Industrial Research Unit · Straits Institute for Applied AI
Applied AI in Japan
Japan's AI enters through the state and the large employer — a generative tool for 180,000 officials, a whole NEC department staffed by agents — under an AI Basic Plan adopted at the end of 2025.
Your essential monthly update on Applied AI, with Japan specially tracked.
Services 71.4% · Industry 26.8% · Agriculture 1% of gross value added — World Bank, 2024
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SMBC runs a generative-AI voice operator on its Olive line, and Tokio Marine has put AI across its customer and agency contact centres.
DeploymentFinance & InsuranceJapan20 Oct 2026
Japan Exchange Group puts Hitachi's generative AI on trading-system monitoring
Japan Exchange Group — Japan Exchange Group (JPX) leans on Hitachi's JP1 Cloud Service assistant to guide operators supervising over 40 trading platforms, bringing AI in stock exchange operations live. On each alarm, the software proposes which playbook to follow, replacing veterans' instinct. Trials on about 1,600 scenarios showed this market-monitoring AI choosing correctly more than 97% of the time.
Yucho Bank deploys UPWARD AI agent for corporate sales conversation summaries
Yucho Bank — Yucho Bank (Japan Post Bank) gives its corporate sales division UPWARD, an AI agent producing AI sales meeting summaries through voice analysis of in-person visits. UPWARD spots visits via smartphone location and files uniform call reports in the CRM system. Yucho Bank credits the AI-generated notes with lighter admin, better proposals.
MUFG Bank deploys Omakase AI customer-facing AI agent for digital account openings
MUFG Bank — Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Bank deployed Omakase AI, a ZEALS multimodal AI agent platform, for AI customer service in banking, first fielding account opening campaign queries by natural voice or text. Hallucination detection and range control keep this bank customer support AI within financial institution security and accuracy standards.
MS and AD deploys AI to detect forged and AI-generated images in claims documents
MS and AD Insurance Group — AI image verification in insurance claims now runs at Mitsui Sumitomo Marine and Aioi Nissay Dowa, under MS&AD Insurance Group, catching fabricated or altered damage photos and receipts. Tech Union helped build it, marking Japan's first such AI fraud detection for claims documents among non-life insurers, curbing increasingly varied fraud.
Aomori Michinoku Bank deploys neoAI Chat AI agent platform across all branches
Aomori Michinoku Bank — Every branch of Aomori Michinoku Bank now runs neoAI Chat, five months after a March pilot began. Staff use this AI agent platform for banking tasks: drafting, summarising, checking internal rules, and gathering information. The rollout reflects momentum behind agentic AI in financial institutions across Japan.
Zurich Insurance Japan introduces multi-AI-agent underwriting system New Business 2.0
Zurich Insurance Japan — Zurich Insurance Japan runs 12 AI agents at once for new-contract review — medical, environmental, moral risk and fraud checks — marking an early case of AI underwriting insurance locally. New Business 2.0 targets 60 percent automatic assessment and a 77 percent cut to manual processing time. Zurich calls this AI-driven underwriting deployment the first multi-agent rollout across a full underwriting workflow at a Japanese life insurer.
Japan's FSA and BOJ issue short-term measures on frontier AI threats to financial institutions
Financial Services Agency — Japan's Financial Services Agency and the Bank of Japan jointly ordered banks to tackle AI cybersecurity risks facing financial institutions head-on. Fast-moving frontier AI capabilities, regulators warn, are fuelling attacks on the sector and demand urgent AI risk management now.
Mizuho FG rolls out Dify Enterprise AI development platform across all departments
Mizuho Financial Group — Mizuho Financial Group lets non-engineers build AI agents on a new Dify Enterprise AI agent development platform, phased in from May 2026. A corporate banking trial cut task time 41.8 percent on average, 52.2 percent for junior staff; comment generation accuracy in AI in corporate banking hit just 6.3 out of 10.
Gunma Bank launches FutureBANK AI HUB for AI-assisted lending operations
Gunma Bank — Gunma Bank's FutureBANK AI HUB, a generative AI agent platform built with Future Architect, guides staff through lending operations using internal manuals and historical loan records. This is AI-assisted lending in practice: within a fortnight of launch, roughly 60 percent of eligible employees had tried the tool, logging close to 4000 uses. The uptake points to strong early adoption of AI in loan processing at the bank.
