He wants to go into space, not in a rocket, but in an elevator. This weekend he's organising the first Japan Space Elevator Conference, with speakers from all over the world.
Mr Ohno, president of the Japan Space Elevator Association (JSEA), has brought a model with him to show the concept of the space elevator.
"You have to make a belt three metres wide and half a centimetre thick," he explains.
"This belt has to stretch 100,000 kilometres into space. A laser powered elevator then will then climb up along the belt."
He talks about it as if it's the most natural thing in the world. And the elevator weighs 20 tons.
Cheaper and safer
Mr Ohno is a member of a rapidly growing worldwide group of scientists, engineers and space enthusiasts who are convinced the time is ripe for this new form of space travel. They say the space elevator would be cheaper and much safer than a rocket. Cheaper because rockets need many times their own weight in fuel. And safer because their terrific speed makes them vulnerable to damage.
The space elevator is possible because the earth rotates. The centrifugal force this produces counteracts gravity.
It's the same effect as when you turn on your own axis holding a piece of rope. If you go fast enough, the rope floats in the air. The same thing will happen to the belt for the lift, so it will stay upright.
The idea for a space elevator is taken so seriously that in 2005 a competition was launched to develop one. Until 2010, NASA is offering a prize of four million dollars to the winner.
Nevertheless, a conference on the idea is still going ahead in Japan.
"Many Japanese are aware of the space elevator concept, because in the 1980s it was used in a hugely popular anime (Japanese cartoon animation)," Mr Ohno explains.
"Japan also has a lot of the technology and equipment needed to make the space elevator a reality."
Strong but light
The biggest problem is making the belt. It needs a material 100 times stronger than steel, but much lighter. "If carbon nanotubes can be made strong and cheaply enough, the lift will be possible," says Mr Ohno.
The concept of a space elevator comes from the Russian engineer Yuri Artsutanov, who was inspired by an original idea dating from 1895, conceived by the scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, also a Russian.
In 1960 Artsutanov wrote an article entitled To the cosmos in an electric train for the newspaper Pravda.
Science fiction writer, inventor and developed the idea in his book The Fountains of Paradise (1979) and in a paper entitled The Space Elevator: 'Thought Experiment' or Key to the Universe?
Carbon nanotubes can be many times longer than would normally be possible with such a tiny diameter. "Experts think a speed of 300 kilometres an hour is needed," says Mr Ohno. "But at that speed it will take five days to travel into space, so I think at first the space elevator will mainly be used for cargo."
Stronger and cheaper carbon nanotubes and a faster lift are only two of the problems that need to be solved. Scientists also face a range of other challenges. It would be relatively simple to guide aircraft around the space lift, but storms are a different matter.
"The material conducts electricity, so thunder storms could be a big problem."
Also a number of satellites would have to be destroyed, otherwise they would crash into the elevator.
Exclusive rights
"But we're more concerned about politics than about the construction problems. We believe it should be an international effort, but there's a big chance that an individual country will claim all the rights."
"Countries that have already invested a fortune in rocket technology are obviously not keen on technology that will slash prices in the space travel market and make their investments practically worthless."
This is probably one of the reasons the Japanese space agency JAXA isn't taking part in the space elevator conference.
"JAXA scientists will be attending, but unofficially and in secret," says Mr Ohno.
Kjeld Duits
Radio Netherlands
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It's his big dream: the space elevator. In a lunchroom in the Japanese capital Tokyo, businessman Shuichi Ohno talks animatedly about his vision of the future.
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