Beyond the boardroom: Asia’s 10 influential women to watch in 2026

Power in Asia is showing up in places that have nothing to do with a corner office. Fortune’s list of 10 influential women to watch in 2026 spans sport, cuisine, science, public life and culture, and the common thread is simple: these women are no longer breaking through quietly. They’re winning titles, shaping institutions and, in some cases, changing what their countries are known for.

The sports names are especially hard to miss. South Korea’s An Se-young, 24, remains the benchmark in women’s badminton: an Olympic champion, the world’s No. 1 singles player, and now a two-time world champion after her August win. She also took gold at this year’s Asian Games and became the first woman to win back-to-back singles titles there, while dropping only one of her 57 matches so far this year. Philippines tennis player Alex Eala, meanwhile, crossed a different threshold by becoming the first Filipino to win a WTA Tour title in Washington, D.C., then reaching the world’s top 20 and the fourth round at Wimbledon.

There’s serious range outside the arena too. In Seoul, chef and culinary educator Cho Eun-hee is helping move Korean cuisine beyond trend status and into fine dining, leading the kitchen at Michelin-starred Onjium and earning Asia’s Best Female Chef in 2026. In Indonesia, conservationist Farwiza Farhan won the Whitley Gold Award for work protecting the Leuser Ecosystem while also defending the people who live around it. And in Singapore, Chloe Tong used the ACE Team Foundation to push child-focused causes, then launched a campaign against bullying that pulled in names from business, entertainment, sport and government.

The list also says a lot about where Asia’s influence is headed next. Hong Kong’s Lai Ka-ying went from police investigations to space, joining China’s Shenzhou-23 mission and becoming the first person from Hong Kong to travel to space. Malaysia’s Aireen Omar, after two decades with AirAsia and Capital A, is now chair of AI Malaysia, the country’s lead AI agency, helping steer the National AI Action Plan 2026–2030. Taiwan’s Shu Qi is building a second career as a director after her film Girl picked up festival attention from Venice to Busan and beyond. Japan’s Tao Okamoto and Thailand’s Jeeno Thitikul round out the picture: one through film, the other through golf, both proving that Asia’s cultural and sporting stars are increasingly global by default.