three ways into the constellation
November 13 (Friday)–17 (Tuesday) 2026
AGENDA
DAY 01November 13
18:30–22:00
WPÜ
basecamp
/ a welcoming
DAY 02November 14
08:00–22:00
Tokyo Salone
Tokyo American Club
Dino Dalle Carbonare
/ Turnpike / Arc I
Rachel Gogel
/ Moi & Toi / Arc I
Evi O.
/ Evi-O.Studio / Arc I
SHUY
/ vibes
Hector Silva
/ Advanced Design / Arc II
Matt Alt
/ Arc II
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen
/ KCRW, Los Angeles / Arc II
Dylan Sisson
/ Pixar / Arc II
KCRW & dublab.jp
/ vibes
Jesper Kouthoofd
/ teenage engineering / APC-02, making of off-world technology
Doug Weber
/ Weber Workshops / APC-02, making of off-world technology
nosaj thing
/ Timetable.ltd / APC-02, making of off-world technology
UESATSU
/ Arc III
Shinichiro Nakahara
/ Landscape Products / Arc III
Javier Villar Ruiz
/ studio JVAD / Arc III
Noah Murphy Reinhertz
/ Nike / Arc III
Shun Ishikawa
/ Kesiki / Arc III
grunhaar
/ vibes
Akiko Mega
/ Faro / Arc IV
Jorge Furuya
/ Arc IV
Ignacio Lopez-Francos
/ NASA Artemis / Arc IV
Blade Olson
/ vibes
Ana Arriola-Kanada
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
November 14
Nightshift Shakedown
quietly taking shape
/ location to be revealed
DAY 03November 15
08:00–20:00
Nourish
Tokyo American Club
Jesús Durón
/ MASA / Arc I
Vaughn Tan
/ Arc I
Eneko Axpe
/ Arc II
Pablo Soto
/ Noma / Arc II
KCRW × dublab Tokyo
/ vibes
Christopher Haatuft
/ Lysverket / Arc III/ Lysverket / Arc III
Alberto Landgraf
/ Oteque / Arc III
Ryo Haga
/ Jorn / Arc III
Showa-era soundscape by DJ Dandy
/ vibes
Farmers, Purveyors & Producers
Lucho Martinez
/ Em / Arc IV
Justin Khanna
/ Repertoire / opening & reflection
Ana Arriola-Kanada
/ semi permanent / pening & reflection
November 16
Field Trip
quietly taking shape
/ location to be revealed
DAY 04November 17
09:00–18:00
Speculative Futures
Soho House Tokyo
quietly taking shape
/ the curation continues
Sandeep Pahuja
/ Preferred Futures / opening & reflection
Arc I / ground truth
Arc II / the human layer
Arc III / what moves culture first
Arc IV / physical proof
TicketING
Tokyo Salone
November 14
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Nourish
November 15
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Speculative Futures
November 17
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Essentials
DATES
November 13 (Friday) – 17 (Tuesday)
VENUES
Massif Tokyo, Tokyo American Club, Soho House Tokyo
ORGANISERS
semi permanent × teenage engineering × yes,
CO-HOSTS
KCRW × WPÜ × Massif Tokyo × Soho House Tokyo × Kammui
Curated voices.
Shared experiences.
curious minds.
Tokyo Salone unfolds through intimate, in-real-life gatherings for people who are curious about the world and committed to making it better.
Each spring and autumn, designers, architects, technologists, filmmakers, chefs, artists, producers, scientists, founders, policymakers, researchers, and cultural practitioners come together to exchange ideas, share meals, challenge assumptions, and build lasting relationships.
Through conversations, and shared experiences, we explore how we create, gather, build, eat, care for one another, and imagine what comes next.
Ana Arriola-Kanada
semi permanent
Ana is a cultural-systems builder working at the intersection of community, design, frontier technology, and human culture. She serves as Chairwoman of 「 yes, 」, a Tokyo-based cultural consultancy and family office operating globally through Tokyo Salone and its constellations, in curation with semi permanent x teenage engineering. Having led innovation across Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Sony, and IDEO, she spends her days building, gathering people, and chasing improbable side quests across culture, technology, and community. Every challenge is another boss monster. Every detour reveals a hidden path. Still exploring the map, building rooms where disciplines meet, and future generations inherit responsibility.
IG
IG / SP
Website
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya
semi permanent
Hikaru/Jamie is a curator, director, and producer working across film, fashion, and cross-border cultural exchange. Raised between Japan, Australia, and China, his work bridges global perspectives. He began as a model before moving into journalism and photography with DeNA, documenting street culture and fashion globally. He later joined MALAKAI in Bali, contributing to productions for artists including Beyoncé and Madonna. Now based in Tokyo, he leads cross-disciplinary projects and serves as curator and host for Tokyo Salone alongside Ana Arriola-Kanada, Sandeep Pahuja, and Justin Khanna.
IG
Dino Dalle Carbonare
Turnpike
Dino Dalle Carbonare, known as Dino DC, is a Tokyo-based automotive photojournalist and filmmaker whose lens has helped define how the world sees Japanese car culture. He co-founded Speedhunters with Electronic Arts and has worked across global publications, brand collaborations, and Pagani, where he served as PR and Marketing Manager for APAC. He now leads Turnpike.
IG
Website
Rachel Gogel
Moi & Toi
Rachel is an independent design executive and educator who has held influential roles at Meta, The New York Times, GQ, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. Since founding her own practice in 2020, she has collaborated with global organizations (Airbnb) and women-led ventures (Pulse Fund). Operating as a fractional design leader, she unlocks human creativity by embedding deeply with teams navigating the inflection points where brand, culture, and technology converge. A queer advocate dedicated to seeing more women in design leadership, she also teaches, mentors, and champions marginalized voices across the industry.
IG
Website
Evi O.
Evi-O.Studio
Evi O. is a designer, artist, and publisher whose work explores the intersection of books, visual culture, and contemporary publishing. Born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and based in Gadigal Country (Sydney, Australia), she founded EOS (Evi-O.Studio), specializing in publication design for cultural institutions, artists, and authors worldwide. Through her independent imprint, formist editions, she creates and publishes books that celebrate art, design, and creative inquiry. Her practice is rooted in a belief that books remain one of our most enduring tools for preserving knowledge, shaping culture, and connecting people across time and place.
IG
IG / formist
Website
Hector Silva
AdvancedDesign
Hector is an award-winning industrial designer and educator with over eleven years of teaching at programs including UIC, Notre Dame, RIT, Academy of Art University, and SAIC. Named IDSA's Young Educator of the Year and a recipient of the prestigious Core77 Award, he leads his consultancy H Design and founded the nonprofit Advanced Design, which advances design education at scale. In 2020 he launched Offsite, an innovative online design school bridging academia and industry, which recently expanded internationally with the debut of a new auxiliary program based in Japan.
IG
IG / AdvDes
Website
Matt Alt
AltJapan Co.
