Author: Ryosuke Ishii
Representative Director and Chief Scientist, ZENTech Inc. Director, Japan Institute of Cognitive Science. Researcher, Musashino University Creating Happiness Incubation. His areas of expertise are organizational behavior (psychological safety) × leadership development (Acceptance and Commitment Training; psychological flexibility) × AI research (MechInterp; mechanistic interpretability). He explores the future of organizations and teams in the AI era, or the Agentic Society.
Born in Kobe, Japan. Graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. MBA, National University of Singapore, Honours (Highest Distinction).
Founded three companies, including ventures launched during his student years.
Develops methods and systems based on human cognitive models in the fields of education and training, as well as the environmental sector.
Has led projects with government agencies, large corporations, international organizations, and other institutions.
In the environmental sector, he was involved from planning and proposal through implementation in the “Everyone’s Medal Project: Made from Urban Mines,” which engaged millions of participants and was covered by media outlets including CNN and BBC.
His major work is Cultivating Team Psychological Safety (JMA Management Center Inc.; September 2020), a book on the theory and practice of building organizations and teams. The book won the Management Category Award at the Business Book Grand Prix selected by readers, and the Excellence Award in the Book Category at the HR Award 2021. It is currently in its 43rd printing, with 210,000 copies sold, including multilingual editions. He supervised 55 Phrases for Creating Psychological Safety Used by the Best Teams (written by Masatsugu Harada; supervised by Ryosuke Ishii; Asuka Shinsha; August 2022). He co-edited Psychological Safety for Nursing: Learning from 25 Cases (edited by Miki Akiyama, Ryosuke Ishii, and Takashi Maeno; Koubundou; April 2025). He co-authored For Those Who Feel Exhausted from Being Pushed Around by Their Worries (Seven & i Publishing; May 2018), an introductory book on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a form of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Professional Experience
– 2007–2010 Education venture, Co-Founder and Partner.
– 2010–2013 Ikigoto Inc., Director, Co-Founder, and Managing Director.
– 2013–2017 Senior Manager, JEPLAN, Inc.
– 2015–2025 Researcher, Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University.
– 2015–Present Co-Founder and Director, Japan Institute of Cognitive Science.
– 2017–2019 Medical and Scientific Staff, Japanese Olympic Committee.
– 2018–2021 REAPRA Venture Advisor Board Member.
– 2018–Present Representative Director and Chief Scientist, ZENTech Inc.
– 2024–2025 Takarazuka Revue Reform Advisory Board.
– 2025–Present Researcher, Musashino University Creating Happiness Incubation.
Selected Awards, Activities, and Publications
– 2009 Awarded the Eiji Muto Excellent Student Award by the Japan Society for Design Engineering for his graduation thesis, “Sheet Metal Assembly Decomposition Along Welded Lines Using Ridge-Valley Curves in 3D Scan Mesh Processing”.
– 2011–Present Advisor, Mirai Sōzōsha, a specified nonprofit corporation (known as Kodomo Mirai Sōzōsha until 2015).
– 2016-10 International patent application filed for a therapeutic tool and therapeutic apparatus for psychiatric disorder (PCT/JP2016/081971).
– 2018-03 Asia Pacific Region Finalist, Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC).
– 2018-05 Published For Those Who Feel Exhausted from Being Pushed Around by Their Worries.
– 2018-11 International patent granted for a therapeutic tool and therapeutic apparatus for psychiatric disorder (THERAPEUTIC TOOL AND THERAPEUTIC APPARATUS FOR PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER; Japan Patent No. 6436469).
– 2018-12 Winner, Singapore-Stanford Biodesign Innovation Class 2018, in medical device innovation.
– 2018-12 Contributed to the ACT Japan Newsletter.
– 2019-09 Winner, Startup Weekend powered by Google in Okinawa (2019-09-20–22).
– 2019-10 Authored articles on “psychological safety” for Nikkei xTREND: Part 1 and Part 2.
– 2019-11 Appeared on J-WAVE radio program TRUME TIME and TIDE.
– 2020-02 Appeared on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting radio program Sports DASH NEXT.
