Designship 2026
Overview
Japan's largest design conference, built on the concept of "reconnecting design that has spread too far." Held annually since 2018 around the stories of practitioners crossing UI/UX, graphic, and product design, it has drawn over 50,000 cumulative attendees, with about 2,500 visitors over two days in 2025. The 2026 edition takes place at Tokyo Midtown Hall on October 10-11.
Foundation
- Founded
- 2018
- Founder
- Founded in April 2018 by Moe Hirono, co-founder and former CDO of FOLIO, who established the Designship association to run the conference
Born as an annual venue to connect design practitioners fragmented across digital, graphic, and product industries.
Transition
- 2018 Moe Hirono and others founded the Designship Association and held the first edition
- 2025 The 8th edition was held at Tokyo Midtown, with over 80 speakers from 60 organizations and 2,518 visitors over two days
- 2026 Cumulative attendance passed 50,000. The 9th edition is scheduled for October 10-11 at Tokyo Midtown Hall
Voices
A rare chance to physically experience how far design has expanded — especially valuable for designers working outside Tokyo.
Many talks full of stories and real examples you rarely get to hear, offering a great deal of learning.
Through boothing and sessions alike, I found hints for crossing role boundaries.
A designer connected the idea of characters as an interface for emotion to her own product design (from Ayako's report, in Japanese)
A speaker shared five initiatives for democratizing UI design with a two-designer team (from Teramoto's report, in Japanese)
Innovation Japan 2026 (University Trade Fair)
Japan's largest university-industry matching event, hosted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Patented technology seeds from universities nationwide are exhibited for matching with corporate R&D and new business teams. The 2025 edition drew about 14,000 visitors to 291 exhibited seeds. Less a startup conference and more a trade fair that seeds technology transfer and joint research.
DATERISE! 2026
A global startup event from Tohoku hosted by Sendai City. It combines a pitch contest, exhibitor booths, and festival-style side events, engaging everyone from startups to local residents. First held in 2025 with over 2,300 total participants including side events. The 2026 edition consolidates venues into the Sendai International Center Exhibition Hall and scales up.
OPEN INNOVATION SUMMIT 2026
One of Japan's largest open innovation summits, hosted by eiicon. Large corporations, startups, municipalities, and investors gather for sessions and the STARTUP PITCH program, generating business co-creation matches. A distinctive feature is that corporate judges make on-the-spot co-creation decisions during the pitch. Around 2,000 attendees expected.