SWISH! Startup Camp 2026 Closes In Karuizawa With About 250 Participants
The camp's own numbers put the weight of the event on dialogue and shared time rather than on session attendance, which is the case ON&BOARD is making for regional startup gatherings.
Reporting from 1 source: ASCII.jp.
ON&BOARD Inc. held SWISH! Startup Camp 2026 in Karuizawa Town, Nagano Prefecture, across Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27, 2026, with support from the prefecture and the town. About 250 people attended, including startups, VC and CVC firms, business companies, academia, and government. The event reported 38 VC/CVC partners, 21 sponsor partners, 11 exhibitors, and 30 dialogue speakers. Its theme was "Two days to return to Why."
The two days began with team building instead of an opening session. Participants were split into randomly assigned teams of about five to eight people and asked to learn what kind of person each teammate is before any programming started.
Day one dialogues ran under the theme "The Great Shift." Eight companies presented at SWISH! Mountain with 13 judges, and 11 companies exhibited at SWISH! STARTUP Market. Nagano Prefecture Governor Shuichi Abe and Karuizawa Town Mayor Michio Tsuchiya sent video messages. ON&BOARD Representative Director Masato Shimodaira said the event values spending the same time together over exchanging business cards.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.