MeDiet Japan 2026: Where the Mediterranean Table Meets the World’s Longest-Lived Nation

How do we live a longer and healthier life? Over two days in October at the United Nations University in Tokyo, MeDiet Japan will bring together some of the world’s leading voices in nutrition, lifestyle medicine, geroscience, biotech, genetics, sports and social science to answer that question from every angle. Hosted by the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan, The Longevity Meet is built on a simple but powerful premise: that the two cultures with the most to say about living well and living long — Italy and Japan — have more in common than we think, and a great deal to teach each other.

The 2026 Longevity Meet

Between 16 and 17 October 2026 at the International Conference Hall of the United Nations University in Shibuya, Tokyo, MeDiet Japan will host clinicians, researchers, chefs, coaches, entrepreneurs and the simply curious for a two-day exploration of healthspan — not just how long we live, but how well.

Now in its 4th year, the project takes its name from the Mediterranean diet, but its scope has grown far beyond the plate. Day One is dedicated to science: four panels tracing longevity from the genome to the gut, from sleep to social bonds, from telomeres to the treadmill. Day Two brings that science down to the level of everyday life, with yoga sessions, cooking shows, tastings and clinical seminars that translate research into things you can do on a Tuesday morning.

What makes the format distinctive is the meeting point itself. Okinawa and Sardinia, ikigai and la dolce vita, miso and extra-virgin olive oil, moai and the long lunch — two traditions of eating and belonging that arrived at remarkably similar answers from opposite ends of the world. MeDiet Japan puts them in the same room.

World-Class Speakers

The 2026 edition assembles an international faculty spanning Italy, the United States, Spain, Japan, Australia, Hungary, Taiwan, Singapore, Germany, India and the UK — from Nobel-adjacent laboratory science to the kitchens of Tokyo’s most celebrated vegan restaurant.

Speakers include:

