The Innovation Leaders Summit (ILS), Asia's largest open innovation matching event, will be held from November 19 to December 17 2025.

 

Overseas startups can participate in two types of business matching programs held by the ILS. Power Matching, where you will be matched with Japanese companies, and VC Matching, where you will be matched with VCs. These programs can be attended online and/or in-person and will enable you to make proposals directly to executive officers and other key persons of major corporations to create new business opportunities with these companies. Through Power Matching, you can request up to 20 meetings with major Japanese companies, while VC Matching has no request limit.

There are also opportunities to participate in networking sessions and explore the booths set-up by participating Japanese companies for those attending ILS in-person.

 

Last year’s ILS saw 110 major Japanese corporations and 821 startups/academia (including 292 overseas companies) participate in the main matching program, Power Matching, with a total of 3,249 business meetings arranged.

 

Applications for ILS 2025 are now open! This event is invitation-only and is a great opportunity to meet major Japanese companies. Participation in ILS requires a "nomination" from one or more advisory boards such as JETRO. If you are interested in participating, please fill out our application form as below.

Event Details

Date: <Online meetings> 19 Nov - 27 Nov and 8 Dec - 17 Dec 2025

          <In-person meetings> 1 Dec - 5 Dec 2025

In-person Location: Toranomon Hills, Tokyo

Language: Japanese or English. Japanese-English Interpreters will be available at business meetings free of charge. If you would like to use this service, please select “English” as your language when you officially register for ILS.

Japanese Major Corporations: Japanese participants will be partially announced at the end of August. Until then, you may view past participants on "ILS 2025 Prospectus for Overseas Startups" (p.5) and business matching trends on "Introduction for JETRO Clients" (p.3-5) to consider your participation.

General information on the ILS:

ILS 2025 Prospectus for Overseas Startups ＜PDF＞ (1896KB)

A brief introduction of how to attend ILS and business matching trends:

Introduction for JETRO Clients ＜PDF＞ (2015KB) 

Participation Fee

General Attendance: Free

The ISL is also open to general visitors without nominations. A fee will be charged, but the ISL office will issue a coupon for those who have received an invitation from JETRO to allow them entry free of charge. General visitors will not be able to participate in the business matching programs.

Basic Package: 27,500 yen

For those wishing to attend the Power Matching or VC Matching programs at the ILS.

Pitch Package: 170,500 yen

The Pitch Package requires participants to attend the event in-person to present a 5min pitch on the ILS stage.

While we highly recommend pitches to be done in-person, if that becomes difficult for presenters the ILS office can arrange for pre-recorded online presentations.

Exhibition Package: 203,500 yen

The Exhibition Package and Premium Package both include a booth exhibit, so participants must attend the event in-person. The booth exhibition period will not be for the entire event but will be conducted on either the first half or second half. There will be no interpreter for the exhibition booth, so each company must make their own arrangements if necessary.

Premium Package: 302,500 yen

*Payment in Japanese Yen. Tax included. Credit card or bank transfer accepted.

*JETRO will not bear any participation costs.

How to Apply

For any questions or queries, please contact JETRO Sydney by email: syd-bd@jetro.go.jp