What if ageing and death were no more?
If a future without ageing or death were to arrive, what kind of society would we want to live in? Tokoyo Futures Foundation will create forums where society as a whole can consider this question, and ways to bring people and funding to research and artistic work. We plan to establish it as a general incorporated foundation in April 2027.
If a future without ageing or death were to arrive, what kind of society would we want to live in? Tokoyo Futures Foundation will create forums where society as a whole can consider this question, and ways to bring people and funding to research and artistic work. We plan to establish it as a general incorporated foundation in April 2027.
Science and technology aimed at overcoming ageing and death have already advanced substantially and will keep advancing. At the same time, intervening in ageing and death provokes deeply rooted mistrust and unease. The futures that lie ahead are still spoken of as if they were science fiction, myth or fable, and there are not yet enough forums for examining them seriously, nor enough funding or people directed toward them. Many people have yet to recognize this challenge. Yet humanity is already facing it.
People differ in how far they wish to overcome ageing and death. The foundation does not start from a conclusion about whether they should or should not be overcome; it engages with each person’s hopes and concerns. The technologies aimed at overcoming ageing and death are not a single thing. They range from medicine that slows ageing and continuing treatment to replacing the body and the idea of transferring the workings of the mind to another medium, and each differs in the conditions for its realization and in its effects on society. On this basis, and on the premise that some people will not use these technologies, some will use them and then, satisfied, choose to die, and some will go on using them, we consider the conditions under which each of these ways of living can be respected.
The foundation will also conduct its own research and, through an award and a fund, support people working on this future. Japanese society faces institutional challenges arising from population ageing, and carries cultures and practices handed down from generation to generation. From Japan, we will consider what to learn from them and what to change, in dialogue with researchers and practitioners abroad as well.
Akihiko Shimoyama (in his studio)
Our founder, Akihiko Shimoyama, has long wished to enjoy life and to experience as much as he can. If he could live forever, there would be no end to the things he would like to try. At the same time, he wants to live each day in such a way that he would be content to die at any time. For Shimoyama, these two wishes do not contradict each other.
Yet when he voices his wish to overcome ageing and death, he is sometimes met with dubious looks. In stories, too, those who refuse death have been portrayed as villains who sacrifice others. But the wish to go on feeling the beauty of the world is, at root, a different thing from trampling on others. In what kind of society could that wish be fulfilled together with others? Tokoyo Futures Foundation began with that question.
8 April is Hanamatsuri, the flower festival celebrating the birth of the Buddha, and it is also Shimoyama’s birthday. Every year on this day, Shimoyama has presented work that rethinks life and death. Following this practice, the foundation will hold its annual presentation of findings every April.
一
To what extent are technologies for overcoming ageing and death now becoming reality? Which approaches might become possible, on what timescales, and with what problems?
To what extent are technologies for overcoming ageing and death now becoming reality? Which approaches might become possible, on what timescales, and with what problems?
Research into the mechanisms of ageing and clinical research on regenerative medicine using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are advancing. In 2026, the number of people aged 100 or older in Japan exceeded 100,000 for the first time. Yet whether healthy lifespans will be greatly extended remains unknown. Ideas such as replacing the entire body or transferring the workings of the mind to another medium are still at the stage of thought experiments.
The foundation does not carry out research and development on the technologies themselves. Through continuing dialogue with researchers in Japan and abroad, we examine which approaches are realistic and how far, on what timescales they could come about, and which technical challenges stand in the way of building institutions, research and business. We then organize our findings, distinguishing what is known from what is assumed.
The figure for people aged 100 or older is based on an announcement by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (September 2026). The Japanese government has also set a research and development goal of realizing, by 2040, medical and care systems that allow people to enjoy life without health concerns until the age of 100 (Cabinet Office, Moonshot Goal 7). These reflect, respectively, the state of society and a research goal; neither indicates that any particular technology will overcome ageing or death.
二
If these technologies are realized, how will people’s ways of living and their views of life and death change? What dissonance and conflict might arise between those who want to overcome ageing and death and those who want to accept them?
If these technologies are realized, how will people’s ways of living and their views of life and death change? What dissonance and conflict might arise between those who want to overcome ageing and death and those who want to accept them?
