Megumi Avigail Yoshitomi
President,
Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture
Japan
Megumi Avigail Yoshitomi is President and a founding member of the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA), where she leads industry–government–academia collaboration to advance responsible development of cellular agriculture—an emerging food biotechnology field with the potential to strengthen sustainable, resilient protein supply chains. After helping establish JACA as a study group in 2019, she incorporated it as a legal entity in 2022 and has since supported consensus-building across the ecosystem, with more than 55 corporate members joining within the association’s first year of formal establishment (as of December 2023).
Yoshitomi began her academic training in physics, completing her B.S. at Waseda University and later conducting graduate-level study in quantum and nuclear physics at the University of Tokyo. She subsequently completed Tama University’s Center for Rule-making Strategy Program, reflecting her long-standing interest in how policy design can enable emerging technologies to scale safely and credibly.
Professionally, she worked at Rothschild & Co. Japan (2019–2023), advising on cross-border M&A for Japan-based large corporates, primarily in the IT and food sectors. She also has early-career experience in blockchain and AI startups.
Her current affiliations include Young Leader at Pacific Forum; Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo’s research programs (including economic security); Administrative Head of the Cellular Agriculture Working Team under Japan’s public–private food-tech partnership council; Advisor to METI’s Working Group for Promoting the Biotech Manufacturing Revolution; and Management Council Member and Adjunct Lecturer (Sustainability Studies) at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. She was named to Forbes Japan 30 Under 30 (Law & Policy) and selected as a Project Management Institute Future 50 honoree.
Yoshitomi began her academic training in physics, completing her B.S. at Waseda University and later conducting graduate-level study in quantum and nuclear physics at the University of Tokyo. She subsequently completed Tama University’s Center for Rule-making Strategy Program, reflecting her long-standing interest in how policy design can enable emerging technologies to scale safely and credibly.
Professionally, she worked at Rothschild & Co. Japan (2019–2023), advising on cross-border M&A for Japan-based large corporates, primarily in the IT and food sectors. She also has early-career experience in blockchain and AI startups.
Her current affiliations include Young Leader at Pacific Forum; Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo’s research programs (including economic security); Administrative Head of the Cellular Agriculture Working Team under Japan’s public–private food-tech partnership council; Advisor to METI’s Working Group for Promoting the Biotech Manufacturing Revolution; and Management Council Member and Adjunct Lecturer (Sustainability Studies) at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. She was named to Forbes Japan 30 Under 30 (Law & Policy) and selected as a Project Management Institute Future 50 honoree.