The MaOI Institute, the Marine Open Innovation Institute, is a non-profit organization that is fully supported by the Shizuoka Prefectural Government and partially supported by the Japanese central Government, with the aim of promoting a “blue economy” with sustainable developments in Japan as well as overseas.
Although it was founded just 5 years ago, it is growing acutely in both domestic and international activities. In particular, we emphasize the quadruple-helix-type interactions, “academia, governments, industries, and finance” in the blue economy developments. For example, we at MaOI have had more than 200 companies as supporters of MaOI.
In July 2024, we organized the 2nd international round table discussion meeting and the MaOI-EXPO at Shizuoka City near Suruga Bay in the Pacific Ocean side of Japan. We have collected a total of 2,600 participants for the two-day event, with exhibition booths of about 50 companies. In the international round table discussion meeting, 8 different countries including Japan participated in to discuss the blue economy developments.
It is also scheduled to have the 3rd international round table discussion and MaOI-EXPO in July 2025, with ample enlargement in size and quality. The digitalized innovation in the Ocean is one of the most important themes in the MaOI activities in domestic and international collaboration, including the space agencies. We call it the “Smart Ocean,” which will be key to the success of the blue economy in sustainable developments.
