In October 2018, Rakuten Blockchain Lab's Marty Bell travelled from Belfast to Tokyo to take part in the twelfth edition of Rakuten's annual tech showcase. The theme of this year's conference was "Rakuten Tech x Startup Tech." A record 2,000-plus attendees gathered at the main venue of Rakuten Crimson House in Tokyo, while there were also more satellite venues than ever before: Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka in Japan, and San Mateo, Singapore, Shanghai and Dalian overseas.
Marty featured in the Blockchain panel discussion alongside the founders of Coin Sciences and FineTeq and Rakuten's Blockchain Technology Dept GM.