MIT Media Lab's** own staff coordinated Jeffrey Epstein's Japan visa application in April 2015 — and eight seized emails show exactly how the operation worked, with **Chiaki Hayashi** of **Loftwork Inc.** serving as the legal guarantor at the end of a chain that started with Joi Ito.
Mika Tanaka Nakano, identified in the documents as "Assistant to Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab," functioned as the logistics hub for Epstein's planned May 22-30, 2015 visit. The emails establish that Joi Ito's own office offered to source a Japanese host company from his portfolio of founded or invested businesses — before ultimately settling on Hayashi's Loftwork as the guarantor.
Get the full documents delivered to your inbox — subscribe to the InvArchives newsletter.
"Joi Can Ask One of Japanese Companies"
On April 14, 2015, Tanaka Nakano sent a detailed email to Epstein's team outlining Japanese visa requirements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In a line that documents Ito's role directly, she wrote: "Is there any company/organization to host Jeffrey and his assistants' visit to Japan? If not, Joi can ask one of Japanese companies, he has founded or invested, to arrange the following."
The document — vol00009-efta00349575-pdf — shows Tanaka Nakano attached official Japanese government guidance on what was needed: invitation letters, schedules of stay, and corporate guarantee letters. On the same day, Epstein responded to a separate email with a single word — "hyatt" — confirming his hotel choice and the May 22-30 dates. (Document vol00009-efta00349577-pdf)
MIT Staff Runs the Paperwork
Over the following week, Tanaka Nakano — signing her emails "Assistant to Joi Ito, Director, MIT Media Lab" — became the day-to-day coordinator of the visa application process from Tokyo.
On April 20, 2015, she confirmed she would obtain signatures from "CEO of Loftwork on the letters tomorrow." (Document vol00010-efta02080247-pdf) That CEO was Chiaki Hayashi, whose role and corporate guarantee were covered in related documents in the archive.
The same day, Lesley Groff, Epstein's longtime personal assistant, disclosed the commercial flight bookings were a cover: "I have booked the girls on a commercial flight in order to facilitate the Japanese Visas...they will actually be flying on Jeffrey's private plane."
Groff wrote this in an email through Joi Ito's address to Tanaka Nakano, adding that the airline itinerary was being shown "in order to obtain the visas." (Document vol00010-efta02080316-pdf)
Groff added in the same email: "I did remind Jeffrey this morning that Joi needs to also arrange his schedule and asked if Jeffrey knew his exact dates for Japan." Darren Indyke — Epstein's personal attorney and later executor of his $577 million estate — was copied on the itinerary correspondence.
Loftwork Signs the Guarantee
By April 21, Hayashi had signed Letters of Guarantee as Co-founder and Representative Director of Loftwork Inc., agreeing to cover expenses for Epstein and his assistants during the Japan stay. The address on the guarantee documents: Dogenzaka Pia 9F, 1-22-7, Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo — Loftwork's headquarters. (Document vol00009-efta01205859-pdf)
Tanaka Nakano, named as the contact person on the same guarantee letters, provided her direct telephone number: 080-1300-7497. The documents list her as affiliated with Loftwork's Global Division — a role she held in parallel to her MIT Media Lab position as Joi Ito's assistant.
VisaHq Rejection and Indyke Steps In
The Japan visa operation ran into a serious obstacle on April 30, 2015. Carlos Esteban Condat, a specialist at the VisaHq agency hired to process the applications, wrote to Karyna Shuliak — Epstein's Ukrainian assistant who later appeared as a beneficiary of his $120 million offshore trust structure — with bad news from the consulate.
The guarantee letters were insufficient. Condat laid out two options: a new letter from Loftwork explicitly covering all expenses, or a reissued letter from Southern Trust Company — Epstein's Virgin Islands entity — guaranteeing costs directly. (Document vol00009-efta00348464-pdf)
Complicating matters: one assistant's name on the flight booking did not match her passport. Japan was entering a public holiday. And Mika Tanaka was out of the office.
Indyke's response arrived the same day: "Already working on it. Will have the letters to you shortly." His law firm, Darren K. Indyke PLLC at 575 Lexington Avenue, New York, took over the remediation paperwork. (Document vol00009-efta00348125-pdf)
A Relationship That Predated the Japan Trip
The MIT Media Lab's operational involvement in Epstein's travel arrangements was not new. In April 2014, Epstein had emailed Joi Ito directly about a co-investment in the technology company SmartThings, telling Ito to "try to meet outside of the media lab." (Document vol00010-efta01925355-pdf)
Ito resigned as MIT Media Lab director in September 2019 following reporting that documented the Lab's financial relationship with Epstein. The eight emails in the federal seizure archive show that relationship extended to coordinating Epstein's international travel logistics — with Joi Ito's own assistant serving as the operational link between Loftwork's Tokyo office and Epstein's New York team.
The documents establish that when Chiaki Hayashi signed the Letters of Guarantee for Epstein's Japan visa, she was the endpoint of a coordination chain that ran from Lesley Groff in New York, through Joi Ito's MIT Media Lab office in Cambridge, to Loftwork's headquarters in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo.
All individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
Share this investigation
This analysis references publicly released documents from the Epstein case archive. All individuals mentioned are presumed innocent unless convicted in a court of law. Language such as “documents indicate” reflects what appears in source materials, not conclusions of guilt. Readers are encouraged to review the cited source documents directly.