SMBC and Sakana AI launch multi-agent proposal auto-generation app
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group — Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Sakana AI built an AI proposal generation tool for corporate banking at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank. Agents split the work: gathering facts, analysing, framing hypotheses, verifying results, in one wholesale proposal drafting pipeline. SMBC's figures show weeks cut to minutes or hours.
Daido Life deploys generative AI for medical judgment in benefit claims assessment
Daido Life Insurance — Generative AI in benefit claims assessment reaches full deployment at Daido Life Insurance this April. Its Benefit Payment Assessment AI, built on RAG-based retrieval, handles medical judgment on hospitalisation payouts, replacing in-house doctor review in around 70 percent of cases and saving roughly 1800 working hours yearly. The insurer calls this AI-driven medical judgment for insurance claims a sector first.
Joyo Bank launches local LLM AI agent JOYO AI AGENT for in-bank use
Joyo Bank — Joyo Bank's banking AI deployment, JOYO AI AGENT, runs on a closed cloud network cut off from the internet, offering translation and document masking. This AI agent for banks also trials loan approval review and automatic business document drafting. Athena Technologies co-developed it, building on a proof of concept from July 2025.
Tokio Marine puts AI across its whole contact centre workflow
Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance — Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance put AI contact centre tools across its customer and agency lines on a PKSHA Technology and CTC platform. PKSHA VoiceAgent captures callers' identity and purpose from natural speech before routing, Speech Insight provides live transcription and suggested answers for operators, and Knowledge Stream drafts knowledge-base entries afterwards. It expects up to about 30 per cent shorter handling on customer calls and about 10 per cent on agency calls, freeing operators for specialist work.
Sumitomo SBI Net Bank starts beta test of NEOBANK ai banking AI agent
Sumitomo SBI Net Bank — Sumitomo SBI Net Bank is beta testing NEOBANK ai, an AI banking agent built on generative UI. The assistant reads users' plain-language goals and renders screens live for fund transfers, procedure navigation and debit card spending analysis. The lender calls itself Japan's first bank with an AI agent for banking that builds interfaces per request.
SMBC opens a generative-AI voice operator on its Olive line
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation — Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation started SMBC AI Operator, a generative AI call centre line with technology from the Japan Research Institute and IBM Japan, on 25 February 2026. 24/7 it takes free-speech calls on the Olive personal finance product's application steps, campaigns, annual fees and service content, answering from bank reference data and passing callers to a human operator for identity checks during call-centre hours. The voice operator adapts phrasing and tone to each caller's way of speaking.
Evidence of adoptionFinance & InsuranceJapan30 Sep 2025
Bank of Japan survey finds half of financial institutions already using generative AI
Bank of Japan — About 50% of financial institutions surveyed by the Bank of Japan already deploy generative AI in banking, its FY2025 poll of 153 firms found. Counting pilots pushes that share past 70%, and including firms merely weighing adoption drives it beyond 90%. Officials cited swift AI adoption in financial institutions nationwide, yet flagged weak usage monitoring and third-party risk oversight.
SBI Insurance deploys generative AI voice operator at call centre
SBI Insurance (SBI Ikikai Shoutanki) — Callers to Miyazaki Business Centre are now greeted by an AI voice bot insurance call centre system built for SBI Group's insurer SBI Ikikai Shoutanki Hoken, resolving over 70% of inquiries unaided. Mobirus's agent-type voice engine powers this AI customer service in insurance, trimming handoffs to staff by 63%.
MUFG Trust Bank rolls out generative AI assistant to retail operations
MUFG Trust Bank — Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Bank now runs ASSIST, a Kasanae-built generative AI assistant retail banking tool, across roughly 2,000 staff in Japan who consult it daily on manuals, rules and procedures. The system shortens time otherwise lost searching for answers and handling queries. This AI staff support tool for banking operations is projected to yield savings near six thousand five hundred working hours a year.
SMBC deploys AI CEO chatbot for employee consultation
SMBC (Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) — An AI CEO chatbot answering as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group's Tatsuru Nakajima now handles staff questions, drawing on his past remarks via OpenAI's GPT-4o and RAG to mimic his reasoning as an AI-powered executive assistant. A Microsoft-based avatar version is still being built. SMBC calls it a route to normalising generative AI among staff.
