EU-Japan AI Bridge 2026 - Connecting International Researchers with Japan's AI Ecosystem
Join us for the 3rd edition of the EU-Japan AI Bridge, bringing together international researchers based in Japan and Japan's AI startups and enterprises.
Thursday, 26 November 2026 · Europa House, Tokyo
Programme in preparation. The times shown are provisional; the final agenda, speakers and reception arrangements will be announced here.
Description
Building on the 2024 and 2025 editions, AI Bridge connects international researchers with Japan's AI industrial and startup ecosystem. This year's planned full-day programme brings together perspectives from academia, industry and startups to explore deployed AI systems and practical opportunities for EU–Japan collaboration.
We expect approximately 120–130 participants across the day. The proposed format combines short talks, panel discussions and audience questions, with networking breaks and startup and industry booths.
The programme is being developed around four focus areas:
Topics
1. Physical AI in the Field
Drones and autonomous systems in real deployment
Medical and surgical robotics
Humanoids, embodied AI and human–AI interaction
This session examines how embodied AI moves from research into deployment, including operational constraints, evaluation and opportunities for collaboration.
2. Perception and Quality
Machine vision and sensor fusion
Quality control and inspection
Predictive maintenance
This session explores how perception and inspection support reliable AI deployment, linking research advances to quality assurance and predictive maintenance in industry.
3. Trust and Secure Industrial AI
Reliability assurance and validation of deployed systems
OT (operational technology) cybersecurity
Industrial data protection and governance
This session addresses the technical and organizational requirements for dependable industrial AI, including validation, security and the responsible use of proprietary data.
4. R&D Capacity in Japan
Connecting researchers and industry through joint research, technology transfer and research careers
Building research organisations in Japan, and PhD and postdoc career paths
EU–Japan research collaboration and funding opportunities, including Horizon Europe; an EURAXESS contribution is provisionally allocated to Session 4
This session considers how Japan can strengthen its AI research capacity and how European and Japanese research communities can develop sustained partnerships.
Draft Agenda
All times are Japan Standard Time (JST). This is a provisional running order. Individual slots, proposed session placements and reception hours remain subject to confirmation. Tentative contributors and provisional slots are explicitly marked.
09:30-10:00 - Arrival, registration and welcome coffee
10:00-10:30 - Opening remarks and EU-Japan policy perspectives (contributors to be confirmed)
10:30-12:00 - Session 1: Physical AI in the Field
10:30-10:45 - Talk 1: Social implications of AI within the continuing technological revolution (Paco Arjonilla García)
10:45-11:00 - Talk 2: Android Robots that embody AI - Social Human-Robot Interaction in Germany and Japan (Christian Becker-Asano; proposed placement)
11:00-11:15 - Talk 3: Title to be announced (Michael Spranger; tentative)
11:15-12:00 - Panel and audience discussion
12:00-13:00 - Lunch break and networking
13:00-14:30 - Session 2: Perception and Quality
13:00-13:15 - Talk 4: Trusting the Answer: Quality Control for AI in Noisy Environments (Adrián Jiménez Pascual)
13:15-13:30 - Talk 5: Event cameras: capabilities and applications beyond conventional RGB cameras. (Andreu Girbau-Xalabarder)
13:30-13:45 - Talk 6: Perception and Quality contribution (speaker to be announced)
13:45-14:30 - Panel and audience discussion
14:30-14:45 - Coffee break
14:45-16:15 - Session 3: Trust and Secure Industrial AI
14:45-15:00 - Talk 7: Proving AI safety (Manuel Baltieri)
15:00-15:15 - Talk 8: Graphic Design Safety Review via AI Agents (Antonio Tejero de Pablos)
15:15-15:30 - Talk 9: Trends in human-robot coexistence for dense industrial workplaces (Mandali Khalesi)
15:30-16:15 - Panel and audience discussion
16:15-16:30 - Coffee break
16:30-18:00 - Session 4: R&D Capacity in Japan
16:30-16:45 - Talk 10: Title to be announced (Kohei Itoh; presentation format to be confirmed)
16:45-17:00 - Talk 11: Empirical Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and its Societal Context in Japan (Susanne Brucksch; proposed placement, arrival to be confirmed)
17:00-17:15 - Talk 12: Title to be announced (Judit Erika Magyar, EURAXESS; provisional slot)
17:15-18:00 - Panel and audience discussion
18:00-18:15 - Closing remarks
18:15-20:00 - Networking reception and startup booths
Judit Erika Magyar (EURAXESS) is provisionally allocated to Talk 12 in Session 4, 17:00-17:15, for a 10-minute contribution on upcoming Horizon Europe AI calls and practical participation guidance. Final title, abstract and timing confirmation are pending.
