01Japan
RAMEN TECH 2026
The broadest concentrated opportunity to plug into Fukuoka’s international startup ecosystem, with flagship conferences and partner events across Tenjin and Daimyo.
Oct 7–11, 2026
July 2026–July 2027
The rooms Japan’s buildersshould be in.
Nineteen high-signal conferences for founders, software engineers, and AI builders based in Japan—selected for the people you can meet, the work you can learn from, and the reason the trip is worth it.
19
essential events
10
in Japan
6
priority picks
If you attend only six
Start with the outcome, then book the room.
These six cover the highest-leverage goals for a Japan-based builder: funding, cloud execution, frontier research, production AI, and the local startup network.
02Finland
Slush
The priority trip for Japanese founders raising internationally or building Nordic and European relationships.
Nov 18–19, 2026
03USA
AWS re:Invent
A must for technical founders and platform leads whose roadmap or margins depend on AWS.
Nov 30–Dec 4, 2026
04Australia
NeurIPS
Sydney makes the 2026 edition unusually accessible from Japan; prioritize it for research-heavy AI products and hiring.
Dec 6–12, 2026
05USA
NVIDIA GTC
The single best global trip for AI founders and engineers building at the model, systems, or physical-AI layer.
Mar 15–18, 2027
06Japan
SusHi Tech Tokyo
The default home event for founders: attend, host side meetings, and use it to bring overseas contacts to Tokyo.
May 20–22, 2027
Rolling 12-month calendar
The complete shortlist
Showing 19 essential events.
Oct2026
StartupSoftware engineering
Colive Fukuoka 2026
Oct 1–10, 2026Across Fukuoka City, Japan
A 10-day workation for digital-nomad entrepreneurs, engineers, and investors, designed around working together as much as attending sessions.
For Japan-based teams: A practical way to build international relationships while experiencing Fukuoka’s startup ecosystem beyond a one-day conference.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
StartupAI engineering
RAMEN TECH 2026
Oct 7–11, 2026Across Fukuoka City, Japan
Fukuoka’s citywide innovation week convenes startups, companies, investors, engineers, creators, researchers, and government from across Asia and beyond.
For Japan-based teams: The broadest concentrated opportunity to plug into Fukuoka’s international startup ecosystem, with flagship conferences and partner events across Tenjin and Daimyo.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
Startup
RAMEN TECH Opening Party
Oct 7, 2026Fukuoka (venue to be announced), Japan
The festival’s opening gathering brings together visitors from Silicon Valley, Europe, and across Asia to begin five days of conversations and connections.
For Japan-based teams: A low-friction first stop for meeting the international community before the flagship sessions begin.
Venue and registration to be announcedOfficial site
Oct2026
Oct 7–8, 2026ONE FUKUOKA BLDG., Tenjin, Fukuoka, Japan
Pitch events and talks connecting startup-support organizations and VCs from across Asia under the theme ‘Discover the World. Connect with the World.’
For Japan-based teams: Especially useful for founders looking to turn Fukuoka connections into an Asia-wide investor or partner network.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
StartupAI engineering
RAMEN TECH Global Summit
Oct 8, 2026Fukuoka, Japan
A global meeting point for startups, engineers, investors, and ecosystem builders to exchange ideas and build the technologies and partnerships that follow.
For Japan-based teams: The clearest single-day conference within the festival for internationally oriented builders and investors.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
Startup
STARTUP KYUSHU 2026
Oct 8–9, 2026Maizuru Park & Artist Cafe Fukuoka, Japan
A two-day Kyushu-focused gathering with talks, networking, an overnight camp, and morning wellness activities for startups, investors, students, corporates, and government.
For Japan-based teams: A strong regional alternative to Tokyo-heavy startup events, built for cross-sector relationships in Kyushu.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
StartupAI engineering
FFG Mirai no Kaigi × StartupGo!Go!
Oct 9, 2026ONE FUKUOKA BLDG., Tenjin, Fukuoka, Japan
A high-signal Kyushu gathering for AI, DX, new business, and startup connections, combining NVIDIA’s future-of-AI keynote with StartupGo!Go!’s pitches, booths, matching, and investor network.
For Japan-based teams: A strong no-travel opportunity to meet founders, corporates, VCs, and regional innovation leaders in Fukuoka; the programme is primarily in Japanese.