Matt is the co-founder of the pioneering entertainment localization firm AltJapan Co., Ltd. He co-hosted the popular NHK World television show Japanology Plus from 2015 to 2022. He is the author of the 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. His essays and cultural commentary regularly appear in media outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and more.
IG
Website
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen
KCRW
Ale is the Music Director of KCRW and a longtime force in Los Angeles’ independent music and cultural community. Prior to joining KCRW, he served as Executive Director of dublab, where he helped expand the station into one of the city’s most influential experimental music platforms. A musician, composer, and Emmy Award-winning producer, Cohen has performed with projects including Languis and Pharaohs and has composed music for film and television. His work centers on music discovery, cultural storytelling, and building connections between artists, audiences, and public media.
IG
IG / KCRW
Website
Dylan Sisson
Pixar
Dylan is an artist, speaker, and visual effects veteran exploring how tools shape creativity. With over 30 years across animation, games, and design, he has helped artists turn emerging technologies into creative expression. At Pixar, he has worked on RenderMan for every film since Monsters, Inc., championing stylized rendering and artist-driven workflows. He lives in San Francisco and still finds time to doodle monsters.
IG
IG / Pixar
Website
Jesper Kouthoofd
teenage engineering
Jesper is a builder, master carpenter, JDM enthusiast, and founder and CEO of teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based design, culture, and electronics company behind the APC-02, OP-1, Pocket Operator series, field system, and other tools for sound, play, and creative experimentation. Whether shaping wood, restoring cars, or designing instruments, his work is guided by a belief that the best tools invite curiosity, discovery, and delight. Through teenage engineering, he explores the space where craftsmanship, culture, and technology meet, creating objects that encourage experimentation, reward play, and remind us that technology can still feel surprising, human, and magical.
IG
IG / teenage
Website
Sandeep Pahuja
Preferred Futures
Sandeep Pahuja builds futures that can survive contact with reality. Founder of Preferred Futures, former IDEO Senior Director, and Berkeley Haas faculty member, he helps leaders turn emerging signals into products, platforms, and systems. His work spans future-of-home visions, food systems, public-sector innovation, and a health venture later acquired for approximately $100M. He hosts and serves as head curator of Tokyo Salone’s Speculative Futures constellation.
IG
Website
nosaj thing
Timetable.ltd
nosaj thing is a Tokyo/Los Angeles–based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work has helped shape the sound of contemporary electronic music. Blending cinematic atmosphere, intricate rhythms, and emotional depth, he creates experiences that move fluidly between music, visual art, film, and performance. Through a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, nosaj thing explores how sound can create new spaces for reflection, connection, and imagination.
IG
Website
Doug Weber
Weber Workshops
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
Website
UESATSU
UESATSU
UESATSU is a Japanese designer and cultural practitioner whose work explores the relationship between identity, aesthetics, and contemporary life. Through a distinct visual and material language, they examine how objects, environments, and cultural signals shape perception and belonging. Moving between design, storytelling, and cultural inquiry, UESATSU creates work guided by intuition, restraint, and the belief that meaning often resides as much in what is omitted as in what is revealed.
IG
Website
Shinichiro Nakahara
Landscape Products
Shinichiro is founder of Landscape Products, and Chief Design Officer of The Conran Shop Japan. Landscape Products a pioneering Japanese design studio working across furniture, interiors, architecture, hospitality, and cultural spaces. Since founding the practice in 1997 and later opening the influential Playmountain in Tokyo, he has helped define a generation of Japanese lifestyle design. Guided by a belief that design begins with how people live, gather, and connect, his work explores the relationship between objects, places, memory, and everyday culture.
IG
IG / LP
IG / PM
Jorge Furuya
Volvo
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
IG / Volvo
Noah Murphy Reinhertz
Nike
Noah is a designer and sustainability strategist leading Nike's Sustainable Product Design team. The creator of Nike Space Hippie — shoes made almost entirely from trash — he has spent over two decades pursuing a single idea: that great design and responsible design are the same thing. His work spans product, materials, and brand, and his career includes eight years at fuseproject and award-winning work for Herman Miller, Samsung, and Google. He lives in Portland with his family.
IG
IG 2
Website
Ignacio Lopez-Francos
NASA Artemis
Ignacio is an AI Research Lead at NASA Ames Research Center, working on the technologies that will help define the future of exploration. Operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, autonomy, and complex systems, his work examines how humans and intelligent machines can collaborate in uncertain and rapidly changing environments. From Earth to deep space, Ignacio’s research explores how emerging technologies can augment human potential, support discovery, and unlock new frontiers of possibility.
IG
IG / NASA
Website
Javier Villar Ruiz
JVAD
Javier is a Spanish architect based in Barcelona and Tokyo working internationally in architecture, urban and interior projects through his studio JVAD (Javier Villar Architectural Designers). He has been a partner at Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates with a collaboration that spans two decades; and with Barcelona based studio Cloud 9.
IG
Akiko Mega
Faro
Akiko is the founder of Faro, the leadership and organizational advisory practice of The Mega Center. A former Co-Country Manager of Maison Margiela Japan and advisor to Nippon Partners, she brings firsthand operating experience to leadership, culture, and organizational transformation. Through her Sentient Leadership methodology, she helps organizations build the capacity, clarity, and alignment needed to navigate growth and complexity. Her clients include Microsoft, Figma, IDEO, Barclays, Kyriba, and Tekoma Energy. Raised in Texas, shaped by New York and Paris, and built in Tokyo, she works across Japan, Asia, and global headquarters.
IG
Website
Justin Khanna
Repertoire
Justin is a chef, creator, entrepreneur, and founder of Repertoire. After training at The Culinary Institute of America, he spent nearly a decade in some of the world’s most demanding kitchens, including The French Laundry and Lysverket, ultimately serving as Executive Sous Chef. Today, through Repertoire, his writing, podcasting, education, and advisory work help hospitality teams build stronger cultures and better systems for performance.
IG
Website
Ryo Haga
Jorn
Ryo is a contemporary chef shaped by a journey across Japan and Europe. After training in Tokyo, he spent two years at Kyoto’s monk, learning to translate landscape into cuisine under Yoshihiro Imai. He later worked at Kadeau and served as a department chef at Noma (2022–2025), deepening his understanding of “time and place.” Now back in Japan, he is building Jorn, a Japan-to-Nordics culinary dialogue expressing Japanese essence through stillness, clarity, and purity.
IG
Jesús Durón
MASA
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
IG / MASA
Lucho Martinez
Em
Lucho is a Mexico City-based chef whose work explores the relationship between memory, place, and contemporary Mexican cuisine. Through his restaurant EM, he has developed a highly personal culinary language rooted in seasonality, intuition, and continual refinement. His cooking draws from landscape, culture, and lived experience, creating thoughtful expressions of identity, emotion, and time through food.
IG
IG / Em
Pablo Soto
Noma
Pablo Soto is Head Chef at Noma. His work focuses on what high performance teams need to do their best work when time is short, conditions change, and the stakes are high. He is developing a practical system for leading, developing, and evaluating people in intense creative environments, built for moments when there is no time for long explanations and shared language matters more than long instructions. He believes care without standards becomes softness, and standards without care becomes fear.
