Joi Ito
Japanese-American activist, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist · United States · On the map · Activists · Born 1966 · age 60
A serial founder who built Internet companies across Japan and led the MIT Media Lab until 2019, when financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein ended that chapter and set off a wave of resignations that renewed in 2026 when millions of Epstein documents went public.
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Joichi Ito built a string of internet ventures in Japan - PSINet Japan, Infoseek Japan, Digital Garage - and became a fixture on the boards of Creative Commons, ICANN, Sony, The New York Times Company, and the MacArthur Foundation. He wrote monthly for Wired and eventually landed at MIT as director of the Media Lab and professor of practice. That run ended abruptly in September 2019 when his financial connections to Jeffrey Epstein surfaced, prompting him to step down from MIT, Harvard, multiple foundations, and the Times board. He moved on to the presidency of Chiba Institute of Technology and a role on the board of Bhutan's Gelephu Mindfulness City. In March 2026, the U.S. Justice Department released millions of Epstein papers and the scrutiny returned: Ito announced he would leave the Digital Society Initiative and Reuters reported he would retire from Digital Garage's executive ranks and board.