Free with advance registrationOfficial site
Oct2026
Startup
TechCrunch Disrupt
Oct 13–15, 2026San Francisco, USA
A concentrated startup trip for fundraising, US market intelligence, and conversations with founders at every stage from idea to IPO.
For Japan-based teams: Best for a Japan-based startup preparing a US launch, investor round, or global story.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
StartupAI engineering
CEATEC
Oct 13–16, 2026Makuhari Messe, Chiba, Japan
Japan’s broadest view of applied technology across AI, robotics, mobility, electronics, research, and industrial partnerships.
For Japan-based teams: High return with no international travel—especially for enterprise, hardware, deep-tech, and physical-AI teams.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Oct2026
Software engineeringAI engineering
GitHub Universe
Oct 28–29, 2026San Francisco, USA
The strongest compact event for understanding how AI agents, developer tooling, security, and open-source workflows are changing software teams.
For Japan-based teams: Useful for engineering leaders setting an AI-assisted development strategy for the next year.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Nov2026
Software engineeringAI engineering
KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America
Nov 9–12, 2026Salt Lake City, USA
The essential practitioner gathering for Kubernetes, platform engineering, observability, security, and infrastructure for AI workloads.
For Japan-based teams: Go if your product’s reliability, scale, or GPU infrastructure has become a competitive constraint.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Nov2026
Startup
Slush
Nov 18–19, 2026Helsinki, Finland
Europe’s highest-signal founder and venture gathering, built around curated meetings rather than only stage content.
For Japan-based teams: The priority trip for Japanese founders raising internationally or building Nordic and European relationships.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Nov2026
Software engineeringAI engineering
AWS re:Invent
Nov 30–Dec 4, 2026Las Vegas, USA
The deepest annual download on AWS architecture, production AI, data systems, security, cost, and cloud operations.
For Japan-based teams: A must for technical founders and platform leads whose roadmap or margins depend on AWS.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Dec2026
AI engineering
NeurIPS
Dec 6–12, 2026Sydney, Australia
The year’s most important machine-learning research gathering, with workshops, industry exchange, and early signals of what will reach products next.
For Japan-based teams: Sydney makes the 2026 edition unusually accessible from Japan; prioritize it for research-heavy AI products and hiring.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Jan2027
StartupAI engineering
CES
Jan 6–9, 2027Las Vegas, USA
The global launch floor for consumer technology, chips, robotics, mobility, devices, and physical AI—with the whole ecosystem in one city.
For Japan-based teams: Worth the scale for product and hardware founders; pure SaaS teams should choose a more focused event.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Mar2027
AI engineeringStartup
NVIDIA GTC
Mar 15–18, 2027San Jose, USA
The defining industry conference for accelerated computing, models, inference, agents, robotics, and the infrastructure behind production AI.
For Japan-based teams: The single best global trip for AI founders and engineers building at the model, systems, or physical-AI layer.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Apr2027
Software engineering
RubyKaigi
Apr 14–16, 2027Miyazaki, Japan
One of Japan’s strongest engineering conferences: deeply technical, internationally respected, and unusually good for real community connections.
For Japan-based teams: Essential for Ruby teams and still valuable as a model of Japan’s best developer-led conference culture.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
May2027
StartupAI engineering
SusHi Tech Tokyo
May 20–22, 2027Tokyo Big Sight, Japan
Tokyo’s anchor startup gathering connects founders with global investors, corporates, public-sector partners, and the city’s innovation ecosystem.
For Japan-based teams: The default home event for founders: attend, host side meetings, and use it to bring overseas contacts to Tokyo.
Dates confirmedOfficial site
Jun2027
AI engineeringSoftware engineering
AI Engineer World’s Fair
June 2027San Francisco, USA
A builder-first event focused on the production AI stack: agents, evals, memory, inference, observability, product UX, and developer tools.
For Japan-based teams: Choose it over a research conference when your priority is shipping reliable AI products now.
Exact dates to be announcedOfficial site
A useful rule
Travel for the network. Stream the announcements.
Before booking, define three people you want to meet and one concrete outcome. If the value is only keynotes, watch online and save the trip.
Dates and locations checked against official organizer pages on July 17, 2026. Conference programs and registration details can change; verify the official site before booking travel.