The Future of Earth and Biodiversity Week
FemTech Day: Innovation for Women’s Health and Sustainable Futures
State of Israel
Leveraging women’s perspectives and leadership, the program proposes new values and solutions for protecting the planet’s future and biodiversity. It aligns with Expo 2025 “The Future of the Earth and Biodiversity” Theme Week by discussing concrete actions to leave a richer, more diverse planet through FemTech innovations.
Recorded video available
Discussion
- Circular economy
- Biodiversity
- Decarbonisation
| Transmission of simultaneous interpretation | Provided |
|---|---|
| Language of interpretation | English |
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Track Programme
- Time and
Date of
the event -
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2025.09.18[Thu]
10:00 ～ 12:30
(Venue Open 09:30)
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- Venue
- Theme Weeks Studio
Programme details
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Expected Outcomes / Significance
• Contribute to sustainability and biodiversity conservation from women’s perspectives
• Share insights from startups and experts from Japan, Israel, and North America
• Propose decarbonization and circular economy solutions through innovation
• Promote international discussions on women’s health and wellbeing
Program Overview (Talk Sessions)
1. Unleashing Japanese FemTech
Introducing domestic trends and discussing how innovations address social issues.
2. Borderless FemTech
Sharing knowledge and exploring collaborative solutions from Israel and globally.
3. Rebuilding Health
Considering future healthcare models that blend gender perspectives and sustainability.
【Schedule】
10:00 Opening Remarks
Welcoming remarks highlighting the global momentum around women’s health, and how international collaboration — between Japan, Israel, and beyond — can drive sustainable innovation for healthier, more resilient communities.
10:20 Redesigning Women’s Health for a Sustainable Future: Where Innovation, Nature, and Impact Intersect
How human-centered design, systems thinking, and nature-inspired innovation can close persistent care gaps and support long-term wellbeing in a changing world.
10:30 Unlocking FemTech in Japan: Local Innovation for a Healthier, More Sustainable Future
A local perspective on FemTech in Japan — highlighting current trends, innovations, and ecosystem developments.
10:40 Israeli Breakthroughs Reshaping Women's Lives and Planetary Resilience
Three pioneering Israeli startups — OCON Therapeutics, Nevia BIO, and Ark Surgical — present innovations that are not only reshaping women’s lives, but also contributing to more sustainable and resilient health system
10:55 Speed Dating with Disruption: Israeli Femtech Meets Japanese Market
11:10 Hormonal Health & Longevity in a Changing Climate: Unlocking New Opportunities in Women's Health
A fireside chat exploring how hormonal health, menopause, and longevity intersect with climate change — and the new opportunities they open for innovation in women’s health.
11:27 Digital Health for Everyday Resilience: Empowering Women Through Smart, Sustainable Solutions
Showcasing an Israeli startup, myAir, that leverages AI and functional nutrition to enhance women’s daily resilience and mental wellness
11:30 FemTech Without Borders: From Israel to Japan to North America – Building Global Ecosystems for Women’s Health and Shared Futures
Exploring how cross-border collaboration can accelerate solutions, close gaps, and drive meaningful innovation in women’s health — while also advancing more sustainable, inclusive health systems worldwide.
This session brings together leading voices to imagine a future where women’s health and broader global wellbeing are deeply interconnected.
11:55 Reimagining Health: Rethinking Innovation to Meet Women’s Needs and Sustainability
Exploring How rethinking innovation through a gender and sustainability lens can lead to transformative solutions — meeting women’s unmet health needs while supporting a healthier, more resilient world.
12:20 Closing Remarks
12:25 The Butterfly Effect: Local Innovation, Global Impact — and a Healthier Planet for All
A call to action: why women’s health is not only good for society, but also smart business — and key to building a healthier, more resilient planet.
Reports
【Reflection 】
FemTech Innovation Day at EXPO 2025 Osaka was a breakthrough moment for women’s health globally. On September 18, we placed women’s health at the center of the global stage. What began as an ambitious vision by two women founders grew into a one-day ecosystem, bringing together investors, corporates, clinicians, startups, and entrepreneurs from five countries , united by a shared belief: women’s health is good business. This strong statement, that systemic gaps in women’s health can be transformed into opportunities for innovation, investment, and impact, became a tangible reality on stage in Osaka. The day demonstrated that women’s health is not a niche, but the next frontier for global healthcare and economic growth.
The program, conceived and led by Impact.51, the world’s first startup studio dedicated exclusively to women’s health, together with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Israeli Embassy in Japan, and the Israeli Pavilion, was embedded in EXPO’s Theme Week “The Future of the Earth and Biodiversity.” This alignment underscored that advancing women’s health is not only a medical and economic imperative but also a sustainability imperative: healthier women mean stronger families, resilient societies, and more inclusive economies. As speakers highlighted, empowering women through health creates ripple effects across education, productivity, and community wellbeing.
