Living Lab Kesennuma Fund

Funding builders who test AI, blockchain, and emerging tech against the real challenges of a Japanese coastal city.

Kesennuma, a fishing city in northeastern Japan, has opened itself as a living laboratory for emerging technology and social challenge. This fund backs developers, researchers, and technologists from Japan and abroad who build AI, blockchain, and emerging-tech solutions for the realities of a shrinking regional city: fisheries data and traceability, local economic circulation, and sustained engagement between newcomers and the region. Many are early-career engineers applying their skills to a real municipality for the first time, with city staff, fishery workers, and residents as their collaborators and their judges.

domain:ai-technologydomain:marine-ocean

Eligibility

To qualify for this fund, projects must meet the following eligibility requirements:
- Projects must directly engage one of Kesennuma's living-lab challenge themes: Fishery DX, Local Economy, or Attracting People.
- Open to developers, researchers, and technologists from Japan and abroad building AI, blockchain, and emerging-tech solutions for real challenges in shrinking regional cities.
- Be grounded in fieldwork or direct dialogue with local stakeholders: city staff, fishery workers, and residents. Nothing built in a vacuum.
- Present results publicly to citizens and city leadership, tested against the reality of the community they serve.
- Early-career engineers and students applying their skills to a real municipality for the first time are welcome.