Each thematic session is planned to include three 15-minute talks followed by a 45-minute panel and audience discussion.
Speakers
Talk numbers follow the provisional agenda. Speaker wording is preserved; individual slots and the remaining lineup are subject to confirmation.
Talk 1: Social implications of AI within the continuing technological revolution
Paco Arjonilla García
Postdoctoral researcher, Shizuoka University
Session: Physical AI in the Field
Abstract
From the mechanisation of the late-18th-century Industrial Revolution, through automation driven by integrated circuits, to today's generative AI, each technological advance has taken over tasks that once required human labour. In agriculture, industry and services alike, productivity has kept growing while ever fewer workers have been needed. AI continues this trend and extends automation to cognitive tasks that have until now been reserved for highly skilled human workers. Yet automation will not end with AI: sectors such as garment manufacturing still rely heavily on manual labour.
The talk also introduces the research of the Kobayashi and Hayakawa Laboratory at Shizuoka University on perception, motion generation and control for intelligent robots, covering robotic manipulation, mobile robot navigation and environment sensing.
Speaker bio
Francisco Jesús Arjonilla García holds a Master's-level degree in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain, and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, where he specialised in Cognitive Processing. He has worked as an electronic design engineer in the United Kingdom and has experience in entrepreneurship. He was a research student at Waseda University and received his PhD in Cognitive Robotics from Shizuoka University, Japan, where he currently continues as a postdoctoral researcher in the same laboratory. His research interests include theoretical intelligence, intelligent robotics and embedded systems.
Talk 2: Android Robots that embody AI - Social Human-Robot Interaction in Germany and Japan
Christian Becker-Asano
Full Professor of Computer Science and Human-Machine Interaction, Stuttgart Media University; Cooperative Researcher, ATR
Session: Physical AI in the Field (proposed placement)
Abstract
In my talk, I will present ongoing research on how different artificial intelligence (AI) methods can be combined to enable highly humanlike robots to interact naturally with the general public in live settings. I will highlight the challenges arising from cultural differences between Germany and Japan, as these robotic systems are being developed in collaboration between Tokyo and Stuttgart. The research theme “Computational Realization of Social Understanding between Humans and Machines” will be essential to achieving socially embodied AI.
Speaker bio
Christian Becker-Asano is Full Professor of Computer Science and Human-Machine Interaction at the Stuttgart Media University (Hochschule der Medien) and Cooperative Researcher at the Advanced Telecommunications Research (ATR) Institute International in Kyoto, Japan. After studying Informatics for the Natural Sciences and completing his doctorate in the specialist field of Affective Computing at Bielefeld University, he spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the ATR Institute in Kyoto (Japan) on a JSPS fellowship. He then became a Junior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Research (FRIAS) as a return fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. From 2011 to 2015, he taught and conducted research as an assistant professor in the “Foundations of Artificial Intelligence” research group at the Institute of Computer Science at the University of Freiburg. After a detour to the research center of Robert Bosch GmbH in Renningen and its internal start-up center, “grow platform GmbH,” in Ludwigsburg, he accepted the call to the Hochschule der Medien in early 2020. In his research and teaching, he addresses topics in affective computing, social robotics, and classical artificial intelligence.
Talk 3: Title to be announced
Michael Spranger
Participation tentative
Session: Physical AI in the Field; provisional slot 11:00-11:15
Talk title, abstract, speaker biography and profile photo are pending. Participation and timing remain to be confirmed.
Talk 4: Trusting the Answer: Quality Control for AI in Noisy Environments
Adrián Jiménez Pascual
Data Science Manager, Insight Edge
Session: Perception and Quality
Abstract
A good model is not yet a good decision. When AI works on noisy, real-world inputs, reliability depends less on the model than on the quality process around it. This talk presents general lessons for data science projects: controlling how inputs are captured, treating model outputs as evidence to be combined with prior knowledge, making confidence honest through calibration, and using it to decide who checks what. The most valuable thing a model can say is not its answer, but how far to trust it.
Speaker bio
Adrián Jiménez Pascual holds a PhD in Mathematics and works as Data Science Manager at Insight Edge, a Sumitomo Group company focused on digital transformation. With a background in entrepreneurship and consultancy, including the creation of the board game Squadro, he builds AI solutions tailored to each client's needs, making sure that quality and maintenance are part of every deliverable.