IG
IG / Noma
Website
Christopher Haatuft
Lysverket
Christopher is a Norwegian chef and founder of Lysverket, a restaurant shaped by the landscapes and coastal traditions of Western Norway. His work explores how ecology, seasonality, and local food systems can inform contemporary cuisine. Guided by a deep respect for producers, ingredients, and place, he creates experiences that connect people to landscape, culture, and the rhythms of the natural world.
IG
IG / Lysverket
Alberto Landgraf
Oteque
Alberto Landgraf is a Brazilian chef and the chef-owner of Oteque, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. His work is defined by technical rigor, consistency, and a strong focus on seasonality and product quality. With experience in leading international kitchens, Landgraf has developed a disciplined culinary approach that prioritizes clarity and balance. At Oteque, he delivers a contemporary dining experience rooted in precision and respect for ingredients. The restaurant has received international recognition and is consistently ranked among the leading dining destinations in the world.
IG
IG / Oteque
Vaughn Tan
Tangent
Dr. Vaughn Tan is a strategy consultant and author whose work connects food, AI tools, and uncertainty. His book The Uncertainty Mindset (Columbia Univ. Press, 2020) grew out of from years embedded with elite culinary R&D teams, studying how they innovate by using uncertainty. He now runs Tangent, an Asia-focused AI applications incubator, and co-founded Poietic PBC, which builds AI-native tools for human-machine organizations. He sits on the board of Rethink Food and is a fellow at the Singapore Government's Centre for Strategic Futures.
IG
Website
Eneko Axpe
Pentagram
Eneko is a scientist, researcher, and food innovator exploring how science can help shape the future of nourishment. Working across sustainability, human health, microbiology, and food systems, he connects scientific discovery with culinary practice to better understand how we grow, prepare, and experience food. His work brings together chefs, researchers, and institutions to explore new possibilities for feeding both people and planet.
IG
VENUES
Every environment shapes the conversations it hosts.
Rather than gathering inside a single venue, Tokyo Salone works with places that already contribute to the cultural life of Japan. Together, they create a distributed campus for learning, exchange, and discovery.
Tokyo American Club, Azabudai Hills
The home of the annual Tokyo Salone gathering, where practitioners from Japan and around the world come together through conversation, and shared experience.
A hospitality-centred setting for Moments, Nourish collaborations, and year-round culinary exchange.
A welcoming home for the Tokyo Salone community throughout the year, where practitioners, travelers, and friends gather, conversations continue, and lasting relationships begin.
Additional spaces
Throughout the year, the constellation extends into galleries, cafés, studios, temples, kitchens, listening rooms, and cultural venues across Japan. The country itself becomes part of the program.
Quests
The gathering is only the beginning. Together with our Official Japan Experience Partner, Kammui, discover a deeper Japan through curated journeys, regional explorations, local introductions, and unforgettable side quests. Experience Japan through the makers, growers, and families who open their doors to us, and the places and stories rarely found on an itinerary.
Intent
We believe the most meaningful ideas are rarely created alone. They emerge through conversation, shared experience, generous exchange, and the relationships that form over time.
In an age of agentic systems and cognitive overload, opportunities to gather with care have become increasingly rare. Yet the challenges ahead will not be solved by a single discipline, technology, or point of view. They will be shaped where different practices, perspectives, and generations meet.
Tokyo Salone exists to make more room for those encounters.
Throughout the year, we convene people shaping the future of culture through conversations, shared meals, workshops, and cultural experiences across Japan. Each gathering becomes part of something larger: a living institution built on curiosity, generosity, and the belief that experience is something to be passed forward.
Culture cannot be manufactured. It grows wherever people gather, learn from one another, and leave behind stronger conditions than when they were found.
Partners
Built alongside our partners.
Partner withTokyo Salone
Tokyo Salone is built for the long term. Rather than sponsoring a single event, our partners become part of an evolving cultural institution connecting global creative communities with Japan.
If our ambitions align, we'd love to start a conversation.
Founding partner inquiry
constellations
SHIBUYA
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
NIGHTSHIFT SHAKEDOWN
FRIENDS OF
FUTURE OF
THIRDSPACE THIRDWEEKS
MOMENTS
held in sound
COLLECTIVE
yes,
Legal
Commercial Disclosure
Code of Conduct
privacy policy
Liability & Risk
Media Release
subscribe
© Semi Permanent / TOKYO SALONE
three ways into the constellation
November 13 (Friday)–17 (Tuesday) 2026
AGENDA
DAY 01November 13
18:30–22:00
WPÜ
basecamp
/ a welcoming
DAY 02November 14
08:00–22:00
Tokyo Salone
Tokyo American Club
Dino Dalle Carbonare
/ Turnpike / Arc I
Rachel Gogel
/ Moi & Toi / Arc I
Evi O.
/ Evi-O.Studio / Arc I
SHUY
/ vibes
Hector Silva
/ Advanced Design / Arc II
Matt Alt
/ Arc II
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen
/ KCRW, Los Angeles / Arc II
Dylan Sisson
/ Pixar / Arc II
KCRW & dublab.jp
/ vibes
Jesper Kouthoofd
/ teenage engineering / APC-02, making of off-world technology
Doug Weber
/ Weber Workshops / APC-02, making of off-world technology
nosaj thing
/ Timetable.ltd / APC-02, making of off-world technology
UESATSU
/ Arc III
Shinichiro Nakahara
/ Landscape Products / Arc III
Javier Villar Ruiz
/ studio JVAD / Arc III
Noah Murphy Reinhertz
/ Nike / Arc III
Shun Ishikawa
/ Kesiki / Arc III
grunhaar
/ vibes
Akiko Mega
/ Faro / Arc IV
Jorge Furuya
/ Arc IV
Ignacio Lopez-Francos
/ NASA Artemis / Arc IV
Blade Olson
/ vibes
Ana Arriola-Kanada
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
November 14
Nightshift Shakedown
quietly taking shape
/ location to be revealed
DAY 03November 15
08:00–20:00
Nourish
Tokyo American Club
Jesús Durón
/ MASA / Arc I
Vaughn Tan
/ Arc I
Eneko Axpe
/ Arc II
Pablo Soto
/ Noma / Arc II
KCRW × dublab Tokyo
/ vibes
Christopher Haatuft
/ Lysverket / Arc III/ Lysverket / Arc III
Alberto Landgraf
/ Oteque / Arc III
Ryo Haga
/ Jorn / Arc III
Showa-era soundscape by DJ Dandy
/ vibes
Farmers, Purveyors & Producers
Lucho Martinez
/ Em / Arc IV
Justin Khanna
/ Repertoire / opening & reflection
Ana Arriola-Kanada
/ semi permanent / pening & reflection
November 16
Field Trip
quietly taking shape
/ location to be revealed
DAY 04November 17
09:00–18:00
Speculative Futures
Soho House Tokyo
quietly taking shape
/ the curation continues
Sandeep Pahuja
/ Preferred Futures / opening & reflection
Arc I / ground truth
Arc II / the human layer
Arc III / what moves culture first
Arc IV / physical proof
TicketING
Tokyo Salone
November 14
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Nourish
November 15
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Speculative Futures
November 17
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Essentials
DATES
November 13 (Friday) – 17 (Tuesday)
VENUES
Massif Tokyo, Tokyo American Club, Soho House Tokyo
ORGANISERS
semi permanent × teenage engineering × yes,
CO-HOSTS
KCRW × WPÜ × Massif Tokyo × Soho House Tokyo × Kammui
Curated voices.
