Mini Trip Report Tokyo – May 16-18, 2026

By Jerome Glenn

Hayato Kobayashi and I brough together an excellent group of 14 government, university, NGO, and business futurists to re-create the Japan Node (three came after or before the photo was taken; hence, only 11 in the photo below). Ryuta Minami is a journalist for the on-line Newsweek and Yahoo News Japan and member of the World Futures Studies Federation. He has written an excellent two-part article on the two-hour meeting, which is being reviewed by the Node Members now and will be available in a week or so. Hayato and Asako (seated together on the end of the right side of the photo below) will set up communications for planning the Japan Node’s program.

On the following evening Christian Schmitz (seated on the left side of the photo) organized a salon on the future (photo below) with around 20 very interesting innovators ranging from environmentalist to AI professionals. This delightful session focused mostly on the future governance for AGI. Some of these participants may also become members of the Japan Node. So, a worthwhile stop in Tokyo on my way home from China.