WOTA CEO Yosuke Maeda Speaks at “IMPACT STARTUP SUMMIT 2026” Hosted by Impact Startup Association; WOTA Named an Award Winner
On Wednesday, October 7, 2026, Yosuke Maeda, Representative Director and CEO of WOTA Corp., spoke at the pitch event and leaders’ session held during “IMPACT STARTUP SUMMIT 2026” (Yaesu, Chuo-ku, Tokyo), hosted by the Impact Startup Association.
About “IMPACT STARTUP SUMMIT 2026”
“IMPACT STARTUP SUMMIT 2026” is an annual event organized by the Impact Startup Association, bringing together diverse stakeholders—including government and municipal officials, investors, major corporations, startups, and students—with a focus on impact startups working to address social challenges while achieving sustainable growth.
The event showcases pioneering efforts to create social impact across various fields, including environment, education, primary industries, healthcare, regional revitalization, deep tech, and finance. Through sessions, pitch contests, exhibitions, and networking, it aims to provide opportunities for participants to learn from one another, connect, and explore new collaborations.
〈 Event Overview 〉
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 11:00 – 18:00
Venue: Tokyo Tatemono PIA Theater & Conference (TOFROM YAESU TOWER, Yaesu, Chuo-ku, Tokyo)
Website: https://impact-startup.or.jp/summit/2026
WOTA CEO Yosuke Maeda Speaks and WOTA Selected as Award Winner at Forbes JAPAN’s “Impact Challenge of the Year 2026”
This program is a pitch event presented by the global business magazine Forbes JAPAN. Six nominated impact startups took the stage, accompanied by six business leaders participating as supporters.
In his presentation, Yosuke Maeda introduced WOTA’s efforts to solve water challenges at a structural level by connecting the individual perspective of how each person uses water with the broader perspective of global water challenges.
Regarding disaster response, he explained how a wide-area mutual aid framework, developed based on lessons learned from the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake, enabled water recycling systems to be deployed to evacuation shelters, hospitals, and welfare facilities approximately one week after the 2026 Kumamoto Earthquake. Furthermore, he discussed the domestic and international deployment of decentralized water infrastructure that recycles water at the household unit level to address challenges such as population decline and water resource scarcity, along with future prospects toward resolving global water issues.
Supporters praised WOTA’s mechanism for consolidating water-recycling systems from across the country and delivering them to disaster-affected areas during emergencies, specifically noting the significant improvement in the speed of aggregating and deploying systems compared to the Noto Peninsula Earthquake experience, as well as its evolution into a disaster response mechanism linked with municipal and national governments. Expectations were also expressed for WOTA’s business expansion in deploying decentralized residential water infrastructure domestically and globally to generate social impact worldwide.
At the final award announcement, WOTA was selected as one of the winning companies.
〈 Participants 〉
Presenters:
Shinya Shimizu (President, CEO & Founder, Elephantech Inc.)
Yuki Ide (Director / Co-Representative & Co-Founder, SHAREDINE Co., Ltd.)
Yoshinori Abe (Co-Representative Director & Physician, Ubie, Inc.)
Masahiro Suemitsu (Representative Director & CEO, SPACECOOL Inc.)
Kohei Nishiwada (Founder, Representative Director & CEO, Asuene Inc.)
Yosuke Maeda (Representative Director & CEO, WOTA Corp.)
Supporters:
Taizo Son (Co-Founder, The Edge of / Mistletoe)
Mitsunobu Okada (Representative Director, President & Group CEO, Astroscale Holdings Inc.)
Hideo Misawa (Representative Director & President, EUCALIA Inc.)
Daiki Okai (Representative Director & CEO, Luup Inc. — Previous year’s awardee)
Reiji Kobayashi (Representative Director, HAKKI Group Inc. — Previous year’s awardee)
Yuka Tanimoto (Executive Officer & Web Editor-in-Chief, Forbes JAPAN)
WOTA CEO Yosuke Maeda Speaks at Leaders’ Session on “Sustainable Local Communities and Innovation”
The Leaders’ Session brings together leaders from various fields driving the impact startup ecosystem to discuss the role impact startups can play in positively advancing society across diverse themes such as growth strategies, regional revitalization, finance, AI, and defense.
CEO Yosuke Maeda participated as a panelist in the session themed “Sustainable Local Communities and Innovation,” discussing topics such as startup creation in regional areas and collaboration with administrative bodies in solving social challenges.
In his remarks, he introduced the perspective that people, alongside capital and technology are critical in translating social challenges into new business opportunities. Touching upon WOTA’s experience of growing its business by leveraging human resources and know-how cultivated over many years in Japan’s manufacturing and water treatment industries, he spoke about the potential of generating new businesses starting from the strengths of locally rooted enterprises and talent.
〈 Session Overview 〉
・Title: Why Are “Cool Startups” No Longer Emerging from Regional Communities?
・Moderator:Tadanori Umekawa(Representative Director & President, Regional Fish Institute, Ltd.)
・Panelists:Akira Nonami (President ＆ Representative Director, Kiyoken Co., Ltd.)
Ryosuke Kozuki (Member of the House of Councillors, Liberal Democratic Party)
Yosuke Maeda (Representative Director & CEO, WOTA Corp.)