Shared experiences.
curious minds.
Tokyo Salone unfolds through intimate, in-real-life gatherings for people who are curious about the world and committed to making it better.
Each spring and autumn, designers, architects, technologists, filmmakers, chefs, artists, producers, scientists, founders, policymakers, researchers, and cultural practitioners come together to exchange ideas, share meals, challenge assumptions, and build lasting relationships.
Through conversations, and shared experiences, we explore how we create, gather, build, eat, care for one another, and imagine what comes next.
Ana Arriola-Kanada
semi permanent
Ana is a cultural-systems builder working at the intersection of community, design, frontier technology, and human culture. She serves as Chairwoman of 「 yes, 」, a Tokyo-based cultural consultancy and family office operating globally through Tokyo Salone and its constellations, in curation with semi permanent x teenage engineering. Having led innovation across Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Sony, and IDEO, she spends her days building, gathering people, and chasing improbable side quests across culture, technology, and community. Every challenge is another boss monster. Every detour reveals a hidden path. Still exploring the map, building rooms where disciplines meet, and future generations inherit responsibility.
IG
IG / SP
Website
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya
semi permanent
Hikaru/Jamie is a curator, director, and producer working across film, fashion, and cross-border cultural exchange. Raised between Japan, Australia, and China, his work bridges global perspectives. He began as a model before moving into journalism and photography with DeNA, documenting street culture and fashion globally. He later joined MALAKAI in Bali, contributing to productions for artists including Beyoncé and Madonna. Now based in Tokyo, he leads cross-disciplinary projects and serves as curator and host for Tokyo Salone alongside Ana Arriola-Kanada, Sandeep Pahuja, and Justin Khanna.
IG
Dino Dalle Carbonare
Turnpike
Dino Dalle Carbonare, known as Dino DC, is a Tokyo-based automotive photojournalist and filmmaker whose lens has helped define how the world sees Japanese car culture. He co-founded Speedhunters with Electronic Arts and has worked across global publications, brand collaborations, and Pagani, where he served as PR and Marketing Manager for APAC. He now leads Turnpike.
IG
Website
Rachel Gogel
Moi & Toi
Rachel is an independent design executive and educator who has held influential roles at Meta, The New York Times, GQ, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. Since founding her own practice in 2020, she has collaborated with global organizations (Airbnb) and women-led ventures (Pulse Fund). Operating as a fractional design leader, she unlocks human creativity by embedding deeply with teams navigating the inflection points where brand, culture, and technology converge. A queer advocate dedicated to seeing more women in design leadership, she also teaches, mentors, and champions marginalized voices across the industry.
IG
Website
Evi O.
Evi-O.Studio
Evi O. is a designer, artist, and publisher whose work explores the intersection of books, visual culture, and contemporary publishing. Born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and based in Gadigal Country (Sydney, Australia), she founded EOS (Evi-O.Studio), specializing in publication design for cultural institutions, artists, and authors worldwide. Through her independent imprint, formist editions, she creates and publishes books that celebrate art, design, and creative inquiry. Her practice is rooted in a belief that books remain one of our most enduring tools for preserving knowledge, shaping culture, and connecting people across time and place.
IG
IG / formist
Website
Hector Silva
AdvancedDesign
Hector is an award-winning industrial designer and educator with over eleven years of teaching at programs including UIC, Notre Dame, RIT, Academy of Art University, and SAIC. Named IDSA's Young Educator of the Year and a recipient of the prestigious Core77 Award, he leads his consultancy H Design and founded the nonprofit Advanced Design, which advances design education at scale. In 2020 he launched Offsite, an innovative online design school bridging academia and industry, which recently expanded internationally with the debut of a new auxiliary program based in Japan.
IG
IG / AdvDes
Website
Matt Alt
AltJapan Co.
Matt is the co-founder of the pioneering entertainment localization firm AltJapan Co., Ltd. He co-hosted the popular NHK World television show Japanology Plus from 2015 to 2022. He is the author of the 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. His essays and cultural commentary regularly appear in media outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and more.
IG
Website
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen
KCRW
Ale is the Music Director of KCRW and a longtime force in Los Angeles’ independent music and cultural community. Prior to joining KCRW, he served as Executive Director of dublab, where he helped expand the station into one of the city’s most influential experimental music platforms. A musician, composer, and Emmy Award-winning producer, Cohen has performed with projects including Languis and Pharaohs and has composed music for film and television. His work centers on music discovery, cultural storytelling, and building connections between artists, audiences, and public media.
IG
IG / KCRW
Website
Dylan Sisson
Pixar
Dylan is an artist, speaker, and visual effects veteran exploring how tools shape creativity. With over 30 years across animation, games, and design, he has helped artists turn emerging technologies into creative expression. At Pixar, he has worked on RenderMan for every film since Monsters, Inc., championing stylized rendering and artist-driven workflows. He lives in San Francisco and still finds time to doodle monsters.
IG
IG / Pixar
Website
Jesper Kouthoofd
teenage engineering
Jesper is a builder, master carpenter, JDM enthusiast, and founder and CEO of teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based design, culture, and electronics company behind the APC-02, OP-1, Pocket Operator series, field system, and other tools for sound, play, and creative experimentation. Whether shaping wood, restoring cars, or designing instruments, his work is guided by a belief that the best tools invite curiosity, discovery, and delight. Through teenage engineering, he explores the space where craftsmanship, culture, and technology meet, creating objects that encourage experimentation, reward play, and remind us that technology can still feel surprising, human, and magical.
IG
IG / teenage
Website
nosaj thing
Timetable.ltd
nosaj thing is a Tokyo/Los Angeles–based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work has helped shape the sound of contemporary electronic music. Blending cinematic atmosphere, intricate rhythms, and emotional depth, he creates experiences that move fluidly between music, visual art, film, and performance. Through a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, nosaj thing explores how sound can create new spaces for reflection, connection, and imagination.
IG
Website
Doug Weber
Weber Workshops
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
Website
UESATSU
UESATSU
UESATSU is a Japanese designer and cultural practitioner whose work explores the relationship between identity, aesthetics, and contemporary life. Through a distinct visual and material language, they examine how objects, environments, and cultural signals shape perception and belonging. Moving between design, storytelling, and cultural inquiry, UESATSU creates work guided by intuition, restraint, and the belief that meaning often resides as much in what is omitted as in what is revealed.
