Three television spots begin airing across Japan on September 1, 2026, taking a test that assesses risk for 10 cancers, including pancreatic, to a nationwide consumer audience

TOKYO, September 1, 2026 - Craif Inc., a bio-AI company developing a urine analysis platform for early detection of cancer and other diseases, has signed the actor Ken Watanabe as the face of a new national advertising campaign for miSignal, its urine-based cancer risk testing service. The campaign begins airing across Japan on Tuesday, September 1, 2026.

Watanabe is among the few Japanese actors with an international profile, and in the campaign interview he describes himself as a cancer survivor. Craif's decision to put him at the center of a nationwide consumer campaign marks the company's first push to move miSignal from a clinically routed test into general public awareness in its home market.

The campaign

Three spots make up the campaign. Two are cuts of the same film, "Two Versions of Self," at 30 seconds and 60 seconds. A third, 15-second spot covers doing the test at home.

The concept is the gap between knowing that cancer screening matters and not getting around to it. In "Two Versions of Self," Watanabe plays two versions of himself in an abstract blue space. One asks whether he is actually keeping up with cancer screening. The other answers that he knows, but it is a hassle. The exchange covers how simple urine collection is, that the test assesses risk across 10 cancers, and the technology behind it.

Full versions of the spots and the complete interview with Watanabe are on the campaign site at https://misignal.jp/2026-cm-taidan.

What Ken Watanabe said

Craif has published excerpts from a three-part interview with Watanabe, covering his reaction to the offer, his own experience taking the test, and his view on early detection.

On the offer, Watanabe said he was "120 percent prepared to turn it down." He added that even with medical dramas, he turns down almost all of them "unless there is a big message behind it."

According to Watanabe, what changed his mind was learning that Craif CEO Ryuichi Onose had lost a family member and believed that if he had brought this research out sooner, that person might have been saved.

On taking the test himself, Watanabe said: "Honestly, it was so simple I wondered whether this could really be all there was to it." He added that the results came back by email, and said: "It made me think, so this is what testing looks like in the 21st century."

On why early detection matters, Watanabe said: "It really is the era where one in two people will get it." He went on: "It is of course a frightening disease, but I think we have reached a point where you can let go of the old idea that it is something you do not recover from. If you find the abnormality inside you early and treat it, you can go on and live a different life from there."

What miSignal is

miSignal is a cancer risk testing service built on urine, AI and microRNA. miSignal Scan extracts microRNA from urine and analyzes it with AI to assess risk across 10 cancers, including pancreatic cancer, from Stage 1 onward, without an invasive procedure. Craif operates a miSignal research lab on the Nagoya University campus.

miSignal Scan is not a medical device. It determines risk through statistical calculations based on the information analyzed. It is not a substitute for a medical diagnosis of whether a person has cancer, and a low-risk result does not mean that cancer is absent or that a person will not develop cancer in the future.

About Craif

Craif is a bio-AI company founded in 2018 that develops non-invasive tests for the early detection of cancer. Its platform combines proprietary biomarker detection from urine and other bodily fluids with AI to assess disease risk. Building on one of the world's largest urine datasets, Craif aims to create a urine analysis platform that detects a wide range of diseases early, with cancer as the first step. The company is based in Tokyo and operates a wholly owned laboratory in San Diego, opened in 2026. Learn more at craif.com.

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