MUFG Bank deploys AI to predict fraud and strengthen compliance
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank (MUFG) — Mitsubishi UFJ Bank now runs FRONTEO's "KIBIT Eye" for AI fraud detection in banking, spotting cartel links and early misconduct hidden across huge text archives. Automated screening cuts human bias, letting compliance staff work from thorough, uniform results. The move backs MUFG's wider AI compliance monitoring drive for customer safety and openness.
77 Bank deploys AI mortgage screening for automatic real-time approval
77 Bank (Shichijushichi Bank) — 77 Bank (Shichijushichi Bank) runs AI mortgage screening from Mitsubishi Research Institute, clearing over 50 per cent of home loan applications instantly without staff review. The Japanese lender adopted automated home loan underwriting once the model reached stable accuracy, keeping 100% uptime since launch.
The Digital Agency has given 180,000 officials a generative-AI tool, and Soka City runs Japan's first on-premise municipal system.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan20 Oct 2026
Japan's Digital Agency adds AI agents to Gennai for 180,000 officials
Digital Agency — Japan's Digital Agency is layering two agent environments onto Gennai, the platform heading to about 180,000 officials, putting AI agents for civil servants into ministries. Agent Chat, letting staff assemble and run agents by chat, arrives first in phases; Gennai Workshop, for more sophisticated builds, follows around December. Governance, security and safety standards for these government agent tools, shaped with the AI Safety Institute, appeared alongside.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan1 Oct 2026
Moka City answers residents' questions with a generative AI chatbot
Moka City (Tochigi Prefecture) — Moka City in Tochigi Prefecture put a generative AI chatbot for residents online, supplied by SDT. Built from roughly 4,700 city pages, AI answers on municipal services — paperwork, taxes, childcare, health, welfare, rubbish — run 24 hours, 365 days a year.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan29 Sep 2026
Japan's tax agency switches on KSK2 with AI to catch false filings
National Tax Agency — Japan's National Tax Agency has brought KSK2 online, the agency's first major core-platform overhaul in about 25 years. The system adds AI tax enforcement aimed at spotting false filings. Cryptocurrency investors and traders now fall under this automated screening.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorJapan1 Sep 2026
Japan's generative AI rules for government take effect in version 2.0
Digital Agency — The Digital Agency's guideline on procuring and using generative AI in public administration took effect in version 2.0 on 1 September. This Japan AI regulation now covers voice as well as text input and image or audio output. Ministries must appoint a Chief AI Officer, and autonomous agents need reporting to the CAIO before launch under the public-sector AI rules.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan28 Aug 2026
Soka City runs Japan’s first on-premise municipal gen-AI
Soka City (Saitama) — Soka City in Saitama has deployed FIXER's Sovereign GaiXer, on-premise generative AI for drafting internal rules, preparing meeting minutes and building plans from confidential documents. The city says it is Japan's first municipality to adopt it, keeping sensitive data on site, away from public cloud services.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan22 Aug 2026
Japan's Digital Agency launches a generative-AI tool for 180,000 officials
Digital Agency (Government of Japan) — Japan's Digital Agency launched Genai, in-house generative AI for civil servants, to about 180,000 officials for translation, writing, meeting transcription, public-comment classification and draft replies to parliamentary questions. Fact-checking and final policy calls remain with staff; broader rollout is aimed at fiscal 2027.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorJapan21 Aug 2026
Japan's Justice Ministry clarifies when AI legal services avoid unauthorised practice
Ministry of Justice — Clearer limits now govern AI legal services in Japan, as the Ministry of Justice broadens earlier guidance beyond contract disputes to cover AI-powered legal business support more widely. A provider sidesteps unauthorised practice under Article 72 of the Attorneys Act if its tool stays neutral toward contested cases with adequate governance safeguards; the 2023 edition addressed only agreement-related matters.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan27 Jul 2026
Japan's tax agency puts predictive AI across all tax offices nationwide
National Tax Agency — Every tax office in Japan now runs predictive AI tax audits under the National Tax Agency (NTA), scoring filers for underreporting risk, spotting bogus refund bids and tracing corporate evasion schemes. Staff keep final say on whether scrutiny becomes a formal audit, while models pull from returns, financial statements, statutory records and audit history to rank cases. KSK2, a newer platform launched September 2026, broadens the dataset behind this tax risk-assessment AI.
