Future Food Institute's agrifood innovation hub opens in Tokyo

The Future Food Institute – the international ecosystem focused on agrifood system innovation, opens its Japanese Hub, including a real Living Lab, in the heart of Tokyo near Kyobashi Station.

Partner of the project is Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd. (“Tokyo Tatemono”; headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; President and Chief Executive Officer: Hitoshi NOMURA), a prestigious Japanese real estate company aiming to redesign the cities of the future in a sustainable way, making food the first element of urban regeneration.

The Japanese Future Food Hub is a physical space dedicated to food innovation and research, from urban farming to food retail and culinary innovation. It is located in the Tokyo district that has been the symbol of the Japanese lifestyle for over three centuries, the Yaesu-Kyobashi-Nihonbashi area.

Food is at the heart of many of today’s global challenges, from the rising food crisis due to population growth, to climate change, environmental problems, and biodiversity reduction.

In response to these challenges, Future Food Institute contributes to the creation of a new ecosystem to bring together young innovators, startups, and companies involved in agri-food systems in Japan and abroad, promoting innovation projects and collaborations. The aim is to create a sustainable society that balances economic growth, well-being, and environmental prosperity, helping to improve people’s quality of life. These organizations cover agri-food systems, from production, distribution, and processing to research, education, and food services, and the Future Food Hub will facilitate their collaboration in an innovative way. Therefore, starting from the historical, cultural, and technological heritage of the city, the Hub will represent an enabling platform for innovation.

Future Food Institute together with TOKYO FOOD LAB, SUIBA, City Lab Tokyo has created a hub, called “Future Food Kyobashi Living Lab“, dedicated to agrifood innovation from urban agriculture to catering.

In 2021, the Kyobashi Living Lab activity will focus on three main areas of action:

Education – creation of new skills, to increase levels of awareness about the impacts of the future of food.
Community – the development of a platform to connect community stakeholders (innovators, chefs, farmers, agribusinesses, universities).
Innovation – identification and acceleration of innovations capable of transforming food systems.

The integrated hub is composed of physical places each with a dedicated vocation. The TOKYO FOOD LAB, that includes “PLANTORY Tokyo”, a highly innovative Vertical Farm. “U”, a culinary center dedicated to experimentation in haute cuisine. The hub also features a square to connect the agriculture of the peri-urban area with the city center, conference center, a coworking space. SUIBA, a location created to innovate in food retail and LAB dedicated to Food Makers complete this new agrifood ecosystem.

The board of the Future Food Kyobashi Living Lab is composed of Sara ROVERSI (Future Food Institute); Shinichiro SAKURAI & Toshikazu SAWA (Tokyo Tatemono Ltd.); Shintaro NISHIKAWA (GLOCALINK Inc.) and the Director of the Kyobashi Living Lab, Chris KRAUSE (Future Food Institute).

As pointed out by Ambassador S.E. Giorgio Starace, present at the inauguration, the Future Food Institute Hub in Tokyo will also represent a point of reference to consolidate relations between Italy and Japan: “In this space, located in a very prestigious area of Tokyo, we will organize in collaboration with ICE many initiatives to give further prestige to our extraordinary agri-food tradition.”

While Sara Roversi, pointed out that “Future Food’s mission is to protect the planet, empower people, and enable prosperity – all through the transformational power of food. This new relationship in Japan represents all the essentials needed to build back better. Together with our local partners, we are aggregating the essential ingredients to create a thriving community. This innovative space leverages our societal connections to food in celebrating individual identity, caring for the planet, and enabling prosperity.

Future Food and Future Food Institute

Established: 2013
Founder & CEO: Sara ROVERSI
Primary Activities:
- Educational activities to elevate both knowledge and consciousness of food,
- construction of a community platform to foster people who will innovate the future of food
- activities to accelerate the discovery of innovation that sparks change in society

Future Food is both a network and a platform that aims to make an exponentially accelerating contribution to the solution of global social issues through innovation in the domain of food. By pursuing various challenges and initiatives, provided by Future Food Network and by promoting innovation that can beneficially impact the entire food-related community, Future Food Institute is positioned as an “engine for change” in the world of food.

Currently the network spans over 15 countries and is supported by approximately 150 corporate partners in Italy, USA, Switzerland, Singapore, China, and Mexico. Headquartered in the Bologna area of Italy, with global hub centers in San Francisco, Tokyo, Shanghai, Berlin, and Mexico City, Future Food Institute engages in activities in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and a wide range of organizations including Google Food Lab and other corporations. Their innovative approach has won numerous awards and recognition around the world.

Official website: https://futurefood.network
Official website: https://kyobashi.futurefood.community

Tokyo Tatemono Approach and Initiatives

■ About Tokyo Tatemono’s “Town Creation” Activities in the Yaesu-Nihonbashi-Kyobashi Area

With 2030 set as the target year for our long-term vision, “Becoming a Next-Generation Developer”, Tokyo Tatemono aims to elevate its approach to solving social problems and achieving sustained growth and greater value as an enterprise and will tackle “town creation that contributes to solutions to social issues” as a key strategy in the achievement of vision aims. With these objectives in mind, Tokyo Tatemono will focus efforts on the following social issue solution-centric themes.

Fostering Interaction Between a Diversity of People and Enterprises, and Enriching Communities,
Respect for Local History and Culture,
Realization of the Sustainable Society,
Priority on Leveraging Collaboration with Diverse Partners and State-of-the-art Technologies.

To achieve this goal, Tokyo Tatemono has initiated several innovation hot spots in the Yaesu-Nihonbashi-Kyobashi neighborhood and in 2020 had the recognition as a “certified area conference” by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Innovation Ecosystem Formation Promotion Support Initiative.

Yaesu-Nihonbashi-Kyobashi Area

Innovation hot spot – Tokyo Tatemono

For more information about the collaborating organizations:

・xBridge-Tokyo https://www.instagram.com/xbridge_tokyo/

・+OURS https://plus-ours.com/

・City Lab Tokyo https://citylabtokyo.jp/

・Kitchen Studio SUIBA https://sui-ba.com/

・TOKYO FOOD LAB https://www.tokyofoodlab.jp/

・TOKYO IDEA EXCHANGE https://idea-exchange.tokyo/

・Food Tech Studio – Bites! https://www.foodtech.studio/?lang=ja