• Dr. Valter D. Longo (Italy/US) — Professor of Gerontology and Biological Science and Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California. His research identified a genetic mutation protecting against cancer, diabetes, cognitive decline, and cardiovascular damage, and led to the fasting-mimicking diet, now under investigation in more than thirty clinical trials. The Longevity Diet has been translated into 26 languages, and TIME named him among the 50 most influential people in healthcare.
• Bradley J. Willcox, MD, MSc (USA/Canada) — Professor and Director of Research in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Hawaii and Co-PI of the Okinawa Centenarian Study. Trained at Toronto, Mayo Clinic, and Harvard, he leads the NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence for Translational Research on Aging and is lead author of a New York Times bestseller on longevity.
• D. Craig Willcox, PhD (Japan) — Co-Principal Investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study, the world’s longest continuously running study of centenarians, and Professor of Public Health Sciences at Okinawa International University. For three decades, he has studied how ikigai, moai, and community integration underpin Okinawa’s exceptional longevity.
• Maria A. Blasco, PhD (Spain) — Head of the Telomeres and Telomerase Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre and its Director from 2011 to 2025. She isolated the first mammalian telomerase gene and generated the first telomerase knockout mouse; her work has shaped our understanding of telomeres in aging, cancer, and stem cell biology.
• Dr. Brian Kennedy (US) — Distinguished Professor at the National University of Singapore, where he chairs the Healthy Longevity Translational Research Programme. Former President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, his work seeks to prove that longevity interventions can extend healthspan in humans.
• Mark P. Mattson, PhD (US) — Former Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the US National Institute on Aging and Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins. One of the world’s most cited neuroscientists, he has illuminated how the brain adapts to fasting and exercise and is the author of The Intermittent Fasting Revolution.
• Dr. Rebecca Robbins (US) — Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Scientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital- researches how the quantity and quality of sleep shape cognitive performance and wellbeing. Co-author of Sleep for Success! and a familiar voice on sleep in the media.
• Héctor García (Spain) — Co-author of the global phenomenon Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, which has sold over seven million copies in 70 languages. A former CERN engineer, he has lived in Japan for more than 22 years and writes on Japanese culture, nature, and wellbeing.
• Prof. Katsuya Iijima (Japan) — Director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Tokyo and one of Japan’s foremost authorities on geriatric medicine, frailty prevention and urban design for super-aged societies. He has advised the Japanese government and helped shape the 2017 “Tokyo Declaration.”
• Mikel Izquierdo (Spain) — Full Professor of Health Sciences at the Public University of Navarra and principal investigator on EU-funded projects on frailty and exercise, including VIVIFRAIL. He collaborates with the WHO on a global exercise programme for frailty and fall prevention, and has 572 peer-reviewed articles to his name.
• Zsolt Radák (Hungary) — Vice-Rector at the Hungarian University of Sport Science, with concurrent professorships at Waseda and Ningbo. His group developed DNAmFitAge, a novel epigenetic clock; his research explores epigenetic adaptation to exercise in older adults.
• Dr. Dai Ayusawa (Japan) — Emeritus Professor at Yokohama City University and Chairman of the Non-Senile Longevity Research Association. Across five decades, he mapped immortalising genes and the molecular mechanisms of cellular ageing; his team has rejuvenated aged cells and now works on Ayurvedic formulations targeting healthy longevity.
• Dr. Yoshimi Benno (Japan) — President of the Benno Institute of Intestinal Flora and Honorary Research Scientist at RIKEN, one of Japan’s leading authorities on the classification and ecology of intestinal bacteria and author of several bestselling books on gut health.
• Takuji Shirasawa, MD, PhD (Japan) — Director of the Shirasawa Anti-Aging Medical Institute, a rare specialist bridging research and clinical practice, with over 30 years as a pathologist developing proprietary diagnostic techniques grounded in fundamental immunology.
• Dr. Satoru Yamada (Japan) — Diabetes Center Chief at Kitasato University Kitasato Institute Hospital and founder of the Food, Pleasure and Health Association, which advanced the moderate carbohydrate-restriction (“locabo”) approach that reshaped Japan’s conversation about eating for long-term health.
• Katsuhiko Suzuki, MD, PhD (Japan) — Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Sport Sciences, Waseda University, researching exercise, immunity and inflammation.
• Dr. Chin-Kun Wang (Taiwan) — UN Goodwill Ambassador and President of the International Society for Precision Health, Distinguished Professor at Chung Shan Medical University. His work spans nutraceuticals, functional foods, and precision nutrition through big data.
• Prof. Shino Sawaoka (Japan) — Professor at the Faculty of Health, Tokai University, specialising in social gerontology and urban sociology. Her research examines the “loose” social connections — beyond acquaintance, short of close friendship — that sustain well-being in later life.
• Dr. Damian Kristof (Australia) — Nutritionist, naturopath and chiropractor with over 20 years of experience, one of the wellness industry’s most sought-after speakers, focusing on food as the key to unlocking optimal health.
• Marcus Pearce (Australia) — Longevity and life design strategist, author of Your Exceptional Life and host of 100 Not Out, one of the world’s longest-running podcasts on ageing well. Each year, he takes small groups to the European Blue Zones.
• Dr. Daniel J. Ruzicka, PhD, MD (Germany/Japan) — Tokyo-based physician-scientist and Medical Affairs executive with 15+ years across cardiac surgery, medtech and pharma leadership. His research on accelerated aging and comorbidity in Japanese HIV patients connects directly to current questions in longevity science.
• Julie Ying Baron (Singapore) — Executive Director and Co-Founder of LiveBeyond, a global longevity advisory firm, and BeyondClock, a biological age platform built on 60+ clinical biomarkers. She views longevity not as wellness but as an economic shift.
• Talu Sehra-Eckhoff (India/UK) — Happiness and wellbeing coach drawing on positive psychology, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the World Happiness Report and Blue Zones research.
• Rio Fuchie (Japan/Hawaii/Costa Rica) — Yoga teacher, entrepreneur and author. A brain aneurysm surgery in his early thirties led him to dedicate his life to yoga; he founded Yoga Studio Flow in Osaka and Yoga with Rio, integrating movement science, neuroscience and contemplative practice.
• Tracey Connell (Australia) — Yoga therapist with the Japan Yoga Therapy Society, based in Japan since 1994, specialising in healthy ageing for women, pain management and sleep improvement.
• Katsumi Kusumoto (Japan) — Executive Chef at Saido, whose refined contemporary vegan Japanese cuisine took first place on HappyCow’s Best Vegan Restaurants Worldwide in 2019. French-trained, he is a Tokyo Metropolitan Tourism Ambassador.
• Hiromi Kim (Japan) — Founder of ASAYUFU Fermentation Studio, certified Fermentation Professional and Global Kimchi Ambassador, sharing the fermentation cultures of both Japan and Korea.
• Hideaki Shibata (Japan) — One of only three IOC-recognised olive oil sensory Panel Leaders in Asia, with over 30 years in olive cultivation, breeding and sensory evaluation, and a JOOP (Japan Olive Oil Prize) juror.
• Dr. Yumi Horie (Japan) — IIN Health Coach and food and lifestyle advisor, a former nurse whose path through internal medicine, obstetrics and a diabetes ward led her to preventive medicine and the power of food.