– 2020-05 International patent granted for a therapeutic tool and therapeutic apparatus for psychiatric disorder (Japan Patent No. 6709447).
– 2020-09 Published Cultivating Team Psychological Safety: How Psychological Flexibility Transforms Teams to Overcome Difficulties.
– 2021-01 Appeared on J-WAVE radio program ACROSS THE SKY.
– 2021-01 Featured in Asahi Shimbun Globe+ article, “What Is the Psychological Safety That Is Essential for Successful Remote Work?”.
– 2021-02 Received the Management Category Award at the Business Book Grand Prix selected by readers for Cultivating Team Psychological Safety.
– 2021-04 Featured in Nikkei ARIA article, “What Is Psychological Safety? The Key to Creating a Vibrant Team Without Excessive Deference.”
– 2021-06 Ishii, R. (2021). Creating psychologically safe and effective organizations and teams. Journal of Patient Safety Promotion, (64).
– 2021-08 Ishii, R. (2021). Creating an environment with psychological safety: Psychological flexibility required of leaders. Sentan Kyoiku, 2021-08 issue.
– 2021-09 Received the Excellence Award in the Book Category at the HR Award 2021 for Cultivating Team Psychological Safety.
– 2022-08 Supervised 55 Phrases for Creating Psychological Safety Used by the Best Teams (Asuka Shinsha).
– 2022 Published the paper “National Human Capital Management: The Future Opened by Psychological Safety” in Research Bureau Ronkyu: Journal of the Research Bureau of the House of Representatives.
– 2023-10 Presented at the 26th Annual Conference of the Japanese Association of Administrative Science: “Analysis of the Impact of Psychological Safety on Human Capital” (Ryosuke Ishii, Hiroko Onari, Yuhei Kotani, and Nobuyuki Inamizu).
– 2024-01 Featured in the 2024-01 issue of Public Relations Conference, special feature “Crises Caused by a Lack of Psychological Safety: The Road to Corporate Misconduct.”
– 2024-06 Published “Strategies for Building Psychological Safety in Hospitals, Starting with Executives and Management” in Hospital, Vol. 83 No. 6, Igaku-Shoin.
– 2024 Published “Healthcare Teams with High Psychological Safety and Effectiveness” in the Japanese Journal of Osteoporosis, Vol. 9 No. 3.
– 2024 Featured in Weekly Toyo Keizai special issue “An Introduction to Psychological Safety.”
– 2024 Speaker interview for Quality Forum 2024, “Enhancing Corporate Value through Human Capital Management”, hosted by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers.
– 2024-11 Presented at the 27th Annual Conference of the Japanese Association of Administrative Science: “The Relationship between Psychological Safety and Transfers/Turnover” (Ryosuke Ishii, Yuhei Kotani, Hiroko Onari, and Nobuyuki Inamizu).
– 2025-04 Co-edited Psychological Safety for Nursing: Learning from 25 Cases (Koubundou).
– 2025-11 Presented at the 28th Annual Conference of the Japanese Association of Administrative Science: “The Effects of Psychological Safety on Individual Safety Behavior and Organizational Safety Culture” (Ryosuke Ishii and Yuhei Kotani).
– 2026-04 Submitted the AI research paper “When Controls Collapse: Contaminated Control Pools in Activation Patching.”
Selected Speaking Engagements and Related Activities
(excluding confidential client work)
– 2014 “A Story About Making Money That Makes Adults Smarter”, a project commissioned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (@ Mirai Sōzōsha).
– 2015 Lecture at Waseda University: Fundamentals of Industry-Academia Collaboration and Venture Entrepreneurship.
– 2016 Conducted Mathematical Physics for Working Professionals in the Humanities and Social Sciences: Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.
– 2017 Economics for MBA Students: Chapter 1 (Consumer Theory), Chapter 2 (Producer Theory), and Chapter 3 (Game Theory).
– 2017 Introductory Presentation Course for MBA Students.
– 2017-12 “How to Find Your Passion”, entrepreneurship course at the National University of Singapore (English version).
– 2018-02 “How to Find Your Passion,” co-hosted by Slogan Inc. and REAPRA (Japanese version).
– 2018-07 Guest lecture for University Studies I and Life Design Seminar, Teikyo University.