IG
Website
Shinichiro Nakahara
Landscape Products
Shinichiro is founder of Landscape Products, and Chief Design Officer of The Conran Shop Japan. Landscape Products a pioneering Japanese design studio working across furniture, interiors, architecture, hospitality, and cultural spaces. Since founding the practice in 1997 and later opening the influential Playmountain in Tokyo, he has helped define a generation of Japanese lifestyle design. Guided by a belief that design begins with how people live, gather, and connect, his work explores the relationship between objects, places, memory, and everyday culture.
IG
IG / LP
IG / PM
Jorge Furuya
Volvo
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
IG / Volvo
Noah Murphy Reinhertz
Nike
Noah is a designer and sustainability strategist leading Nike's Sustainable Product Design team. The creator of Nike Space Hippie — shoes made almost entirely from trash — he has spent over two decades pursuing a single idea: that great design and responsible design are the same thing. His work spans product, materials, and brand, and his career includes eight years at fuseproject and award-winning work for Herman Miller, Samsung, and Google. He lives in Portland with his family.
IG
IG 2
Website
Ignacio Lopez-Francos
NASA Artemis
Ignacio is an AI Research Lead at NASA Ames Research Center, working on the technologies that will help define the future of exploration. Operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, autonomy, and complex systems, his work examines how humans and intelligent machines can collaborate in uncertain and rapidly changing environments. From Earth to deep space, Ignacio’s research explores how emerging technologies can augment human potential, support discovery, and unlock new frontiers of possibility.
IG
IG / NASA
Website
Javier Villar Ruiz
JVAD
Javier is a Spanish architect based in Barcelona and Tokyo working internationally in architecture, urban and interior projects through his studio JVAD (Javier Villar Architectural Designers). He has been a partner at Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates with a collaboration that spans two decades; and with Barcelona based studio Cloud 9.
IG
Akiko Mega
Faro
Akiko is the founder of Faro, the leadership and organizational advisory practice of The Mega Center. A former Co-Country Manager of Maison Margiela Japan and advisor to Nippon Partners, she brings firsthand operating experience to leadership, culture, and organizational transformation. Through her Sentient Leadership methodology, she helps organizations build the capacity, clarity, and alignment needed to navigate growth and complexity. Her clients include Microsoft, Figma, IDEO, Barclays, Kyriba, and Tekoma Energy. Raised in Texas, shaped by New York and Paris, and built in Tokyo, she works across Japan, Asia, and global headquarters.
IG
Website
Sandeep Pahuja
Preferred Futures
Sandeep Pahuja builds futures that can survive contact with reality. Founder of Preferred Futures, former IDEO Senior Director, and Berkeley Haas faculty member, he helps leaders turn emerging signals into products, platforms, and systems. His work spans future-of-home visions, food systems, public-sector innovation, and a health venture later acquired for approximately $100M. He hosts and serves as head curator of Tokyo Salone’s Speculative Futures constellation.
IG
Website
Justin Khanna
Repertoire
Justin is a chef, creator, entrepreneur, and founder of Repertoire. After training at The Culinary Institute of America, he spent nearly a decade in some of the world’s most demanding kitchens, including The French Laundry and Lysverket, ultimately serving as Executive Sous Chef. Today, through Repertoire, his writing, podcasting, education, and advisory work help hospitality teams build stronger cultures and better systems for performance.
IG
Website
Ryo Haga
Jorn
Ryo is a contemporary chef shaped by a journey across Japan and Europe. After training in Tokyo, he spent two years at Kyoto’s monk, learning to translate landscape into cuisine under Yoshihiro Imai. He later worked at Kadeau and served as a department chef at Noma (2022–2025), deepening his understanding of “time and place.” Now back in Japan, he is building Jorn, a Japan-to-Nordics culinary dialogue expressing Japanese essence through stillness, clarity, and purity.
IG
Jesús Durón
MASA
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
IG / MASA
Lucho Martinez
Em
Lucho is a Mexico City-based chef whose work explores the relationship between memory, place, and contemporary Mexican cuisine. Through his restaurant EM, he has developed a highly personal culinary language rooted in seasonality, intuition, and continual refinement. His cooking draws from landscape, culture, and lived experience, creating thoughtful expressions of identity, emotion, and time through food.
IG
IG / Em
Pablo Soto
Noma
Pablo Soto is Head Chef at Noma. His work focuses on what high performance teams need to do their best work when time is short, conditions change, and the stakes are high. He is developing a practical system for leading, developing, and evaluating people in intense creative environments, built for moments when there is no time for long explanations and shared language matters more than long instructions. He believes care without standards becomes softness, and standards without care becomes fear.
IG
IG / Noma
Website
Christopher Haatuft
Lysverket
Christopher is a Norwegian chef and founder of Lysverket, a restaurant shaped by the landscapes and coastal traditions of Western Norway. His work explores how ecology, seasonality, and local food systems can inform contemporary cuisine. Guided by a deep respect for producers, ingredients, and place, he creates experiences that connect people to landscape, culture, and the rhythms of the natural world.
IG
IG / Lysverket
Alberto Landgraf
Oteque
Alberto Landgraf is a Brazilian chef and the chef-owner of Oteque, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. His work is defined by technical rigor, consistency, and a strong focus on seasonality and product quality. With experience in leading international kitchens, Landgraf has developed a disciplined culinary approach that prioritizes clarity and balance. At Oteque, he delivers a contemporary dining experience rooted in precision and respect for ingredients. The restaurant has received international recognition and is consistently ranked among the leading dining destinations in the world.
IG
IG / Oteque
Vaughn Tan
Tangent
Dr. Vaughn Tan is a strategy consultant and author whose work connects food, AI tools, and uncertainty. His book The Uncertainty Mindset (Columbia Univ. Press, 2020) grew out of from years embedded with elite culinary R&D teams, studying how they innovate by using uncertainty. He now runs Tangent, an Asia-focused AI applications incubator, and co-founded Poietic PBC, which builds AI-native tools for human-machine organizations. He sits on the board of Rethink Food and is a fellow at the Singapore Government's Centre for Strategic Futures.
IG
Website
Eneko Axpe
Pentagram
Eneko is a scientist, researcher, and food innovator exploring how science can help shape the future of nourishment. Working across sustainability, human health, microbiology, and food systems, he connects scientific discovery with culinary practice to better understand how we grow, prepare, and experience food. His work brings together chefs, researchers, and institutions to explore new possibilities for feeding both people and planet.
IG
VENUES
Every environment shapes the conversations it hosts.
Rather than gathering inside a single venue, Tokyo Salone works with places that already contribute to the cultural life of Japan. Together, they create a distributed campus for learning, exchange, and discovery.
Tokyo American Club, Azabudai Hills
The home of the annual Tokyo Salone gathering, where practitioners from Japan and around the world come together through conversation, and shared experience.
A hospitality-centred setting for Moments, Nourish collaborations, and year-round culinary exchange.
A welcoming home for the Tokyo Salone community throughout the year, where practitioners, travelers, and friends gather, conversations continue, and lasting relationships begin.