Talk 5: Event cameras: capabilities and applications beyond conventional RGB cameras.
Andreu Girbau-Xalabarder
Associate Researcher, DENSO IT Laboratory
Session: Perception and Quality
Abstract
Traditional cameras capture images at a fixed frame rate. Event cameras work differently: each pixel reports changes in brightness as they happen, producing a stream of events rather than a sequence of frames. Their fine temporal resolution, low latency, and wide dynamic range create new possibilities for seeing and responding to fast motion.
In this talk, we will explore how event cameras work and what they make possible, from drones dodging obstacles to high-speed video reconstruction, and industrial inspection. Finally, we will briefly discuss the limitations that arise in real-world deployment, including those motivating my current research.
Speaker bio
Andreu Girbau-Xalabarder is an Associate Researcher at DENSO IT Laboratory in Tokyo, where he studies event cameras and their applications in computer vision. He earned his PhD at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, working with AutomaticTV on computer vision for sports broadcasting, and later conducted postdoctoral research at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo. His background in tracking has also supported work beyond computer vision, including a collaboration with political scientists studying Japanese television. His interests extend beyond event cameras to exploring how other sensors might deepen our understanding of the world around us.
Talk 6: Perception and Quality contribution (speaker to be announced)
Speaker and talk details to be announced.
Talk 7: Proving AI safety
Manuel Baltieri
Research Team Leader / ARIA R&D Creator, Araya
Session: Trust and Secure Industrial AI
Abstract
Modern AI systems bring new opportunities, risks, and questions about the role they may play in our present and future coexistence. In this talk, I will introduce a project that approaches current AI models as safety-critical systems, drawing inspiration from fields such as transportation, spaceflight, nuclear engineering, and energy, where formal verification and mathematical proofs are used to establish desirable system properties. I will outline the main ideas behind this approach and place them in the broader context of AI safety research, with particular attention to the strengths and challenges that come with different levels of AI assurance.
Speaker bio
Manuel obtained a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sussex, UK, with a project combining AI/ALife and control theory with the goal of understanding brains and the cognitive processes they (co-)instantiate. He then moved to RIKEN CBS, Japan, working on models of decision making before joining Araya Inc., Japan, in 2021 where he is now an ARIA R&D Creator in Mathematics for Safe AI and Lead Researcher in Agent Foundations working on mathematical foundations of safe AI and ALife agents.
Talk 8: Graphic Design Safety Review via AI Agents
Antonio Tejero de Pablos
Research Scientist, CyberAgent AI Lab
Session: Trust and Secure Industrial AI
Abstract
I present a taxonomy grounded in Japanese law and an AI-agent framework for graphic design safety review. The taxonomy covers intellectual property, depicted people, affiliation, claims, and disclosures, alongside ethical and accessibility considerations. A multimodal large language model acts as a judge, guided by prompts defining review criteria, evidence requirements, and uncertainty handling. Evidence supplied by users or retrieved externally supports contextual checks, including logo attribution and claim verification. Multi-criteria image retrieval combines visual, textual, color, and layout features to identify similar designs. The model produces structured findings, supporting evidence, and publication recommendations, distinguishing observations from inferences and identifying unchecked categories. Unresolved questions trigger targeted research or human review. A user-facing report presents findings, uncertainties, and revision guidance. The framework connects a legally grounded taxonomy with an actionable, auditable review workflow while preserving human responsibility for final decisions.
Speaker bio
Antonio Tejero-de-Pablos received the M.S. degree in ICT from the University of Valladolid, Spain, in 2013, and the Ph.D. degree in engineering from the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, in 2017. After graduation, he was a Researcher at the University of Tokyo and RIKEN. Since 2021, he has been a Research Scientist at the CyberAgent AI Lab in Tokyo. His research interests include computer vision, machine learning of heterogeneous data and agentic AI, with applications to multimedia understanding, graphic design and sports.
Talk 9: Trends in human-robot coexistence for dense industrial workplaces
Mandali Khalesi
Vice President for AI Platform & Technology, Renesas Electronics
Session: Trust and Secure Industrial AI
Abstract
By 2035, it is expected that humans and robots will work side by side in industrial workspace from automotive welding to smart care facilities, convenience stores to logistics. My talk will emphasize a need to shift from single-robot hardware designs to integrated software orchestration. To support successful future coexistence a multidisciplinary approach will be needed, including concepts from quantum computing, agent governance, and cyberphysical systems.