Shizuoka City opens a RAG answer service to all its staff
Shizuoka City — Shizuoka City has opened a generative AI enquiry system to all staff on Allganize's Alli LLM App Market, answering officers' questions from internal manuals and working documents. Each answer shows the passage it relies on so officers can verify the basis before acting, and the city hopes to shift time saved on internal queries to resident services and policy work.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorJapan14 Jul 2026
Artificial Intelligence Basic Plan Phase II
Cabinet of Japan — Under Japan AI policy, the Cabinet adopted a second-phase AI Basic Plan on 14 July, replacing the December 2025 original, subtitled 'Japan AI Transformation: A Stronger Nation. Greater Prosperity.' It spans four pillars: faster deployment, stronger domestic development, governance leadership and an AI-powered society, pushing agentic, vertical and physical AI into healthcare, finance, education and disaster response. A new 'AI sovereignty' principle seeks less reliance on any single vendor or nation.
Evidence of impactGovernment & Public SectorJapan30 May 2026
Japan's Supreme Court finds AI useful but risky for civil case summaries
Supreme Court of Japan — Japan's Supreme Court had six mid-career civil judges from the Tokyo and Osaka district courts test three AI services, Gemini 3 Pro included, on mock case records in January and February. AI summarisation of bulky written arguments worked, and issue-table drafting might too. The court flagged overlooked evidence and misdirection, warning that leaning on judicial AI alone invites grave oversights.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan9 Apr 2026
Tokyo gives 60,000 city staff a generative-AI platform
Tokyo Metropolitan Government — The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has fully launched A1, a generative AI platform for government staff, to about 60,000 metropolitan officers after a trial from September 2025. Built by GovTech Tokyo with the Digital Services Bureau, it lets officers build and share no-code AI apps, from contract-specification drafting to AI adoption checkpoints and assembly answers drawn from transcripts.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorJapan31 Mar 2026
AI Guidelines for Business Ver1.2
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry / Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications — AI governance Japan just got its latest update: METI and MIC issued Ver1.2 of the AI Guidelines for Business on 31 March 2026. Building on Ver1.0 (April 2024) and Ver1.1 (April 2025), the revision spells out shared principles so business actors can spot dangers and adopt voluntary safeguards throughout an AI system's lifecycle, while pushing safer, more secure use nationwide. New in Ver1.2: formal definitions of AI agents and physical AI, plus a mandate that human judgment be built into design from the outset. The move reflects Japan's wider push on AI regulation, favouring lifecycle oversight over rigid rulebooks.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorJapan19 Dec 2025
Guideline for Ensuring the Appropriateness of AI Research and Utilisation
Artificial Intelligence Strategic Headquarters (Cabinet Office) — Japan AI regulation now includes national guidance from the Artificial Intelligence Strategic Headquarters under Article 13 of the AI Act, urging voluntary, proactive safeguards from every party in AI research, development and deployment. The framework lists seven pillars — human-centricity, safety, fairness, privacy, security, transparency, accountability — and requires each ministry to name an AI governance officer. It favours soft rules over binding law, relying on self-driven compliance across the sector.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan20 Nov 2025
Machida City renews AI Navigator with generative AI for citizens and staff
Machida City — NTT Data rebuilt Machida City's AI Navigator for citizens and staff using generative AI. Voice help in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean reaches residents via 'Simple AI Navigator' on the Tokyo municipality's site; four combined language models cover meeting minutes, year-end adjustment Q&A, phonebook lookup and deep research for staff. A multilingual chatbot now pairs with internal automation.
