Startup

As manufacturers face growing pressure to achieve carbon neutrality and cope with rising energy costs, improving energy efficiency at large-scale factories has become an urgent priority. Optimizing HVAC systems, which account for a significant share of electricity consumption in factories, is particularly challenging because companies must balance two seemingly conflicting goals: maintaining a comfortable working environment and reducing energy use. Toyota Motor Corporation h

Japan is embarking on a historic socio-economic transformation, executing a massive national strategy to integrate its artificial intelligence, data utilization, and robotics policies. This unified policy push aims to realize the widespread deployment of Physical AI—systems where intelligence interacts directly with the physical world—to secure Japan's industrial competitiveness in a rapidly changing global economy. The initiative represents a profound shift from purely virtu

At Humanoids Summit Tokyo 2026 (held in Tokyo on May 28–29, 2026), Hanya Huang, Operation Partner at High Torque Robotics, presented Mini Pi and Mini Pi+, the company’s compact bipedal and full-body humanoid platforms. Her central argument was that humanoid development will not scale through better AI models alone: developers also need affordable, modular hardware, stable control infrastructure, simulator-compatible software, and accessible documentation. During the live demo

Introduction: The Rising Titan of Physical AI Infrastructure In the rapidly accelerating race to develop physical AI and humanoids, a massive data bottleneck has emerged. While the industry has historically focused on building better hardware, the true battleground has shifted to the underlying data and evaluation infrastructure. Leading this paradigm shift is Lightwheel, a Physical AI simulation and data-infrastructure startup founded three years ago, which secured approxima

While the digital revolution has transformed online spaces and office workflows over the past few decades, its economic footprint remains concentrated. Generative AI tools and large language models (LLMs) operate primarily in the digital realm. In its market framing, Archetype AI positions roughly 85% of global economic activity as rooted in the physical world (spanning manufacturing, construction, energy, and transportation), compared with approximately 15% in primarily digi

At the IVS2026 session "Government as a Catalyst: Building Next-Generation Industries Through Public Demand"—held under the event’s banner theme of "Japan’s Back"—industry leaders and policymakers gathered to outline a radical paradigm shift in Japan’s industrial and startup strategy. The panel brought together a prominent lineup of speakers: Hiroshi Ishikawa, Director, Innovation and New Business Promotion Division, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Kazuhiko Chu

In an era where frontier artificial intelligence models and cloud architectures are no longer just drivers of corporate efficiency but critical instruments of national security, Japan is executing a quiet but ambitious revolution. At the recent IVS2026 panel titled "Domestic Cloud and AI as National Infrastructure — Sovereign Digital Foundations and Startups," key leaders from Japan’s public sector, infrastructure giants, and deep-tech startups converged to outline the nation

The macroeconomic shifts of the past three years have fundamentally rewritten the playbook for late-stage startups. In a candid panel discussion at IVS2026, startup CFOs and a crossover investor pulled back the curtain on the intense, often painful, decisions required to navigate today’s capital markets. The panel was moderated by Hirohiro Maekawa, Representative Director and Chief Contents Director of Funds Startups, and featured: Satoshi Yamada, CFO of 10X, Inc., a retail-t