SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025, an innovation convention hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Authorities, was held from Could 8 to 10, 2025, at Tokyo Huge Sight. Among the many entrepreneurs and enterprise leaders showcasing their concepts was Magic Shields, a Japanese startup pioneering flooring designed to guard older adults from fall-related fractures.
From racetrack engineering to senior care
The story of Magic Shields begins removed from healthcare. Founder and CEO Shimomura Hiroshi spent a part of his early profession as an engineer at Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd, working with off-road racing groups. In that world, crashes have been anticipated, and engineering options needed to defend riders from severe hurt. “In motocross, riders fall always,” Shimomura says. “You must design the bikes in order that they break in the appropriate method, to guard the rider.”
That have formed how he considered pressure, affect, and security. Years later, as he explored innovations starting from experimental bikes to disaster-response shields, Shimomura discovered himself drawn to a rising disaster in Japanese society: fall-related accidents amongst older adults. Falls, he stresses, are usually not minor accidents however turning factors in individuals’s lives. “Yearly in Japan over 10 million older adults fall, and about 600,000 undergo fractures. If you happen to’re unfortunate, a single fall can have lasting penalties, together with changing into bedridden,” Shimomura stated. “That is one thing many individuals do not realize till it occurs to somebody near them.”
Ninja-Impressed innovation
Impressed by conventional Japanese ingenuity, Shimomura turned to ninja tradition for concepts. The load-distribution precept behind mizugumo—water footwear that allowed ninjas to stroll throughout swamps—helped form the flooring’s structural design. He additionally drew from the hidden options of a ninja yashiki, or ninja home, the place seemingly bizarre interiors hid protecting methods. “We wish properties to really feel shiny and comfy, however when an accident occurs, the ground itself protects you—like a hidden safeguard,” he defined.
This inspiration later carried over into how Magic Shields presents its expertise. At SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025, the corporate staged a ninja-themed efficiency that introduced these hidden rules to life, linking centuries-old ingenuity with fashionable supplies science.
By 2019, he had based Magic Shields with this philosophy at its core. The corporate’s flagship flooring, branded Magic Shields Flooring and Mat in Japan, went on to win recognition from the Good Design Award, Microsoft for Startups, and Japan’s J-Startup program—achievements that underscored how custom and cutting-edge science might mix to sort out one in all society’s most pressing well being challenges.
The results of years of analysis and improvement, the corporate’s flooring system is designed to cushion falls solely for the time being of affect—permitting customers to stroll, roll, or stand freely with out noticing any distinction throughout regular motion underfoot. Scientific analysis carried out with Fujita Well being College and Nagoya College confirmed the expertise’s promise. “Our information point out that compliant mechanical-metamaterial flooring can cut back affect forces to the femur by about 43 % in contrast with carpet tiles with shock-absorbing properties, with out affecting gait or stability,” Shimomura stated.
Right this moment, over 1,000 hospitals, nursing properties, and rehabilitation facilities in Japan and overseas use Magic Shields merchandise. Suggestions has been placing. “Amenities inform us fractures go all the way down to zero,” stated Shimomura. “For nurses, meaning much less pressure. For households, it means peace of thoughts. For directors, it means decrease prices.”
At SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025, the ninja efficiency additionally highlighted the expertise’s capacity to shock and persuade. Crowds gathered on the sales space to observe acrobatics on what appeared like an bizarre ground, then found for themselves that the floor might soak up affect immediately. “At first, individuals did not discover something as a result of the product is actually below their ft,” Shimomura stated with fun. “However as soon as they tried it, they understood instantly. Everybody is aware of somebody who has fallen—it connects instantly.”
Constructing from Tokyo to the world
Though Magic Shields relies in Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, Tokyo is crucial to its development. “This metropolis has one of many highest densities of older adults on this planet,” Shimomura famous. “If we are able to cut back fractures right here, we are able to present the world what is feasible.”
The corporate has already expanded internationally. In North Carolina, a U.S. workplace tailors merchandise to native requirements, whereas distributors in Europe and Asia convey the expertise to services in Spain, Switzerland, and Singapore. “The U.S. is our largest alternative,” Shimomura stated. “Hospitals are bigger, and the monetary advantage of stopping accidents is gigantic.”
Occasions like SusHi Tech Tokyo assist speed up this international outreach. “In comparison with abroad expos, having a stage of this scale in Tokyo saves money and time,” Shimomura defined. “We have met worldwide companions right here who proceed to work with us years later. It reveals the significance of a worldwide platform in Tokyo.”
Wanting towards a data-driven future
Whereas stopping fractures stays their core mission, Magic Shields can be exploring sensor integration to remodel flooring right into a supply of useful information. At SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025, a playful prototype known as the “ninja canine” barked when stepped on, illustrating how sensors embedded within the ground might detect motion.
“Our imaginative and prescient is to construct a brand new layer of bodily AI inside buildings,” Shimomura defined. “Nearly all of life occurs indoors. If we are able to seize motion safely and privately, we are able to assist healthcare, insurance coverage, even city planning.”
Such ambitions replicate a shift from fall prevention to broader well being monitoring and smart-city purposes. For Shimomura, the affect goes past expertise. “Everybody needs to stroll to the lavatory by themselves, even at 90,” he stated. “If we are able to make that doable, we protect dignity in addition to security.”
SusHi Tech Tokyo, quick for Sustainable Excessive Metropolis Tech Tokyo, is a Tokyo-based idea that leverages excessive expertise to assist create a sustainable metropolis, delivering messages at house and overseas showcasing Tokyo’s complete attractiveness, and the challenges of resolving city points.
Interview and writing by Lisa Wallin
Photographs courtesy of Magic Shields
