LUX FORUM TOKYO
Strategic Resilience in Japan’s Next Innovation Wave

From Signals to Strategy: Navigating the Next Wave of Technology Innovation using Lux’s Tech Signal

Technology scouting has long been a core capability for energy and chemical companies, helping organizations identify, evaluate, and act on emerging technologies as they move from early validation toward pilots, partnerships, and deployment. These are the technologies already visible in the commercial landscape: supported by startups, corporate activity, investment signals, technical progress, and market pull. Yet many organizations now face a growing challenge: no single technology domain commands universal attention. AI has overtaken climate tech as the dominant innovation force, and the next wave of energy and chemical innovation is becoming harder to read.

In this presentation, Lux Research will share how Lux’s Tech Signal framework helps organizations navigate this uncertainty by identifying and assessing technologies that are emerging into commercial relevance. Drawing directly from Lux Tech Signal data, the session will highlight technology areas poised to shape the next phase of the energy & chemical transition and show how companies can translate visible market and technology signals into strategic advantage.

Anthony Schiavo
Senior Director and Principal Analyst at Lux Research

Chris Robinson
Senior Director at Lux Research

The Storage Bottleneck: Unlocking Capacity for Japan’s Electrification

Data centers are a major source of load growth, and developers face challenges in powering them due to grid limitations and stringent uptime requirements. As a result, data centers are turning to a variety of on-site power generation and energy storage solutions to improve power reliability and accelerate deployment. However, investors and developers must maintain a strategic approach to powering large commercial loads, like data centers, by evaluating the economics of these technologies and improving reliability.

This presentation explores the role of on-site power generation and energy storage in powering data centers, enhancing grid flexibility, and improving reliability. It will examine the economic cases for various scenarios and evaluate the cost of higher reliability. The analysis will conclude with an outlook on how investment and innovation will shape the landscape for more effective integration of storage and generation.

Chloe Herrera
Senior Analyst at Lux Research

Karthik Subramanian
Analyst at Lux Research

The Refinery at a Crossroads: Survive, Thrive, or Retreat  

For decades, refineries have played a clear role in the energy and chemical system: converting crude oil into fuels, petrochemical feedstocks, and other essential products. That role is now being challenged from multiple directions. Demand for core products declines, newer integrated assets erode competitiveness, crude supply becomes less reliable, energy costs make production uneconomic, and carbon costs undermine the license to operate. For refinery majors, the question is no longer only how to optimize today’s asset base, but how to prepare for multiple futures in which the traditional refinery model comes under structural pressure.

This presentation will introduce a scenario-based framework for evaluating the strategic options available to refinery majors. We will examine how companies can respond across five potential disruptions through three strategic postures: survive, thrive, or retreat. The session will map these postures to enabling technology pathways — from operational efficiency and crude flexibility to biorefining, petrochemicals integration, electrified refining, carbon utilization, and asset repurposing — and highlight how leaders can distinguish no-regret technology options from more situational bets.

Cansu Doganay
Analyst
at Lux Research

Runeel Daliah
Principal Analyst at Lux Research

Finding and Assessing Innovation Providers

This session introduces Lux Lists and Innovator Assessments, two proprietary tools designed to help innovation teams scout technologies faster and with greater confidence in a resource-constrained environment. Attendees will learn how Lux combines AI-enabled screening with deep analyst curation to deliver a comprehensive view of emerging technology landscapes. The presentation will also unpack Lux’s Innovator Assessment methodology, refined over 15 years, and show how consistent, data-backed evaluation can identify winning startups earlier.

Yuki Takashima
Senior Client Experience Manager

Ideathon: Innovating for a Resilient Japan

Japan’s industries are being tested by a convergence of pressures: geopolitical volatility, infrastructure constraints, electrification demand, and energy security concerns. Building resilience is no longer only about securing supply or reducing exposure to shocks; it is about strengthening the systems and value chains that Japan will depend on through the next phase of its transition. Across the startup landscape, a new generation of innovators is emerging with technologies that can help address these challenges, from energy storage and distributed energy management to industrial efficiency, alternative feedstocks, and infrastructure resilience.

In this Lux Ideathon, we will host a live pitch session spotlighting emerging startups that can meaningfully support Japan’s resilience agenda. The session will highlight innovators developing practical solutions for a more flexible power system and a more adaptive energy and chemicals sector. Attendees will have the opportunity to evaluate how these startups could help companies respond to disruption, unlock new sources of flexibility, and build strategic advantage in a more constrained and competitive Japan.

Moderator:

Cansu Doganay
Analyst

Karthik Subramanian
Analyst

Guest Speakers TBA