Speaker bio
Mandali Khalesi is Vice President for AI Platform & Technology at Renesas Electronics. He is focused on developing a consistent and unified platform of AI services and products for both external users and internal developers. He was previously VP of AI and Cloud Engineering.
Prior to Renesas, he was the General Manager of Automated Driving Mobility at Toyota Motor Corporation HQ, helping ship their first self-driving Lexus LS flagship vehicle in 2021. He was concurrently Vice President of Automated Driving at Woven by Toyota, Toyota’s self-driving software subsidiary, managing engineering organization growth to 1,700 software and AI engineers. Prior to that, he held software leadership positions at Nokia and other manufacturing companies.
He is a software executive with over 20 years of experience in the automotive, consumer electronics, and semiconductor industries. Mandali has a Master’s degree in Astrophysics from University College London.
Talk 10: Title to be announced
Kohei Itoh, President, Keio University
Session: R&D Capacity in Japan; attending from Session 4 onwards
Attendance from Session 4 onwards is confirmed. The proposed presentation format, talk title and abstract remain to be confirmed.
Speaker bio
President Kohei Itoh graduated from Keio University and received his MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined Keio as a faculty member in 1995 and became a full professor in 2007. He was the dean of the Faculty and Graduate School of Science and Technology between 2017 and 2019.
His research focus is quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum physics, leading to over 360 journal publications. He is an executive member of the Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, a council member of the Science Council of Japan, a member of the Central Council for Education, a President of the Japan Association of Private Universities and Colleges, a vice chair of the United States-Japan Foundation, and chairperson of the Japanese government’s Quantum Technology Innovation expert panel. He has served on numerous executive boards including the Physical Society of Japan and the Japan Society of Applied Physics. He leads various quantum information projects as the program director of Quantum Information Technology in the MEXT Quantum Leap Flagship Program.
He received the Japan IBM Prize in 2006 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Prize in 2009. He is also a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the Japan Society of Applied Physics.
Talk 11: Empirical Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence and its Societal Context in Japan
Susanne Brucksch
Associate Professor, Department of Global Japanese Studies, Teikyo University
Session: R&D Capacity in Japan (proposed placement; arrival time to be confirmed)
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an emerging technology evokes manifold hopes, expectations, and concerns across disciplines. Consequently, AI can be understood as a boundary object among various expert communities and the public, where the discourse circulates around different aspects of this technology. Among them, the scholarly community of STS research in Japan sheds light on critical aspects when studying AI and offers analytical approaches to address its intersections with modern society. Particularly, the field of Science, Technology and Society Studies (STS) usually takes a critical stance when analysing the impact of a technology and its surrounding social setting. What is more, the practical application of AI technologies increasingly intersects with various social contexts in Japan. A quantitative newspaper analysis among articles of the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun between 2023 till 2025 shows that the topic of AI in reference to various social contexts receives a varying level of attention. Against this backdrop, AI appears not only as a boundary object for expert communities but evolves into research content within STS and Japanese Studies. The perspective offered by these disciplines can refine the contextualization of AI within teaching and research focused on Japan.
Speaker bio
Susanne Brucksch is associate professor at the Department of Global Japanese Studies, Teikyo University in Tokyo, Japan. She was senior researcher at Free University Berlin and principal researcher at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo before as well as visiting scholar at Waseda University in 2016 and the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Innovation and Competition in 2019. Her research and teaching focuses on science, technology and society (STS), innovation and research collaboration regarding medical devices , critical AI literacy, healthcare services and Artificial Intelligence in Japan. One of her major publications comprises the anthology "Humans and Devices in Medical Contexts. Case Studies from Japan" (2021), edited with Kaori Sasaki, Palgrave Macmillan.
Talk 12: Title to be announced
Judit Erika Magyar
EURAXESS
Session: R&D Capacity in Japan; provisional slot 17:00-17:15 (10-minute presentation)
A short contribution on upcoming Horizon Europe AI calls and practical participation guidance has been agreed. Final title, abstract and timing confirmation are pending.
Speaker biography to be added when received.
Organizers
The 2026 edition is being developed by AIRJ and Tokyo AI (TAI), together with European researcher associations in Japan and the Delegation of the European Union to Japan. The full list of organizing partners and supporters will be announced.
Startup and Industry Booths
A booth area is planned to connect researchers with AI startups and industrial teams. Participating organizations and demonstration details will be announced.