Additional spaces
Throughout the year, the constellation extends into galleries, cafés, studios, temples, kitchens, listening rooms, and cultural venues across Japan. The country itself becomes part of the program.
Quests
The gathering is only the beginning. Together with our Official Japan Experience Partner, Kammui, discover a deeper Japan through curated journeys, regional explorations, local introductions, and unforgettable side quests. Experience Japan through the makers, growers, and families who open their doors to us, and the places and stories rarely found on an itinerary.
Intent
We believe the most meaningful ideas are rarely created alone. They emerge through conversation, shared experience, generous exchange, and the relationships that form over time.
In an age of agentic systems and cognitive overload, opportunities to gather with care have become increasingly rare. Yet the challenges ahead will not be solved by a single discipline, technology, or point of view. They will be shaped where different practices, perspectives, and generations meet.
Tokyo Salone exists to make more room for those encounters.
Throughout the year, we convene people shaping the future of culture through conversations, shared meals, workshops, and cultural experiences across Japan. Each gathering becomes part of something larger: a living institution built on curiosity, generosity, and the belief that experience is something to be passed forward.
Culture cannot be manufactured. It grows wherever people gather, learn from one another, and leave behind stronger conditions than when they were found.
Partners
Built alongside our partners.
Partner with Tokyo Salone
Tokyo Salone is built for the long term. Rather than sponsoring a single event, our partners become part of an evolving cultural institution connecting global creative communities with Japan.
If our ambitions align, we'd love to start a conversation.
Founding partner inquiry
constellations
SHIBUYA
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
NIGHTSHIFT SHAKEDOWN
FRIENDS OF
FUTURE OF
THIRDSPACE THIRDWEEKS
MOMENTS
held in sound
COLLECTIVE
yes,
Legal
Commercial Disclosure
Code of Conduct
privacy policy
Liability & Risk
Media Release
subscribe
© Semi Permanent / TOKYO SALONE
Tokyo salone
NOURISH
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
stories
ABOUT
tickets
three ways into the constellation
November 13 (Friday)–17 (Tuesday) 2026
AGENDA
DAY 01November 13
18:30–22:00
WPÜ
basecamp
/ a welcoming
DAY 02November 14
08:00–22:00
Tokyo Salone
Tokyo American Club
Dino Dalle Carbonare
/ Turnpike / Arc I
Rachel Gogel
/ Moi & Toi / Arc I
Evi O.
/ Evi-O.Studio / Arc I
SHUY
/ vibes
Hector Silva
/ Advanced Design / Arc II
Matt Alt
/ Arc II
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen
/ KCRW, Los Angeles / Arc II
Dylan Sisson
/ Pixar / Arc II
KCRW & dublab.jp
/ vibes
Jesper Kouthoofd
/ teenage engineering / APC-02, making of off-world technology
Doug Weber
/ Weber Workshops / APC-02, making of off-world technology
nosaj thing
/ Timetable.ltd / APC-02, making of off-world technology
UESATSU
/ Arc III
Shinichiro Nakahara
/ Landscape Products / Arc III
Javier Villar Ruiz
/ studio JVAD / Arc III
Noah Murphy Reinhertz
/ Nike / Arc III
Shun Ishikawa
/ Kesiki / Arc III
grunhaar
/ vibes
Akiko Mega
/ Faro / Arc IV
Jorge Furuya
/ Arc IV
Ignacio Lopez-Francos
/ NASA Artemis / Arc IV
Blade Olson
/ vibes
Ana Arriola-Kanada
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
November 14
Nightshift Shakedown
quietly taking shape
/ location to be revealed
DAY 03November 15
08:00–20:00
Nourish
Tokyo American Club
Jesús Durón
/ MASA / Arc I
Vaughn Tan
/ Arc I
Eneko Axpe
/ Arc II
Pablo Soto
/ Noma / Arc II
KCRW × dublab Tokyo
/ vibes
Christopher Haatuft
/ Lysverket / Arc III/ Lysverket / Arc III
Alberto Landgraf
/ Oteque / Arc III
Ryo Haga
/ Jorn / Arc III
Showa-era soundscape by DJ Dandy
/ vibes
Farmers, Purveyors & Producers
Lucho Martinez
/ Em / Arc IV
Justin Khanna
/ Repertoire / opening & reflection
Ana Arriola-Kanada
/ semi permanent / opening & reflection
November 16
Field Trip
quietly taking shape
/ location to be revealed
DAY 04November 17
09:00–18:00
Speculative Futures
Soho House Tokyo
quietly taking shape
/ the curation continues
Sandeep Pahuja
/ Preferred Futures / opening & reflection
Arc I / ground truth
Arc II / the human layer
Arc III / what moves culture first
Arc IV / physical proof
TicketING
Tokyo Salone
November 14
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Nourish
November 15
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Speculative Futures
November 17
$900 USD
ON SALE
GET TICKETS
Essentials
DATES
November 13 (Friday) – 17 (Tuesday)
VENUES
Massif Tokyo, Tokyo American Club, Soho House Tokyo
ORGANIZERS
semi permanent × teenage engineering × yes,
CO-HOSTS
KCRW × WPÜ × Massif Tokyo × Soho House Tokyo × Kammui
Curated voices.
Shared experiences.
curious minds.
Tokyo Salone unfolds through intimate, in-real-life gatherings for people who are curious about the world and committed to making it better.
Each spring and autumn, designers, architects, technologists, filmmakers, chefs, artists, producers, scientists, founders, policymakers, researchers, and cultural practitioners come together to exchange ideas, share meals, challenge assumptions, and build lasting relationships.
Through conversations, and shared experiences, we explore how we create, gather, build, eat, care for one another, and imagine what comes next.
Ana Arriola-Kanada
semi permanent
Ana is a cultural-systems builder working at the intersection of community, design, frontier technology, and human culture. She serves as Chairwoman of 「 yes, 」, a Tokyo-based cultural consultancy and family office operating globally through Tokyo Salone and its constellations, in curation with semi permanent x teenage engineering. Having led innovation across Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Sony, and IDEO, she spends her days building, gathering people, and chasing improbable side quests across culture, technology, and community. Every challenge is another boss monster. Every detour reveals a hidden path. Still exploring the map, building rooms where disciplines meet, and future generations inherit responsibility.
IG
IG / SP
Website
Jamie Hikaru Masamiya
semi permanent
Hikaru/Jamie is a curator, director, and producer working across film, fashion, and cross-border cultural exchange. Raised between Japan, Australia, and China, his work bridges global perspectives. He began as a model before moving into journalism and photography with DeNA, documenting street culture and fashion globally. He later joined MALAKAI in Bali, contributing to productions for artists including Beyoncé and Madonna. Now based in Tokyo, he leads cross-disciplinary projects and serves as curator and host for Tokyo Salone alongside Ana Arriola-Kanada, Sandeep Pahuja, and Justin Khanna.