RegulationGovernment & Public SectorJapan1 Sep 2025
Act on Promotion of Research and Development, and Utilization of Artificial Intelligence-related Technology
National Diet of Japan — Full enforcement of Japan AI regulation arrived on 1 September for Act No. 53 of 2025, the country's first dedicated statute on artificial intelligence. Under this AI-related technology promotion law, a Cabinet-level AI Strategic Headquarters gets created, an AI Basic Plan becomes mandatory for officials to adopt, and authorities gain power to issue guidance, collect information and probe instances where AI causes rights violations, extending direction to companies and ordinary citizens alike. Businesses face no fines or bans under the legislation, only a request to cooperate with state initiatives, having been promulgated earlier on 4 June 2025.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan28 Aug 2025
NPA to use generative AI to identify tokuryu crime group leaders
National Police Agency of Japan — Japan's National Police Agency (NPA) will apply generative AI crime investigation methods to expose hidden bosses behind "tokuryu" networks, gangs recruited and directed via social media. A new tokuryu information analysis division, launching October 2025, will mine case data to map command chains and messaging links between members, an AI-powered criminal network analysis effort targeting figures who stay concealed.
DeploymentGovernment & Public SectorJapan14 May 2025
Japanese police roll out Scon AI for security camera analysis across multiple prefectures
Japanese Police Authority (National Police Agency) — Several Japanese prefectural forces now run "Scon", open-source AI security camera analysis software from police authorities, to trace suspects across relay investigations. Officers feed in footage and it flags matching people, vehicles and other objects. Low-cost open-source parts let each force customise this AI-based surveillance footage analysis for local needs.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan21 Oct 2026
Gunma University Hospital drafts discharge summaries with generative AI
Gunma University Hospital — Gunma University Hospital, a 722-bed hospital in Japan, produces AI discharge summaries and referral letters from patient records using TXP Medical's NEXT Stage Document Assistant. Doctors verify every draft, keeping clinical documentation drafting with physicians.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan1 Oct 2026
Kanazawa Medical University Hospital starts Ubie generative AI in October
Kanazawa Medical University Hospital — Kanazawa Medical University Hospital went live with AI electronic medical records, deploying Ubie's clinical documentation AI after a July trial. Chosen over two rivals for lower cost and reach across roughly 1,800 hospitals nationwide, the platform aims to cut physicians' paperwork to a tenth.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan1 Oct 2026
Mie University Hospital deploys Apollo AI core system across all departments
Mie University Hospital — Apollo AI, an AI core system from Albatrus, now runs inside Mie University Hospital, tied into its electronic medical records under the MUDX plan. Staff across departments use built-in agents to draft documentation and surface patient information, reflecting Japan's shift toward AI-assisted medical records. A cross-professional group was formed to steer uptake.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan18 Sep 2026
Nagai Hospital deploys Apollo AI agent system with EMR integration
Nagai Hospital — Nagai Hospital in Mie Prefecture has pushed staff adoption of an AI documentation deployment to roughly 95% after installing Albatrus's Apollo AI platform, now the backbone of its NAGAI 100 centenary DX push and wired directly into the MI·RA·Is electronic medical record infrastructure. Drafting a discharge summary dropped from 37 minutes to 3, informed-consent transcription shrank from 15 minutes to 4, spanning discharge summaries, nursing notes and symptom records. Few disclosed cases of EMR-linked clinical note automation in Japan show gains this sharp.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan1 Aug 2026
Rakuwakai Marutamachi Hospital trials NURVIS wearable AI agent for nurses
Rakuwakai Marutamachi Hospital — Rakuwakai Marutamachi Hospital in Kyoto, Japan, is co-running a pilot with startup peaceful of NURVIS, a wearable AI agent for AI nursing documentation and bedside medication guidance. Paired with bone-conduction earphones and a smartphone, NURVIS drafts automated nursing notes. The aim: lighter paperwork and veteran know-how handed to juniors.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan2 Jul 2026
Kyushu Cancer Center becomes first NHO hospital with Ubie generative AI
Kyushu Cancer Center — Ubie's generative AI hospital software is now live at Kyushu Cancer Center, marking the first such rollout among National Hospital Organisation (NHO) facilities. Charting for new patients takes 10 fewer minutes each, and effort spent writing up minutes has dropped 70%. Engineers at the hospital devised their own linkage mechanism joining the tool to electronic medical records, so nothing leaves the protected network — an approach to AI in medical record-keeping built entirely in-house.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan1 Jul 2026
