RAMEN TECH 2026
Overview
A citywide innovation week hosted by Fukuoka City. Centered on the Tenjin-Daimyo area, it spreads 100+ events across the city, drawing startups, investors, and engineers from Japan and abroad. The 2025 edition drew over 12,000 participants (1,200+ from overseas). In 2026 it runs five days, October 7-11, targeting 15,000+ participants, offering a panoramic view of the ecosystem of Fukuoka, Japan's self-styled gateway to Asia.
Foundation
- Founded
- 2024
- Founder
- Fukuoka City
Fukuoka City, which has made startup support a pillar of its urban strategy since its 2012 "Startup City Fukuoka" declaration, launched the festival in 2024 as a bridge between Asia and the world. The name, short for "Revolutionizing Asia. Merging Ecosystems & Networks - Tech," is a nod to Fukuoka's famous ramen.
Transition
- 2012 Fukuoka City declares itself Startup City Fukuoka (prehistory)
- 2024 First edition of RAMEN TECH
- 2025 Second edition held in October with a cumulative 12,000+ participants including 1,200+ from overseas, across more than 70 events
- 2026 Third edition announced for October 7-11, targeting more than 100 events and 15,000+ participants
Voices
Touring the side events, the writer distills the keys to new business in the AI era as competition, human skills, and passion (from maskatsuy's report, in Japanese)
An exhibitor records the traction gained from booth exhibition and connections with startups and visitors (from Gigi's exhibitor report, in Japanese)
Titled "co-creation moves the city," it conveys the public-private mingling across venues (from Panasonic's collaboration field report, in Japanese)
AI Expo Summer 2026
The summer edition of the AI-focused exhibition hosted by AIsmiley, operator of Japan's AI portal media. Over 100 companies present 200+ AI solutions alongside 40+ conference sessions. Following the Spring 2026 edition at Tokyo International Forum, it moves to Sankaku Hiroba at the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building. Free to attend, it serves companies comparing generative AI and AI agent products.
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.
Open Developers Conference 2026
A developer-focused open source conference run by the OSPN community behind the Open Source Conference (OSC) series. Billed as an "open source culture festival," it packs seminars, hands-on sessions, and community booths on DevOps, dev tools, and cloud into a single free day. Modest in size at 100-plus attendees, its strength since 2018 has been direct access to the developers behind OSS projects.