IG
Dino Dalle Carbonare
Turnpike
Dino Dalle Carbonare, known as Dino DC, is a Tokyo-based automotive photojournalist and filmmaker whose lens has helped define how the world sees Japanese car culture. He co-founded Speedhunters with Electronic Arts and has worked across global publications, brand collaborations, and Pagani, where he served as PR and Marketing Manager for APAC. He now leads Turnpike.
IG
Website
Rachel Gogel
Moi & Toi
Rachel is an independent design executive and educator who has held influential roles at Meta, The New York Times, GQ, and Godfrey Dadich Partners. Since founding her own practice in 2020, she has collaborated with global organizations (Airbnb) and women-led ventures (Pulse Fund). Operating as a fractional design leader, she unlocks human creativity by embedding deeply with teams navigating the inflection points where brand, culture, and technology converge. A queer advocate dedicated to seeing more women in design leadership, she also teaches, mentors, and champions marginalized voices across the industry.
IG
Website
Evi O.
Evi-O.Studio
Evi O. is a designer, artist, and publisher whose work explores the intersection of books, visual culture, and contemporary publishing. Born in Surabaya, Indonesia, and based in Gadigal Country (Sydney, Australia), she founded EOS (Evi-O.Studio), specializing in publication design for cultural institutions, artists, and authors worldwide. Through her independent imprint, formist editions, she creates and publishes books that celebrate art, design, and creative inquiry. Her practice is rooted in a belief that books remain one of our most enduring tools for preserving knowledge, shaping culture, and connecting people across time and place.
IG
IG / formist
Website
Hector Silva
AdvancedDesign
Hector is an award-winning industrial designer and educator with over eleven years of teaching at programs including UIC, Notre Dame, RIT, Academy of Art University, and SAIC. Named IDSA's Young Educator of the Year and a recipient of the prestigious Core77 Award, he leads his consultancy H Design and founded the nonprofit Advanced Design, which advances design education at scale. In 2020 he launched Offsite, an innovative online design school bridging academia and industry, which recently expanded internationally with the debut of a new auxiliary program based in Japan.
IG
IG / AdvDes
Website
Matt Alt
AltJapan Co.
Matt is the co-founder of the pioneering entertainment localization firm AltJapan Co., Ltd. He co-hosted the popular NHK World television show Japanology Plus from 2015 to 2022. He is the author of the 2020 book Pure Invention: How Japan Made the Modern World. His essays and cultural commentary regularly appear in media outlets including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, and more.
IG
Website
Alejandro “Ale” Cohen
KCRW
Ale is the Music Director of KCRW and a longtime force in Los Angeles’ independent music and cultural community. Prior to joining KCRW, he served as Executive Director of dublab, where he helped expand the station into one of the city’s most influential experimental music platforms. A musician, composer, and Emmy Award-winning producer, Cohen has performed with projects including Languis and Pharaohs and has composed music for film and television. His work centers on music discovery, cultural storytelling, and building connections between artists, audiences, and public media.
IG
IG / KCRW
Website
Dylan Sisson
Pixar
Dylan is an artist, speaker, and visual effects veteran exploring how tools shape creativity. With over 30 years across animation, games, and design, he has helped artists turn emerging technologies into creative expression. At Pixar, he has worked on RenderMan for every film since Monsters, Inc., championing stylized rendering and artist-driven workflows. He lives in San Francisco and still finds time to doodle monsters.
IG
IG / Pixar
Website
Jesper Kouthoofd
teenage engineering
Jesper is a builder, master carpenter, JDM enthusiast, and founder and CEO of teenage engineering, the Stockholm-based design, culture, and electronics company behind the APC-02, OP-1, Pocket Operator series, field system, and other tools for sound, play, and creative experimentation. Whether shaping wood, restoring cars, or designing instruments, his work is guided by a belief that the best tools invite curiosity, discovery, and delight. Through teenage engineering, he explores the space where craftsmanship, culture, and technology meet, creating objects that encourage experimentation, reward play, and remind us that technology can still feel surprising, human, and magical.
IG
IG / teenage
Website
nosaj thing
Timetable.ltd
nosaj thing is a Tokyo/Los Angeles–based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work has helped shape the sound of contemporary electronic music. Blending cinematic atmosphere, intricate rhythms, and emotional depth, he creates experiences that move fluidly between music, visual art, film, and performance. Through a practice rooted in experimentation and collaboration, nosaj thing explores how sound can create new spaces for reflection, connection, and imagination.
IG
Website
Doug Weber
Weber Workshops
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
Website
UESATSU
UESATSU
UESATSU is a Japanese designer and cultural practitioner whose work explores the relationship between identity, aesthetics, and contemporary life. Through a distinct visual and material language, they examine how objects, environments, and cultural signals shape perception and belonging. Moving between design, storytelling, and cultural inquiry, UESATSU creates work guided by intuition, restraint, and the belief that meaning often resides as much in what is omitted as in what is revealed.
IG
Website
Shinichiro Nakahara
Landscape Products
Shinichiro is founder of Landscape Products, and Chief Design Officer of The Conran Shop Japan. Landscape Products a pioneering Japanese design studio working across furniture, interiors, architecture, hospitality, and cultural spaces. Since founding the practice in 1997 and later opening the influential Playmountain in Tokyo, he has helped define a generation of Japanese lifestyle design. Guided by a belief that design begins with how people live, gather, and connect, his work explores the relationship between objects, places, memory, and everyday culture.
IG
IG / LP
IG / PM
Jorge Furuya
Volvo
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
IG / Volvo
Noah Murphy Reinhertz
Nike
Noah is a designer and sustainability strategist leading Nike's Sustainable Product Design team. The creator of Nike Space Hippie — shoes made almost entirely from trash — he has spent over two decades pursuing a single idea: that great design and responsible design are the same thing. His work spans product, materials, and brand, and his career includes eight years at fuseproject and award-winning work for Herman Miller, Samsung, and Google. He lives in Portland with his family.
IG
IG 2
Website
Ignacio Lopez-Francos
NASA Artemis
Ignacio is an AI Research Lead at NASA Ames Research Center, working on the technologies that will help define the future of exploration. Operating at the intersection of artificial intelligence, autonomy, and complex systems, his work examines how humans and intelligent machines can collaborate in uncertain and rapidly changing environments. From Earth to deep space, Ignacio’s research explores how emerging technologies can augment human potential, support discovery, and unlock new frontiers of possibility.
IG
IG / NASA
Website
Javier Villar Ruiz
JVAD
Javier is a Spanish architect based in Barcelona and Tokyo working internationally in architecture, urban and interior projects through his studio JVAD (Javier Villar Architectural Designers). He has been a partner at Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates with a collaboration that spans two decades; and with Barcelona based studio Cloud 9.
IG
Akiko Mega
Faro
Akiko is the founder of Faro, the leadership and organizational advisory practice of The Mega Center. A former Co-Country Manager of Maison Margiela Japan and advisor to Nippon Partners, she brings firsthand operating experience to leadership, culture, and organizational transformation. Through her Sentient Leadership methodology, she helps organizations build the capacity, clarity, and alignment needed to navigate growth and complexity. Her clients include Microsoft, Figma, IDEO, Barclays, Kyriba, and Tekoma Energy. Raised in Texas, shaped by New York and Paris, and built in Tokyo, she works across Japan, Asia, and global headquarters.
