Toward Making Fukuoka an Advanced Model City for Health: Sakurajuji Advanced Center for Research and Application (SACRA) to Launch Sept. 10
Sakurajuji Group will reopen the Sakurajuji Advanced Center for Research and Application (SACRA) on the seventh floor of the BiVi Fukuoka commercial facility in Chuo Ward, Fukuoka, on Sept. 10, 2026. This article introduces the center’s initiatives along with information on the opening event to be held the same day.
Sakurajuji Advanced Center for Research and Application (SACRA) as an Innovation Hub
The center opened in April 2018 as the Sakurajuji Advanced Rehabilitation Center and has created new value in rehabilitation through industry-academia and medical-engineering collaboration.
With this renewal, its scope will expand significantly beyond healthcare, nursing care and welfare into lifestyle-related fields including food, sleep, art, housing and AI. The facility will also be renamed the Sakurajuji Advanced Center for Research and Application (SACRA).
Using the diverse business fields of Sakurajuji Group, SACRA will serve as an innovation hub providing integrated support from verification through social implementation. As a new core base for Fukuoka Sakurajuji that seeks to improve people’s quality of life beyond healthcare, nursing care and welfare, it will support companies and startups seeking to expand from Fukuoka across Japan and into global markets.
Turning Ideas Into Social Systems
SACRA will engage directly with the wide range of businesses operated by Sakurajuji Group to identify needs. Through a business development support approach that works backward from needs in the field, the center will provide continuous support from verification through social implementation. The center has three strengths.
- Connecting capabilities The ability to connect previously separated fields and people. SACRA will connect participants across lifestyle-related fields, including healthcare and welfare settings, and contribute to the creation of new businesses.
- Implementation capabilities The ability to turn ideas into social systems by using data obtained through verification and providing integrated support through the system-design stage.
- Expansion capabilities The ability to expand beyond healthcare and welfare into the diverse fields handled by Sakurajuji Group, including food, sleep, art, housing, AI and robotics technology, and deliver value to more people.
Strategy to Make Fukuoka an Advanced Model City for Health by 2040
As populations age worldwide, extending healthy life expectancy has become an important issue. Fukuoka City has a large inflow of younger people and is aging at a relatively gradual pace, but data published by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare indicates that its healthy life expectancy is the shortest in Kyushu. In other words, while the age at death is around the average level, the period during which people face restrictions in daily life, including the need for nursing care, is the longest in Kyushu.
The Goal: WELL-BEING CAPITAL FUKUOKA
In response to this issue, Fukuoka City has established the Fukuoka 100 Project as part of its Fukuoka City Advanced Health City Strategy. The basic strategy aims to extend healthy life expectancy and build sustainable social systems through the use of ICT and IoT and collaboration among industry, academia, government and the public.
The center also strongly identifies with this concept and is undertaking initiatives aimed at extending healthy life expectancy by 2040. Its keyword is “WELL-BEING CAPITAL FUKUOKA.” By addressing the issue across Sakurajuji Group, beyond the conventional boundaries of healthcare and welfare, the initiative aims to create a new well-being city filled with health and happiness and communicate new forms of happiness from Fukuoka to the world.
Opening Event on Sept. 10, 2026
An opening event will be held Sept. 10 to mark the center’s new start. The first part of the event will begin at 1 p.m., followed at 3 p.m. by a networking session attended by local companies, startups, healthcare professionals and members of the media.
At the office entrance on the seventh floor of BiVi Fukuoka, the latest artwork, “Shimmer,” by creative team Hodge, which has created works for international art festivals and Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, will be displayed.
Created by artist Yuki Anai and architect Akinori Hamada, the work features particles of light rising from the floor toward the ceiling and changing from cherry blossom pink to purple, a color representing the future. The installation changes in response to the presence of visitors, creating a distinctive space where people and the surrounding environment, as well as people with one another, can gently resonate.
Date: Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026
Venue: 7th floor, BiVi Fukuoka
Address: 7th Floor, BiVi Fukuoka, 4-1-36 Watanabe-dori, Chuo Ward, Fukuoka 810-0004
Participants: Invited guests, local Fukuoka companies, startups, healthcare professionals, members of the media and others
Capacity: 150 people (planned)
Sakurajuji Advanced Center for Research and Application (SACRA)
Address: 7th Floor, BiVi Fukuoka, 4-1-36 Watanabe-dori, Chuo Ward, Fukuoka 810-0004
TEL: 092-791-1100
Website: https://sj-sacra.jp/