The day opened with Mor Riklin from the Israeli Embassy in Japan, who called for global collaboration. Michal Shalem and Michal Lebenthal Andreson, introduced Impact.51’s venture-building model, Impact.51’s venture-building model, showing how systems thinking and human-centered design can close persistent gaps in women’s care. We emphasized that placing women at the center of medicine is not radical but long overdue, and it is also smart business.
Highlights of the program included Dr. Keiko Matsubara presenting Japan’s pioneering work at ICWH, the only institute in Japan dedicated solely to women’s health. A panel moderated by Yumiko Murakami explored hormonal health, menopause, and longevity as the next frontier.
Israeli startups showcased bold innovations from screening, to diagnosis and therapy: : Dr. Shlomit Yehudai-Reshef,Nevia Bio’s biomarker-based ovarian cancer detection, Stav Tori, Ark Surgical’s minimally invasive gynecological platform, and Anat Kaphan, Illumigyn’s cloud-based remote colposcopy.
Panels broadened the dialogue further. In FemTech Without Borders, moderated by Michal Shalem, experts such as Levi Shapiro, Karina Sotnik, Tomoko Minagawa, Daisuke Kurioka, and Takuma Abe explored how ecosystems spanning Israel, Japan, and North America can scale solutions, attract investment, and build inclusive health systems.
Later, in Reimagining Health, moderated by Michal Lebenthal Andreson, voices including Nicky Newfield, Dr. Matsubara, and Gil Granot-Mayer, Dr. Shlomit Yehudai Reshef and Stav Tori, envisioned what healthcare could look like if built from day one on women’s biology, prevention, and equity.
The reflection also emphasised the global partnerships that FemTech requires. Israel’s innovation ecosystem, combined with Japanese precision and commitment, was presented as an inspiring model of cross-border collaboration. The idea that improving women’s health generates new social values—values of care, inclusion, and sustainability—was repeatedly reinforced. It became evident that FemTech is not merely about devices or apps, but about reshaping cultural narratives: placing women at the centre of innovation, policy, and investment.
The collective energy of the day was transformative. One of the most powerful moments was feeling the room shift from curiosity to commitment. For too long, modern medicine has been built on data from only half of humanity. At EXPO 2025, the other 51% finally took center stage.
In reflection, the FemTech Innovation Day was not just an event but the beginning of a legacy: proof that when diverse ecosystems — spanning innovation, research, healthcare, investment, and policy — come together with the shared commitment of partners worldwide, we can redesign women’s health systems, economies, and futures. The message from Osaka is clear: when ecosystems join forces across borders, we can go farther, faster, and ensure that women’s health remains at the very center of global health, sustainability, and innovation.
【Post EXPO Initiatives】
The momentum created at EXPO 2025 Osaka provides not only inspiration but also a clear pathway forward. The conversations, panels, and partnerships confirmed that women’s health is not a side issue but a global growth engine. Building on this foundation, Impact.51 is committed to transforming the energy of Osaka into concrete next steps that accelerate innovation and collaboration across borders.
1. Strengthening global collaborations
EXPO highlighted opportunities to link ecosystems across geographies. Japan’s strengths in precision medicine, longevity research, and regulation, combined with entrepreneurial and venture-building expertise from Israel and North America, create fertile ground for joint initiatives. We plan to establish structured working groups with corporates, research institutions, and investors to co-develop solutions in areas such as cardiovascular health, menopause, maternal safety, and healthy aging. These groups will turn dialogue into projects that scale globally.
2. Accelerating venture creation
Impact . 51’s model — challenge → ideation → foundry — systematically closes health gaps. Following Osaka, we are prioritizing cardiovascular disease, menopause, and longevity, which emerged repeatedly in discussions with Japanese stakeholders. Our cardiovascular cohort, launching in late 2025, will integrate global expertise, including Japanese clinical data and insights from international researchers. By embedding sustainability considerations — such as eco-conscious diagnostics and climate-resilient care models — we aim to ensure that women’s health innovation contributes not only to medical progress but also to planetary wellbeing.
3. Turning awareness into investment
A defining message of EXPO was that women’s health is good business. With women representing 85% of healthcare spending decisions yet receiving less than 2% of healthcare investment, the gap is a trillion-dollar opportunity. We are exploring the creation of a cross-border Women’s Health Innovation Fund, alongside strategic co-investments with corporates and family offices. Our goal is to ensure that inspiration is matched with capital, so promising ventures are not just imagined but built.
4. Building a global pipeline of innovation
FemTech Day proved the power of convening diverse players. To institutionalize this momentum, we plan to develop a global pipeline: exchange programs for entrepreneurs, cross-border accelerators, and annual summits that rotate between Israel, Japan, and other hubs. In this way, EXPO becomes not a one-time event but the cornerstone of an enduring network.