IG
Website
Justin Khanna
Repertoire
Justin is a chef, creator, entrepreneur, and founder of Repertoire. After training at The Culinary Institute of America, he spent nearly a decade in some of the world’s most demanding kitchens, including The French Laundry and Lysverket, ultimately serving as Executive Sous Chef. Today, through Repertoire, his writing, podcasting, education, and advisory work help hospitality teams build stronger cultures and better systems for performance.
IG
Website
Ryo Haga
Jorn
Ryo is a contemporary chef shaped by a journey across Japan and Europe. After training in Tokyo, he spent two years at Kyoto’s monk, learning to translate landscape into cuisine under Yoshihiro Imai. He later worked at Kadeau and served as a department chef at Noma (2022–2025), deepening his understanding of “time and place.” Now back in Japan, he is building Jorn, a Japan-to-Nordics culinary dialogue expressing Japanese essence through stillness, clarity, and purity.
IG
Jesús Durón
MASA
Doug is the founder of Weber Workshops, a globally recognized brand designing high-performance coffee equipment. With a background in engineering and early experience at Apple, he brings a product-first mindset to his work. Operating across Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S., he focuses on durability, repairability, and material honesty, creating tools built to last decades, not seasons, with transparent supply chains and a commitment to long-term integrity.
IG
IG / MASA
Lucho Martinez
Em
Lucho is a Mexico City-based chef whose work explores the relationship between memory, place, and contemporary Mexican cuisine. Through his restaurant EM, he has developed a highly personal culinary language rooted in seasonality, intuition, and continual refinement. His cooking draws from landscape, culture, and lived experience, creating thoughtful expressions of identity, emotion, and time through food.
IG
IG / Em
Pablo Soto
Noma
Pablo Soto is Head Chef at Noma. His work focuses on what high performance teams need to do their best work when time is short, conditions change, and the stakes are high. He is developing a practical system for leading, developing, and evaluating people in intense creative environments, built for moments when there is no time for long explanations and shared language matters more than long instructions. He believes care without standards becomes softness, and standards without care becomes fear.
IG
IG / Noma
Website
Christopher Haatuft
Lysverket
Christopher is a Norwegian chef and founder of Lysverket, a restaurant shaped by the landscapes and coastal traditions of Western Norway. His work explores how ecology, seasonality, and local food systems can inform contemporary cuisine. Guided by a deep respect for producers, ingredients, and place, he creates experiences that connect people to landscape, culture, and the rhythms of the natural world.
IG
IG / Lysverket
Alberto Landgraf
Oteque
Alberto Landgraf is a Brazilian chef and the chef-owner of Oteque, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. His work is defined by technical rigor, consistency, and a strong focus on seasonality and product quality. With experience in leading international kitchens, Landgraf has developed a disciplined culinary approach that prioritizes clarity and balance. At Oteque, he delivers a contemporary dining experience rooted in precision and respect for ingredients. The restaurant has received international recognition and is consistently ranked among the leading dining destinations in the world.
IG
IG / Oteque
Eneko Axpe
Pentagram
Eneko is a scientist, researcher, and food innovator exploring how science can help shape the future of nourishment. Working across sustainability, human health, microbiology, and food systems, he connects scientific discovery with culinary practice to better understand how we grow, prepare, and experience food. His work brings together chefs, researchers, and institutions to explore new possibilities for feeding both people and planet.
IG
Vaughn Tan
Tangent
Dr. Vaughn Tan is a strategy consultant and author whose work connects food, AI tools, and uncertainty. His book The Uncertainty Mindset (Columbia Univ. Press, 2020) grew out of from years embedded with elite culinary R&D teams, studying how they innovate by using uncertainty. He now runs Tangent, an Asia-focused AI applications incubator, and co-founded Poietic PBC, which builds AI-native tools for human-machine organizations. He sits on the board of Rethink Food and is a fellow at the Singapore Government's Centre for Strategic Futures.
IG
Website
Sandeep Pahuja
Preferred Futures
Sandeep Pahuja builds futures that can survive contact with reality. Founder of Preferred Futures, former IDEO Senior Director, and Berkeley Haas faculty member, he helps leaders turn emerging signals into products, platforms, and systems. His work spans future-of-home visions, food systems, public-sector innovation, and a health venture later acquired for approximately $100M. He hosts and serves as head curator of Tokyo Salone’s Speculative Futures constellation.
IG
Website
VENUES
Every environment shapes the conversations it hosts.
Rather than gathering inside a single venue, Tokyo Salone works with places that already contribute to the cultural life of Japan. Together, they create a distributed campus for learning, exchange, and discovery.
Tokyo American Club, Azabudai Hills
The home of the annual Tokyo Salone gathering, where practitioners from Japan and around the world come together through conversation, and shared experience.
A hospitality-centred setting for Moments, Nourish collaborations, and year-round culinary exchange.
A welcoming home for the Tokyo Salone community throughout the year, where practitioners, travelers, and friends gather, conversations continue, and lasting relationships begin.
Additional spaces
Throughout the year, the constellation extends into galleries, cafés, studios, temples, kitchens, listening rooms, and cultural venues across Japan. The country itself becomes part of the program.
Quests
The gathering is only the beginning. Together with our Official Japan Experience Partner, Kammui, discover a deeper Japan through curated journeys, regional explorations, local introductions, and unforgettable side quests. Experience Japan through the makers, growers, and families who open their doors to us, and the places and stories rarely found on an itinerary.
Intent
We believe the most meaningful ideas are rarely created alone. They emerge through conversation, shared experience, generous exchange, and the relationships that form over time.
In an age of agentic systems and cognitive overload, opportunities to gather with care have become increasingly rare. Yet the challenges ahead will not be solved by a single discipline, technology, or point of view. They will be shaped where different practices, perspectives, and generations meet.
Tokyo Salone exists to make more room for those encounters.
Throughout the year, we convene people shaping the future of culture through conversations, shared meals, workshops, and cultural experiences across Japan. Each gathering becomes part of something larger: a living institution built on curiosity, generosity, and the belief that experience is something to be passed forward.
Culture cannot be manufactured. It grows wherever people gather, learn from one another, and leave behind stronger conditions than when they were found.
Partners
Built alongside our partners.
Partner with Tokyo Salone
Tokyo Salone is built for the long term. Rather than sponsoring a single event, our partners become part of an evolving cultural institution connecting global creative communities with Japan.
If our ambitions align, we'd love to start a conversation.
Founding partner inquiry
constellations
SHIBUYA
SPECULATIVE FUTURES
NIGHTSHIFT SHAKEDOWN
FRIENDS OF
FUTURE OF
THIRDSPACE THIRDWEEKS
MOMENTS
held in sound
COLLECTIVE
yes,
Legal
Commercial Disclosure
Code of Conduct
privacy policy
Liability & Risk
Media Release
subscribe
© Semi Permanent / TOKYO SALONE