Japan Mobility Show Bizweek 2026 retrospective: 218 exhibitors put cross-industry collaboration first

Second Bizweek closes with 218 exhibitors and growing breadth

Japan Mobility Show Bizweek 2026 closed on Friday 16 October 2026 after four days at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, held from 13 to 16 October. In its closing release JNR-2026-012, organiser the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), chaired by Koji Sato, reported 218 exhibitor companies and organisations, including 14 from overseas, split between 115 startups, universities and research institutions, 49 established businesses, 20 consortiums, 21 Japan Auto Parts Industries Association (JAPIA) members and 13 JAMA members. All reported figures were as at 17:00 on 16 October 2026. ¹³

This was the second edition of Bizweek, held biennially since 2024, and for the second time it ran alongside CEATEC 2026 on the same dates and at the same venue. JAMA said about 60 per cent of exhibitors were first-time participants, with participation extending from fields with little prior contact with the mobility industry, including AI, healthcare, space and energy. ¹³⁴

The final count of 218 exhibitors modestly exceeded the figure JAMA announced with the full program on 18 September, when it stated a then-total of 217 exhibitors including 14 from overseas as at that date. The organiser's closing release did not detail the composition of that late change. ¹²⁷³

Combined 112,373 visitors and Meet-up Box registrations in context

JAMA's closing figures report 112,373 visitors, a number the organiser explicitly states is the combined total for Bizweek 2026 and co-hosted CEATEC 2026 rather than Bizweek attendance alone. Admission to both events was free of charge, with advance online registration required for all visitors through a single shared registration system, so one registration granted entry to both events. ¹³²

Other closing metrics include 3,158 registrations on the Meet-up Box business-matching platform, about 27,000 visits to the JAMA member joint exhibit, and 1,714 viewings across the five Future Mobility Forum sessions. JAMA presents the Meet-up Box total as registrations; the organiser did not report completed deals, signed partnerships or other commercial outcomes arising from them. ¹³

Where a count is cumulative rather than a headcount matters for reading the results: the 1,311 participants in the new acceleration program are described by JAMA as cumulative (nobe) attendances across the four days, so the figure does not necessarily represent that number of unique people. Similarly, the joint exhibit figure is stated as approximately 27,000 visits. ¹³

The four-zone layout and the MOVE JAPAN joint exhibit

When JAMA released the full program and venue layout on 18 September 2026, it described a show floor organised into four exhibition zones, with exhibitors - from startups and established companies to universities, research institutions and consortiums - grouped by the content of their exhibits. Around these zones sat the main stage for the Future Mobility Forum and communication areas for the co-creation acceleration program, with a joint exhibit by JAMA member companies at the heart of the venue. ²⁷

That joint exhibit, themed 'MOVE JAPAN' under the concept of a Japan that keeps moving, presented six initiatives built on JAMA's New Seven Priority Challenges: multi-pathway energy choices that leave no one behind; hydrogen adoption, including the Hydrogen Artery initiative connecting priority regions via trunk routes; joint logistics pooling transport capacity and data across companies; autonomous driving aimed at zero fatalities; dynamic wireless power transfer, in which road infrastructure supports electric-motor-driven BEVs and FCEVs; and a circular economy premised on making and using things with care, the Japanese way. ²⁷⁸

Details of the 14-member joint exhibit were announced on 6 October 2026, with each of the six areas explaining why the mobility industry is tackling the issue it faces, the society it aims to achieve, and technologies, services and demonstration projects from JAMA's member manufacturers - described by the organiser as current efforts towards real-world implementation. The exhibit ended with a large-scale visual depicting future daily life once these technologies are implemented in society, which JAMA framed as something no single corporation or industry can achieve alone. ⁸⁵

New acceleration program and the Future Mobility Forum

The Co-Creation Acceleration Promotion Program, new for 2026, was run in partnership with PLUG AND PLAY JAPAN, which JAMA credits with a track record in open-innovation support and accelerator programs. As planned in the September program announcement, it comprised workshops (six programs running as 12 sessions), 16 input-session themes spanning manufacturing DX, resource circulation, next-generation electrification and energy management, supply chain transformation, regional transport and disaster resilience, healthcare and micromobility, plus reverse pitches in which established companies publicised their needs and challenges to recruit partners, and three-minute short pitches by startups and companies. ²⁷

Over the four days, JAMA reports 1,311 cumulative attendances in this program. In its closing statement the organiser said workshops and input sessions saw participants articulate their strengths and challenges, with reverse pitches and short pitches creating encounters that started from problems, and that it intends to keep working so the connections made progress towards co-creation. ¹³

The Future Mobility Forum ran five sessions across the four days: a special session on barriers to co-creation that the mobility industry has overlooked, featuring JAMA chairman Koji Sato, vice chairman Toshihiro Mibe, startup founders and outside experts, and four business sessions tied to the four exhibition zones, with themes covering AI and robotics as technologies that expand rather than replace human potential, region-specific energy mixes and decarbonisation, resilient logistics connecting commercial vehicles, logistics data and autonomous driving control, and seamless connections between safe vehicles, compact mobility, motorcycles and operational data. ²⁷

Six exhibitor- and partner-organised talk sessions were planned for the forum stage, alongside the five main sessions. ²⁷

CEATEC co-hosting and the road to opening day

Bizweek 2026's pathway began on 15 April 2026, when JAMA announced the event and opened exhibitor applications until 31 May, setting seven 'MOVE' co-creation themes - Knowledge, Heart, People, Things, Information, Economy and Society - under the slogan 'Your move moves the world', and confirming co-hosting with CEATEC 2026 for a second consecutive edition. Visitor pre-registration opened on 27 August 2026, with the same single registration covering both events. ⁶⁴

The chairmen of the two organising bodies - JAMA's Koji Sato and JEITA's Takashi Niino - appeared in a special dialogue session at the CEATEC Conference on opening day, 13 October, from 13:00 to 13:45 at the Makuhari Messe International Conference Hall, under the theme 'Towards Japan's Future Society'. JAMA's opening-day release also carried remarks from Sato at the start of the Future Mobility Forum special session, in which he described the automobile industry's role as implementing innovation born from diversity into society through next-generation mobility and manufacturing, and said that with 218 companies, universities and research institutions participating, JAMA wanted to take a further step towards connecting to actual projects and increasing the number of real-world implementations. ⁴⁹

JAMA described the first day as busy from the opening, with many visitors at the exhibition area and joint exhibit and active exchanges between participants in the new acceleration program. The event concluded on 16 October with the closing results summarised above; any developments after that date fall outside this retrospective of the 2026 edition. ⁹¹³