Yoichi OSHIMA
Executive Vice President for Global Partnerships and Community Engagement
Yoichi Oshima has been executive vice president for global partnerships and community engagement at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) since April 2026. He is also a professor specializing in innovation management and technology strategy.
An innovation ecosystem architect whose work focuses on the intersection of technology, intellectual property, and innovation policy, Oshima began his career as an engineer at Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. He later joined the Japan Patent Office, where he served as a patent examiner and subsequently as senior appeal examiner in the Trial and Appeal Department. During this period, he was also a visiting researcher at the Multimedia Center of University of Southern California.
Oshima later served as professor at Tohoku University and as senior director at New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), contributing to national initiatives promoting digital innovation. He also was on a national policy committee of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on university intellectual property management in the era of open–close strategies.
His work focuses on how universities can serve as platforms that connect knowledge creation with global innovation ecosystems and translate research into lasting societal impact.