5. Creating a legacy of systemic change
Perhaps the most important task is ensuring that EXPO’s Impact endures. The legacy of FemTech Day should be an ecosystem that connects health, gender equity, and sustainability. We envision EXPO 2025 as the spark of a lasting movement — one that transforms conversations into collaborations, and collaborations into healthier women, stronger societies, and a more sustainable planet.
Looking ahead
The Osaka experience proved that when ecosystems collaborate, progress accelerates. Our plans reflect both ambition and pragmatism: launching new cohorts, forging global partnerships, and embedding sustainability into women’s health innovation. Most of all, they reflect our conviction that systemic gaps in women’s health can, and must, be turned into opportunities for innovation, impact, and growth. Women’s health is not a niche. It is the next frontier of medicine, economy, and equity. By joining forces across ecosystems, we can go farther, faster — and together create the legacy of a future where women’s health is finally recognized as the foundation of global health and prosperity.
Cast
Moderator
Michal Shalem
Impact.51
Founder and Co-CEO of Impact.51. Michal is a serial entrepreneur, and international expert in competitive strategy and innovation. She has extensive experience in venture building and developing startup ecosystems, from idea to investment.
She loves creating spaces for systemic change in multi stakeholder arenas. Michal is also the co-founder and CEO of Think Creative, a boutique firm specializing in the world’s most pressing problems. She lectures at several Universities, in MBA programs. She previously served as Jerusalem’s Chief of Staff & led Let's Grow Israel, developing megaplans for the growth engines for Jerusalem & Israel's periphery, together with Professor Porter from the Harvard Business School.
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Yumiko Murakami
MPower Fund
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Speakers
Mor Riklin
Israeli Embassy in Japan
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Michal Lebenthal Anderson
Impact.51
Founder and co-CEO of Impact.51. Michal is a design manager and senior strategic leader. She has extensive experience in legal advisory and policy, alongside implementable strategy, applied design and systems thinking, innovation acceleration and startup ecosystem creation.She loves to unpack complexity, taking challenges from ideation to venture with cross border multidisciplinary teams. Michal is also the co-founder and CEO of Think Creative, a boutique firm specializing in the world’s most pressing problems. She lectures at several Universities, in MBA programs.
She previously served as the Deputy Legal Advisor at the Ministry of Aliya and Integration.
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Stav Tori
Arc Surgical
Experienced medical device professional with 15 years’ experience in developing, manufacturing and clinical testing of medical implants and devices for several biomedical companies such as Carbo-Fix Orthopaedics, NMB Medical and Disc-O-Tech.
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Shlomit Yehudai-Reshef
Nevia Bio
Dr. Shlomit Yehudai-Reshef, PhD, is currently the Director of the Clinical Research Institute at Rambam (CRIR). She completed her PhD in biology in 2003 at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (Haifa, Israel), and subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at Cornell University in New York, USA, from 2003 to 2006.
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Karina Sotnik
World Up StartUp
Karina Sotnik is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, and advisor with a proven track record of fostering entrepreneurial ecosystems through innovative programs that drive economic impact. She is the founder of WorldUpstart Impacts, a non-profit organization committed to supporting governments, academic institutions, and research organizations in designing and implementing commercialization programs that translate innovation into economic growth. The organization collaborates globally to help regions leverage deep-tech and life sciences breakthroughs for sustainable impact.
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Keiko Matsubara
Integrated Center for Women's Health: ICWH
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Tomoko Minagawa
Femtech Community Japan
Organon / Executive Director, Women’s Health Commercial Lead
Femtech Community Japan / Founder & Representative Director
Currently responsible for Organon’s business development and expansion specifically in Women’s Health and Femtech domain.
Founded Femtech Community Japan, an industry association to accelerate Femtech industry through networking with 500 players in Japan and global.
Prior to Organon, engaged in the startup investment in Global Brain, focusing on the domains of Femtech (Women‘s health), Insurtech and a broad range of Deeptech.
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Naoko Kita
Founder & CEO, Joconne Inc.
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Mayra Hurtado
Prelude Health, Femtech Mexico
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Rony Klein
Vayyar Imaging Ltd.
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Anat Kaphan
illumigyn
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Nicky Newfield
Arc Impact
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Gil Granot Mayer
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology
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Daisuke Kurioka
Fermata
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Takuma Abe
NTT Finance
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Levi Shapiro
Founder, mHealth Israel
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The Future of Earth and Biodiversity Week
FemTech Day: Innovation for Women’s Health and Sustainable Futures
Leveraging women’s perspectives and leadership, the program proposes new values and solutions for protecting the planet’s future and biodiversity. It aligns with Expo 2025 “The Future of the Earth and Biodiversity” Theme Week by discussing concrete actions to leave a richer, more diverse planet through FemTech innovations.
-
2025.09.18[Thu]
10:00～12:30
(Venue Open 09:30)
- Theme Weeks Studio
- * Programme times and content are subject to change. Any changes will be announced on this website and via the ticket booking system.
- * The schedule is subject to change depending on the organiser's circumstances.
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The Future of Earth and Biodiversity Week
