Our top 6 international tech Meetups in Tokyo
When we organized our very first Meetup in Tokyo, only one large tech-related group existed, Caven’s Dev Japan community. Over the past two years, and with a strong push from passionate people, the tech Meetup scene boomed, now offering several specialized events every single week. All the groups we’re introducing today have now 2,000+ members, and are offering the best-curated tech events in the city. Another proof, if need be, that Tokyo is developing to become a strong international tech hub.
Without further ado, here is our selection of the best tech Meetups in the city!
Machine Learning Tokyo
Launch Date: December 2017
Focused on Machine Learning (as you surely have guessed), this Meetup group provides a very sharp insights on the latest ML trends through curated expert talks and working sessions. They recently had the privilege to welcome big names such as Josh Gordon from GoogleAI team or François Chollet, the creator of Keras, and it’s probably been the fastest growing tech Meetup in Tokyo over the past few months.
“It’s great to see that the machine learning community in Tokyo is growing and very active, not only participating in our workshops but also contributing to MLT OSS projects” — Suzana Ilić
Tokyo Fintech Meetup
Launch Date: June 2017
This group has been the leading force of Fintech, Blockchain and Insurtech topics over the past 2 years, and is carefully curated by a former Goldman Sachs Managing Director, Norbert. They also very recently launched a podcast and maintain a Medium publication. Definitely a group to join if you’re interested in companies disrupting traditional financial institutions.
“Tokyo FinTech aims to contribute to bringing innovation to the financial services sector in Japan. The future is paperless & cashless, driven by open banking & insurance, and the smart application of artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies and user centricity. We want to bring the best of Japanese and international startups to our community, and help navigate this dynamic field.” — Norbert Gehrke
Tokyo Tech Startups
Launch Date: February 2017
The concept is simple: invite 4 to 6 early-stage startups for a pitch, bring some judges, mix in a passionate crowd of freelancers, developers and entrepreneurs, and you get THE monthly startup pitch event you don’t want to miss!
With a regular crowd of 150+ attendees, Tokyo Tech Startups has established itself as the platform to grow and serve Tokyo’s tech and startup ecosystem. The post-pitches networking session is often a who’s who of Tokyo international tech scene, and is your best chance for a deep dive into a growing startup scene.
“We are seasoned entrepreneurs and know the hardship of getting early stage projects off the ground, as well as the value of a good team. Our mission, therefore, has been to provide a place for startups and talent to connect and find meaningful encounters, contributing to the growth of Tokyo’s Startup Ecosystem” — Dimitri Akimaru
Dev Japan
Launch Date: January 2015
A legacy group by Tokyo Meetup’s scene standards, this gathering is for all engineers beginners and advanced to work on projects together, discuss tech-related issues, self-study or just chat around coffee. Not really an “event” per say, organizers secure a cool working space (usually CookPad) for a whole afternoon and let attendees mingle and code.
“A need for tech communities existed in Japan, especially one for expats. The idea was simple, create a space where people could take a break from their normal grind, meet like-minded people, maybe give/receive help, and hopefully get some work done. Our next chapter will have us again addressing a new need. Stay tuned.” — ♕Caven Cade Mitchell
A.I. University by Team AI
Launch Date: January 2017
Created as a casual afterwork gathering to meet like-minded engineers (and hosted at the very hip ØL Taproom in Shibuya, which we also strongly recommend!), it recently shifted towards small study groups and mini-hackathons around specific topics such as medical data or NLP.
As a side note, Team AI is collaborating with companies looking to hire engineers both in Japan and abroad, and is a very good starting point to look for a job in the AI field.
“Our vision is to make AI education as accessible as possible, like 7-eleven. This year we will be doing more webinars and YouTube videos. People in the US and Asia keep asking usabout how to access our study group’s resources. So providing digital assets available to anyone is our main goal for 2019” — Daisuke Ishii
Women Who Code Tokyo
Launch Date: July 2014
While being the oldest group in our list (turning 5 years old in July), the Tokyo Chapter of Women Who Code recently renewed its organizing team and got a more International “second wind”. Though its main mission is to inspire more women to dive into tech, meetups in Tokyo are very much open to any gender, and the team is doing an amazing job at organizing coaching sessions, workshops and group study that regularly gather 50 attendees or more.
“Women Who Code is a global non-profit organization present in more than 60 cities around the world. In Tokyo our group has already passed 1300 members and we have a really nice mix of Japanese and foreigners that reflects exactly our team of organizers. We welcome not only women, but anyone that supports our cause to increase diversity in the tech industry, and we try to cover a variety of topics in our meetups, from hands-on technical workshops to inspiring career talk nights” — Tutti Quintella
Bonus meetups! (for our RoR friends)
As a coding bootcamp teaching Ruby as our primary language, we are extremely lucky to have a few amazing Ruby and Rails communities in Tokyo! Here are our go-to events if you want to meet fellow developers in Japan.
Tokyo Rubyist community
Ran by no other than Doorkeeper’s founder Paul McMahon, this community is proposing monthly technical talks around Ruby and Rails. Recent topics covered testing, RuboCop, Websockets and Docker, and the group successfully bridges Japan and international Ruby and RoR communities.
Tokyo Rails Meetup
Organized at Cookpad, this Meetup is not only famous for its great talks, but also for the amazing catering provided after the event. Leszek Rybicki is your go-to contact to discover more about this high-quality Meetup.
Tokyo Dev Roundtable
Hosted by Tacchi, a boutique web agency founded by Mark McFarlane, this fairly recent Meetup focuses on round tables to share experience, help or get help with problems, and share best practices. Our recommendation for an“up-and-coming” event with talented web engineers.
One more thing…
Tokyo Tech
We are extremely happy to feature a brand new platform built by Shane Reustle, Tokyo Tech, which aims to contribute to the fast-growing tech community in Tokyo by listing events, job openings, and cool workspaces!
And of course… we run our own Le Wagon events! Hoping to welcome some of you to one of our talks and workshops 🚀
