Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Diet Member Yoko Kamikawa Visit Kyoto Fusioneering’s Kyoto Research Center  

Parliamentary delegation tours UNITY-1, integrated breeding blanket and thermal cycle test facility in Kyoto, and discusses the industrialization of fusion energy 

TOKYO, ​September 25​, 2026 — Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd. (KF) welcomed a delegation to its Kyoto Research Center on September 9, 2026, from the Liberal Democratic Party’s Parliamentary League for the Promotion of Fusion Energy — a Diet members’ group that has advocated for Japan’s fusion program since its founding in 1981 — comprising League Advisor and former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, League Chair and House of Representatives member Yoko Kamikawa, and other League members. 

The delegation inspected UNITY-1, KF’s integrated breeding blanket and thermal cycle test facility, and discussed the progress of the KF’s development program. 

Background of the Visit 

Fusion energy is a growth industry, with some estimates putting the global market at approximately JPY 120 trillion by 2040 (Cabinet Office, Science, Technology and Innovation Promotion Secretariat, materials from Task Force on Basic Approaches for Social Implementation of Fusion Energy​​, January 2026), and it is positioned as one of the key pillars of Japan’s national strategy. The League visited the Kyoto Research Center to see operating hardware rather than design studies. 

About the Integrated Breeding Blanket and Thermal Cycle Test Facility, UNITY-1 

UNITY-1 is an integrated test facility built at the Kyoto Research Center (Kumiyama, Kyoto) to demonstrate the integrated fusion breeding blanket and thermal cycle system — an indispensable system for realizing commercial fusion power. In a fusion power plant, high-energy neutrons from the plasma pass into a breeding blanket surrounding it. The blanket holds a lithium-bearing breeder material — lead-lithium, in UNITY-1’s case — which absorbs those neutrons to breed tritium fuel and is heated in the process. That heat is then carried out of the blanket and used downstream, including for electricity generation. 

Its key feature is that, without triggering an actual fusion reaction or generating neutrons, it reproduces the temperatures, magnetic fields and thermal loads representative of what a blanket will face in a power plant, and links heat extraction, power conversion and hydrogen isotope extraction into a single test loop. Testing is performed on a blanket mockup rather than a full-size module, and deuterium is used as a stable proxy for tritium. 

KF develops the infrastructure indispensable to realizing fusion energy — including plasma heating, tritium fuel cycle, and tritium-breeding blanket and thermal cycle systems — and takes an integrated approach to fusion energy engineering and commercialization. Within this, UNITY-1 serves as the KF’s demonstration site for the fusion blanket and thermal cycle system, and the Kyoto Research Center functions as the core hub of KF’s global technology development. 

Comments 

Fumio Kishida, Member, House of Representatives; Advisor, LDP Parliamentary League for the Promotion of Fusion Energy

“To realize fusion energy, we must mobilize every available resource on an all-Japan basis — research institutions, universities, startups, and industry alike. Among them, Kyoto Fusioneering was the earliest-founded fusion energy startup in Japan, and being able to see firsthand the efforts and progress the company has accumulated to date was truly meaningful. I was also struck by the speed and risk-taking approach the company has brought to its business and development as a private-sector startup, and I strongly felt that it is fulfilling a role distinct from that of research institutions and industry.” 

Yoko Kamikawa, Member, House of Representatives; Chair, LDP Parliamentary League for the Promotion of Fusion Energy

“For many years, under the goal of ‘Bringing the Sun Down to Earth,’ our League has supported national projects such as the ITER project and JT-60SA. As international competition intensifies, we believe it is important to support all-Japan efforts that include not only universities and research institutions but also startups and industry. Today, I visited Kyoto Fusioneering’s Kyoto Research Center, heard about the current state of its research and development and its strategy for capturing the global market, and came away with a renewed sense of the ambitious efforts of a private-sector company taking on the challenge of realizing fusion energy. The League will also reflect the results of our deliberations in discussions on budget, human resource development, regulatory development and other matters within the ruling party and the government, firmly support the efforts of the relevant ministries and agencies, and continue to champion the challenges being taken up by all those in Japan involved in this field.” 

 
Satoshi Konishi, Representative Director, Chairman and CEO, Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd.

“It is highly significant that a delegation engaged in Japan’s national fusion energy strategy was able to see UNITY-1 — the world’s first integrated blanket and power generation test facility — actually in operation. What we are working on is not a design still at the conceptual stage, but real equipment development that is steadily moving forward. Building on the technological achievements realized through ITER and JT-60SA, we are committed to bringing fusion energy closer to practical application. Through our consortium with our group company, Starlight Engine, we will demonstrate the power generation capabilities of UNITY-1 using the “FAST” tokamak device, which has been conditionally selected under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s (METI) milestone-based support program to accelerate fusion power demonstration and commercialization. Incorporating the valuable insights shared today, we will further accelerate our development efforts toward the earliest possible deployment of fusion energy.” 

Kiyoshi Seko, Representative Director, President and COO, Kyoto Fusioneering Ltd.

“Kyoto Fusioneering is developing infrastructure for fusion energy that is both unique in the world and indispensable, and we are turning fusion into an industry by bringing excellent technology and supply chain to the world. We are delighted that the League delegation — led by Advisor Kishida and Chair Kamikawa — was able to see our technology development site, our work with partners overseas, and the potential of supply chain and manufacturing capabilities. We will continue to do everything we can to bring about the early realization and industrialization of fusion energy.”