SPORTEC 2025 Partners with ASPN to Promote Asia-Pacific Sports Tech Innovation

Japan

Author: ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator

On July 30, 2025, SPORTEC 2025—Japan’s largest sports and wellness industry exhibition—opened in grand style at Tokyo Big Sight. Backed by Taiwan’s Sports Administration and organized by the Industry Accelerator & Patent Strategy Center at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, the ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator showcased ten hand-picked sports-tech startups from Taiwan, South Korea, and Malaysia. Their innovations spanned AI-driven sports analytics, smart wearables, sports nutrition, and event media technologies, drawing strong interest from international buyers and the press.

Over three days, more than 450 companies in the sports, health, and fitness sectors exhibited, attracting over 40,000 professional visitors. At the opening ceremony, Professor Hank Huang—Vice President for OIAC at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and Executive Director of the ASPN Secretariat—was invited as a Distinguished Guest to cut the ribbon, underscoring SPORTEC’s commitment to Taiwan’s sports-tech innovation and highlighting the collaborative potential between academia and industry across the sports-health value chain.

To deepen cooperation in sports-tech development and event promotion, SPORTEC and the ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator formalized a Memorandum of Understanding during the exhibition. The MOU commits both parties to joint efforts in technology showcases, international exchange platforms, startup promotion, and market expansion. This agreement not only reflects the shared vision and trust between Taiwan and Japan in sports innovation but also marks a new chapter in cross-border collaboration, laying a solid foundation for future Taiwan-Japan partnerships.

The ribbon-cutting was led by Mr. Munehiko Harada, Chairman of TSO International’s Executive Committee and President of the Japan Sports Tourism Alliance (JSTA), accompanied by TSO International CEO Tsuyoshi Sasaki, Mr. Ha Hyun-Joo, President of Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO), and Mr. Surasak Kerdjundtuk, Deputy Director-General of Thailand’s Sports Authority. During his remarks, Mr. Kerdjundtuk announced that SPORTEC would expand to Bangkok in 2026, further cementing the event’s role as a milestone for connecting sports-tech and wellness resources across Asia.

SPORTEC 2025 was more than an exhibition of cutting-edge technology; it served as a dynamic forum uniting policymakers, industry experts, academics, and startup innovators. Its success with international partners has written a new chapter in the globalization of Asia’s sports-health industry.

Through this showcase, Taiwan’s Sports Administration aims—via the ASPN Sports Tech Accelerator—to help outstanding Asia-Pacific startups expand into global markets, forge closer ties with regional sports authorities, industry leaders, and academia, and drive cross-border connectivity and innovation within the sports-tech ecosystem.