Result Summary: Mr. Sengoku of Microbase Inc. Wins the 'Public-Private Co-creation Award' | Publink Summit for JAPAN 2026 SPRING

On May 16, 2026, Publink Inc. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative: Seiichiro Kakoi / formerly of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) and Project K (Association of Young Professionals Creating a New Kasumigaseki, Representative: Naoto Nishiyama) held the 'Publink Summit for JAPAN 2026 SPRING', one of Japan's largest public-private co-creation conferences.

In the 'Public-Private Co-creation Award', one of the main contents of this conference, 7 presenters selected as finalists from numerous applications gave passionate presentations to key figures from both the public and private sectors filling the venue. As a result of the judges' voting, 'MiraiE.ai' by Microbase Inc., which predicts the future from water usage data, won the championship!

Additionally, the Special Jury Prize (PMI Award) was awarded to SHE Inc. for its project to improve regional wages and eliminate the gender gap through Japan's largest reskilling support for women!

Official Website: https://publink.site/publink-summit/

Winner: Hiroaki Sengoku, Representative Director, Microbase Inc. Looking into water pipes reveals the 'Mirai' (Future) of social issues! - Future Prediction (Water Supply Population / Vacant Houses) -

They develop and operate a system that analyzes 'water usage data' held by municipalities using AI to highly accurately predict 'vacant house generation' and 'water supply population' up to 2050 on a per-building basis. Through co-creation with Toyota City, it is Japan's first initiative to efficiently solve regional issues based on data, such as early enlightenment for potential vacant houses and identifying leak locations when water pipes freeze and break.

Furthermore, by sharing future water supply population predictions across all departments and openly soliciting policy ideas, they have built a foundation for cross-organizational data utilization.

They have realized a highly reproducible public-private co-creation model aimed at 'EBPM implementation' that supports municipal decision-making in a depopulating society, such as the reorganization of public facilities and infrastructure maintenance.

Representative Director, Microbase Inc. Hiroaki Sengoku Acquired a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo in 2014. Created a business plan utilizing location data and received the Excellence Award in the Technology Category at the 7th Campus Venture Grand Prix. Graduated from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University in 2009. Received the SFC AWARD. Guest Associate Professor at Reitaku University AI Business Research Center. Guest Researcher at the Center for Spatial Information Science, The University of Tokyo. SimCity and map data nerd.

PMI Award: Mari Matsuo, Head of CEO Office, SHE Inc. (SHElikes) Project to improve regional wages and eliminate the gender gap through Japan's largest reskilling support for women

Based on the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's 'Career Up Support Project through Reskilling', SHE, which has a community of over 250,000 people cumulatively, implements fully online integrated support from skill acquisition in over 50 occupations including AI/DX to job changes for women in all 47 prefectures (approx. 10,000 annually). Especially for women living in regional areas who were difficult to reach with reskilling support, by combining private educational know-how with national subsidies, they have achieved income improvement and productivity expansion unbound by residential location on the largest scale in Japan.

Head of CEO Office, SHE Inc. (SHElikes) Mari Matsuo After engaging in IT/business planning at Recruit Co., Ltd., she joined SHE Inc. mid-career as the manager of new business. After launching and overseeing the money school for women 'SHEmoney', she assumed her current position in April 2025. Currently, as the Head of the CEO Office, she engages in business development across public and private boundaries, such as driving management strategies, lobbying central government ministers, and promoting municipal collaboration projects. Mother of one.

List of Finalists (in order of appearance)

Masato Nakakarumai, Chief and Head of GX Industry Promotion Office, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Division, Industry and Construction Department, Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture Entrepreneurship Citizenship Project / Sparta Camp / Hachimantai Meditech Valley - A public-private co-creation model generating challengers and new businesses from depopulated areas -

In Hachimantai City, since 2015, they have continued 'Sparta Camp', an intensive short-term entrepreneur and development human resources training program that is the pillar of the 'Entrepreneurship Citizenship Project'. By linking it with the 'Hachimantai Meditech Valley' in recent years, they have built a public-private co-creation mechanism to seamlessly advance everything from human resources training to prototyping, demonstration, commercialization, and dissemination. With the administration handling issue sorting, stakeholder coordination, provision of demonstration fields, and credit supplementation, and the private sector handling technology implementation and business development, a cycle is born where the trained personnel nurture the next challengers, not ending as a one-off measure. It is being deployed as a regional model that continuously generates challengers and new businesses from a depopulated area with a population of about 20,000.

Chief and Head of GX Industry Promotion Office, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Division, Industry and Construction Department, Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture Masato Nakakarumai Chief, Commerce, Industry and Tourism Division, Industry and Construction Department, Hachimantai City Hall, Iwate Prefecture