such as General Electric and CNA Insurance. Graves currently resides on Kauai with his wife and 4 sons, and holds a BA in Economics from Miami University (OH).
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Ryoji Nakamura
TOTO LTD.
Ryoji Nakamura
TOTO LTD. Digital Innovation Division / General Manager
Ryoji joined TOTO Ltd. in 1995. After experiencing various roles in engineering and marketing section, he was assigned as a Sr. director of Advanced Ceramics Division at TOTO USA Inc. in 2007 and played an important role in developing several businesses in semiconductor and fiber optics field. In 2020, TOTO launched Digital Innovation Division and he was appointed as its general manager. Ryoji earned Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Applied Chemistry from Osaka University, Japan.
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Ryuichiro Toyoshi
Tokuiten Inc.
Ryuichiro Toyoshi
Tokuiten Inc. CEO
He graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology (KOSEN) ,Gifu College. Achieved a runner-up position in the NHK High School Robot Contest during his studies. After graduation, he became independent and engaged in web system development. In 2011, he established Misoca Inc. and developed the cloud-based billing management service "Misoca," which has grown to serve over 200,000 businesses. Subsequently, he sold the company and stepped down as representative director. He completed the Agricultural Entrepreneur Development Training Program at Okazaki Agricultural College in 2020. Determined to dedicate the rest of his life to addressing truly pressing issues, he co-founded Tokuiten Inc. in August 2021 and assumed the position of representative director.
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Ryusuke Komura
Venture Café Tokyo
Ryusuke Komura
Venture Café Tokyo / Executive Director
Experienced in IT and organizational development, with an MBA from Babson College. Led the launch of Venture Café Tokyo in 2018, fostering global innovation ecosystems. Currently serving in a leadership role since January 2024.
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Yukie Tamagawa
Proto-β LLC.
Yukie Tamagawa
President, Proto-β LLC.
Born in 1984 in Gifu Prefecture. A producer of tiles. The president of Proto-β LLC., providing tile brand “TILEmade”.She established a company to plan tiles, utilizing the technology from her family business “Tamagawa Glaze”, aiming at the promotion of the tiles from Gifu / Higashi-Mino and succession of the culture. Before the launch of her company, she worked for six years in Tokyo, as a secretary to members of the Minato City Council, a member of a startup company, and a project manager at an urban development company.In 2017, She returned to her hometown and work in the custom-made tile business and local communitydevelopment. In her private life, she loves traveling, climbing mountains, and picking up trash activity.
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Emori Seita
Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo
Emori Seita
Professor, Institute for Future Initiatives, The University of Tokyo
Born in 1970 in Kanagawa Prefecture. After obtaining a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo in 1997, he worked at the National Institute for Environmental Studies. He served as Head of the Climate Risk Assessment Research Section and Deputy Director of the Earth System Division before assuming his current position in 2022. He also supervises students at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo. His expertise is in climate science. He was a lead author for both the Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). His publications include Extreme Weather and Human Choices and Is the Prediction of Global Warming 'Correct'?, co-authored works such as How 'Scary' is Global Warming?, and supervised works like Recently, It's Been Too Hot on Earth.
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Rina Sakai
FERMENSTATION Co., Ltd.
Rina Sakai
CEO, FERMENSTATION Co., Ltd.
After graduating from International Christian University (ICU), she worked at several financial institutions, including Fuji Bank and Deutsche Securities. She developed an interest in fermentation technology and enrolled in the Department of Brewing Science at Tokyo University of Agriculture's Faculty of Applied Biosciences, graduating in March 2009. In the same year, she founded Ferment Station Co., Ltd. and became its CEO, a position she holds to this day.
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Shingo Itoh
Medeta Inc
Shingo Itoh
Medeta Inc CEO
Graduated from Nagoya University, Faculty of Economics. While in school, he studied gender in a laboratory of human resources and labor affairs. After graduation, in parallel with being involved in the establishment/expansion of a human resource venture company, he gained experience between the field of HR planning and academia, including corporate planning at a consulting firm and research presentations at TrÆ°á»ng Äại há»c Ngoại thÆ°Æ¡ng. Having experienced surgery and treatment while working as a party of infertility treatment himself, he founded Medeta Inc. in 2021. He has developed several deep-tech products to solve the infertility treatment disadvantage.
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Shingo Iwata
Mitsuboshi Group
Shingo Iwata
Mitsuboshi Group President
The fifth-generation president of "Mitsuboshi Group," a materials manufacturer established in 1887. After graduating from Keio University, he worked at Mitsubishi Corporation and Boston Consulting Group before assuming his current position in 2010. He has spearheaded initiatives such as European market expansion, launching the company’s own brand, and leading the wool recycling project “ReBirth WOOL.” Since 2021, he has served as the founder of the industrial tourism event “Hitsuji Summit Bishu,” which has drawn over 60,000 attendees in four years. On July 7, 2023, he launched "TAKIBI & Co.," a community connecting traditional businesses and startups. In 2019, he won the Grand Prix at the Japan Textile Contest and received a Special Award in Forbes JAPAN’s Entrepreneur Rankings in 2022. He also serves as an Independent director at AB&Company Inc. (TSE: GRT9251), a board member of the certified NPO Homedoor, and a Finland Sauna Ambassador.
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Shinichiro Isago
Gen-AX Corp.
Shinichiro Isago
Gen-AX Corp. CEO
Shinichiro Isago is CEO of Gen-AX, a wholly owned subsidiary of Softbank that provides B2B SaaS and business transformation consulting specializing in generative AI. Gen-AX uses technologies such as Autonomous Agents and LLM Ops to streamline and automate customer support and inquiry response operations that require a high degree of alignment between business knowledge and customer service.After graduating from Tokyo Institute of Technology, he worked as a technical evangelist at Oracle Japan, Roland Berger, and Microsoft, and as a platform promoter and CEO of an AI company at LINE, before assuming his current position. He has been an assistant government CIO since FY2019, and then at the Digital Agency since its inception, where he also served as the Industrial Unit Manager and concurrently.