The closer ageing and death come to being something we can choose, the more each person faces the questions of what to live for, when to age and how to die, and what it means to be born. Over a long life, how will people make new choices about learning, work and family relationships? How people have dealt with death, and the history of thought that has sought to overcome ageing and death, are also part of this question.
Those who want to overcome ageing and death and those who want to accept them do not live in separate places; they share the same families, workplaces and communities. As values drift apart, where in everyday life will dissonance arise, and what conflicts will it turn into? How will the roles that religion and stories have played change? We consider how such changes and conflicts could come about.
三
How do desirable futures diverge from those we want to avoid? Who will use the technologies, and under what institutions could people live together across generations without anyone exploiting others?
How do desirable futures diverge from those we want to avoid? Who will use the technologies, and under what institutions could people live together across generations without anyone exploiting others?
Pensions and health insurance, employment and mandatory retirement, education, inheritance, family and politics are, for the most part, built on the assumption of today’s lifespans. If the life course of learning, working, retiring and then being supported changes, these systems will need to be rebuilt as well. Will new inequalities arise between those who can use the technologies and those who cannot? In a society where many generations live at the same time, how will work, property and the power to make decisions be passed on to the next generation?
At what points in institutions, in the flow of money and in culture does a future in which a few people monopolize the power to live without ageing or death diverge from one in which everyone can choose their own way of living? Paying attention to imbalances in the conditions that shape each person’s choices, such as access to medical care, working lives and responsibilities to family, we consider what form institutions could take so that those who want to overcome ageing and death and those who want to accept them can live together.
Founder
Artist; CEO, Senjin Holdings, Inc. Named to Forbes 30 UNDER 30 JAPAN 2025. He sold the media business he had started while a student at the University of Tokyo, and completed graduate studies at Tokyo University of the Arts. He is currently a doctoral student at the Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM), Keio University. He presents work on the theme of life and death every year, and also exhibited at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.
Head of the preparatory office
CEO and Director, Henyo Shigen Kenkyujo (Institute for Transformation Resources). Collaborating researcher, The University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP). He completed an MSc in Science and Technology in Society at the University of Edinburgh, UK, and researched public participation in science and technology policy through speculative design.
The foundation’s activities are conducted separately from the business of Senjin Holdings. Until the foundation is established, the company handles contracts and administration as the preparatory office, and these are to be transferred to the foundation once it is established.
We aim to run the foundation so that our research conclusions and the content of our presentations are not swayed by the interests of any particular company or funder. To this end, ahead of establishment, we are developing rules built on three pillars: disclosing where our funding comes from, ensuring that funders cannot overturn research conclusions, and making corrections and dissenting views public.
常世
TOKOYO
The land of Tokoyo, which appears in the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters) and the Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), has long been regarded as a place where no one ages and no one dies. Now, as technologies aimed at overcoming ageing and death advance, Tokoyo is becoming not merely a place in myth but one possible future. If a future like Tokoyo were to arrive, what kind of future would it be? Beyond that point, where the path could lead either to futures we hope for or to futures we would rather avoid, what of life, culture and society should we carry on, and what should we change? To consider this question, we named the foundation after the futures of Tokoyo.
The logo shows a boat carrying a golden-yellow (yamabuki) fruit, crossing toward us from the land of Tokoyo. A thin horizon is drawn in the distance, with rippling waves in the foreground. The fruit in the boat is that of the tachibana citrus, which Tajimamori is said to have brought back from the land of Tokoyo. The foundation’s colours are the indigo of the far side of the sea, where the land of Tokoyo was believed to lie, and the yamabuki yellow of that tachibana fruit.
The logo shows a boat carrying a golden-yellow (yamabuki) fruit, crossing toward us from the land of Tokoyo. A thin horizon is drawn in the distance, with rippling waves in the foreground. The fruit in the boat is that of the tachibana citrus, which Tajimamori is said to have brought back from the land of Tokoyo. The foundation’s colours are the indigo of the far side of the sea, where the land of Tokoyo was believed to lie, and the yamabuki yellow of that tachibana fruit.
Logo: ‘Tokoyo no Fune’ (Boat of Tokoyo)