– 2018-07 Delivered a lecture on career theory for working women, hosted by Keio University Fukuzawa Bunmeijuku.
– 2018-08 Poster Presentation at the 16th Annual World Conference of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.
– 2018-11 Presented “Research on the Japanese Version of Psychological Safety” at the Japanese Society of Positive Psychology and Medicine.
– 2018-12 Invited as Mentor/Speaker at Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp in Malaysia.
– 2019-09 Speaker at People Analytics Tokyo #2, hosted by the People Analytics Association.
– 2019-10 Speaker at Nikkei xTREND EXPO, “Building the Strongest Teams through Zen: How to Enhance Psychological Safety.”
– 2019-12 Speaker at July Tech Festa, “Building Psychologically Safe Teams: What Is Psychological Flexibility as Leadership?”
– 2020-02 Speaker at HR Millennium Lounge, “Psychological Safety.”
– 2020-02 Waseda Neo, “Team Psychological Safety.”
– 2020-08 Speaker at Mitsubishi Research Institute event, “Key Points for Building Resilient Organizations.”
– 2020-09 Speaker at the ACT Japan Online Mini Conference, “Psychologically Flexible Leadership.”
– 2020-10 Conference presentation, “Development of a Team Psychological Safety Scale,” Japanese Association of Administrative Science.
– 2021-07 Conference presentation, “What Effective Team in the Workplace Requires: Developing a Measurement of Team Psychological Safety in the Japanese Workplace,” International Congress of Psychology (ICP).
– 2021-07 Conference presentation, “A Self-help Paper-Based ACT Intervention to Reduce the Risk of Depression,” International Congress of Psychology (ICP).
– 2021-09 Conference presentation, “The Impact of Remote Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic on Trust and Psychological Safety,” Japanese Association of Administrative Science.
– 2022 Sekigaku Lecture Series, Keio Marunouchi City Campus.
– 2022-05 Appeared on Abema TV special feature on “Psychological Safety.”
– 2024-10 Speaker at the Quality Forum hosted by the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers. Dialogue with the Kansai Branch Manager of NTT Communications and an Executive Officer / Head of Culture Reform Office at Kansai Electric Power.
– 2024-06 NTT WEST QUINTBRIDGE, “Minna de Kaeru Seminar”.
– 2025-04 Japan Association of Corporate Directors, “Initiatives in Human Capital Management and Psychological Safety.”
– 2025-09 Mitsubishi Marketing Study Group, “How to Begin Psychological Safety.”
– 2025-09 Innovation Design Lab, 90th session, “The Essence and Practice of Psychological Safety.”
– 2025-10 Japan Auto-Body Industries Association, “Moving Organizations Forward through Authentic Communication.”
– 2025-12 Startup Culture Lab, “What Is a Winning Organization Created by Psychological Safety and D&I?”
– 2026-01 Ministry of Justice Executive Development Program, Executive Candidate Training, “How to Begin Psychological Safety.”
– 2026-04 Speaker at the “Human Resource Development and Organizations” Study Group of the Japan Management Research Institute, “Why People and Organizations Are Needed in the Age of AI Agents: The New Meaning of Psychological Safety.”
– And many other speaking engagements.
Education
– 2005 Entered Natural Sciences I, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo.
– 2007 Advanced to the Intelligent Design Course, Department of Systems Innovation, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Tokyo.
– 2009 Received Bachelor of Engineering degree.
– 2013 Completed Keio University Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial Keio Center for Civilization.
– 2016 Completed MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp, certified.
– 2016 MITx on edX, Microeconomics and Data Analysis for Social Scientists, certified.
– 2016 HarvardX on edX, Data Analysis for Life Sciences, certified.
– 2017 Entered NUS Business School, National University of Singapore; appointed President of the Entrepreneurship Club.
– 2018 Completed Doing Business in China (DBiC), Peking University.
– 2019 Semester Exchange, Stern School of Business, New York University.
– 2019 Completed MBA, National University of Singapore, Honours (Highest Distinction).
Social Media and Related Links
- ORCID: 0000-0002-8382-2055
- X (Twitter): @ryouen
- ZENTech Inc.: zentech.jp
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