Day One: The Science of Living Long

The Friday programme unfolds as four two-hour panels in the Thant International Conference Hall, each pairing laboratory science with lived experience.

The morning opens with The Science of Longevity: Brain, Sleep, Genes and Social Bonds, mapping the foundations of a long life across disciplines — how genetics and lifestyle shape exceptional longevity, sleep as an overlooked pillar of aging, the neuroscience of intermittent fasting, and the wisdom of holistic traditions. It is followed by Nutrition, Fasting and the Microbiome: Eating for a Longer Life, which turns to the table and the gut: nutrient-response mechanisms, the intestinal microbiome, nutraceuticals, and clinical nutrition.

The afternoon shifts to the human dimension with Ikigai, Moai and Community: The Art of Living Long — social participation, purpose, and the networks behind Okinawa’s extraordinary longevity — before closing with Movement and the Biology of Ageing, connecting exercise to immunity, inflammation, epigenetic clocks, telomeres and the fight against frailty and sarcopenia. A networking cocktail rounds off the day.

Selected international speakers will join online, and a full-day online pass is available for those attending remotely.

Day Two: Longevity, Applied

Saturday moves from the conference hall into the body and the kitchen, with a series of shorter sessions.

The day begins with yoga for everyday vitality, followed by a seminar bringing together yoga therapy and relational wellbeing — body and human bonds as two sides of the same balance. From Biological Age to Applied Science then brings geroscience out of the laboratory, looking at mTOR, metabolism, and mitochondria, and at how biological age can become a practical clinical tool.

Two cooking shows anchor the afternoon. Japanese Vegan Cuisine: Flavours That Nourish Longevity blends French technique with washoku tradition, while Kimchi and Olive Oil: Fermentation, Good Fats and Longevity stages the encounter at the heart of the whole project — the art of kimchi meeting extra-virgin olive oil, gut bacteria meeting the quality fats of the Mediterranean table, with tastings that bring the science to the plate.

The programme closes with a clinical nutrition seminar on diet versus metabolic disease, and From Lab to Life, a forward-looking session gathering voices from the longevity start-up world on how research becomes something people can use.

Patronage and Partners

MeDiet Japan 2026 is held under the patronage of the Embassy of Italy in Japan and the Embassy of Spain in Japan, and is supported by a group of media partners including Longevity Live, Courrier Japon, Kateigaho, Karakoto, Lyset, Woman’s Labo and Associazione 50&Più.

Get Your Tickets

MeDiet Japan 2026 opens its doors on 16–17 October 2026 at the International Conference Hall of the United Nations University, Shibuya, Tokyo. Both in-person and online attendance options are available, with discounted rates for ICCJ members.

Early Bird: Register by 23:59 JST on Saturday, 25 July 2026 for a 20% discount on the total registration fee. Places are limited.

Full programme and registration: mediet.jp