Aizawa Hospital rolls out Ubie generative AI hospital-wide with mobile app
Aizawa Hospital — Trials are over at Aizawa Hospital: Ubie's generative AI platform now runs facility-wide, a medical AI deployment spanning more than 30 distinct workflows in Nagano Prefecture. An added iPhone app lets clinicians dictate notes and generate paperwork automatically. Meeting records that previously demanded 60 minutes to produce are finished in 10 — a sixfold gain from this hospital generative AI platform.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan29 Jan 2026
Tachibana Hospital runs Japan's first orthopedic-hospital PoC of OPTiM AI
Tachibana Hospital — Tachibana Hospital, an orthopaedic specialty centre in Japan's Miyazaki Prefecture, is running the country's first orthopaedic-hospital pilot of OPTiM's generative AI platform, OPTiM AI Hospital, applying AI-assisted clinical documentation to cut paperwork time. The platform draws on electronic medical records to produce nursing summaries, clinical forms and physician opinions, with a targeted 30 to 50% reduction in drafting time. This automated hospital record generation marks an early test of how specialty hospitals might offload routine record-keeping.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan5 Dec 2025
Kyushu University Hospital finds Ubie AI DPC coder adds 65m yen a year
Kyushu University Hospital — Kyushu University Hospital says its AI DPC coding tool from Ubie has added over 65 million yen a year in revenue while shortening staff working hours. Built on a large language model tied into electronic health records, the software scans unstructured clinical notes and recommends diagnosis and procedure codes, matching skilled coders' choices in 90% of cases. The case is a rare example of AI-assisted diagnosis and procedure coding showing a direct, quantified financial return inside a Japanese hospital.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan23 Oct 2025
Uchida Hospital becomes first chronic-care hospital with OPTiM AI platform
Uchida Hospital (medical corporation Taiseikai) — Uchida Hospital, Gunma Prefecture, is Japan's first chronic-care hospital using OPTiM AI Hospital for generative AI clinical documentation. The tool drafts doctor's opinion papers, nursing summaries and medical information forms from medical records, plus voice-recorder AI summarisation and beta charting-support and informed-consent summarising. Staff report substantially better, faster automated hospital paperwork, freeing patient-care time.
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan29 Sep 2025
Matsunami General Hospital runs Ubie AI for DPC coding with EHR link
Matsunami General Hospital — AI DPC coding is now live at Matsunami General Hospital in Gifu, linked to electronic health records via Ubie's generative AI platform since August 2025. Messy clinical notes become organised data, tightening diagnosis-procedure combination accuracy. Automated discharge summaries are planned next.
Medical records staff, healthcare administratorsprtimes.jp
DeploymentHealthcare & Life SciencesJapan16 Sep 2025
Kameda General Hospital gives doctors a gen-AI digital assistant
Kameda General Hospital — Kameda General Hospital in Chiba Prefecture now lets physicians pull up records by speaking or typing plain questions, via Ubie's generative AI Patient Navigator and AI Partner tools for AI clinical decision support. Scattered files across electronic health record and departmental systems merge into one lookup point, sparing staff the mental strain of hunting for data and backing diagnostic decision-making.
Osaka International Cancer Center and IBM deploy interview and nursing AI
Osaka International Cancer Center, NIBN and IBM Japan — Two generative AI in healthcare systems are now running clinically at Osaka International Cancer Center, built with Japan's NIBN and IBM Japan: one turns paper intake questionnaires into electronic-record entries, the other drafts documentation from nursing handovers and phone calls. Under this AI-driven patient care approach, symptom-hearing time is expected to fall to 25% of what it previously took, and testing found the transcription tool trimming charting effort by around 40%. Neither figure has been checked by an outside party — both come directly from the developers.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan20 Oct 2026
Nitto Kogyo gives sales staff AI that reads drawings for quotes
Nitto Kogyo — Nitto Kogyo is phasing in multimodal generative software that reads equipment drawings for distribution-board pricing, giving about 50 sellers in Japan AI quotation from drawings. This sales estimating tool covers 23 offices.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan7 Oct 2026
Shikoku Electric puts OPTIUM AI to work on coal shipping plans
Shikoku Electric Power — Shikoku Electric Power has moved coal shipping plans onto OPTIUM, the ALGO ARTIS AI optimisation engine, now in full use. Trials balancing vessel schedules, purchase timing and tonnage against operating limits pointed to fuel savings worth several hundred million yen versus earlier schedules, a projection rather than a realised result.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan1 Oct 2026
Renesas puts ugo AI inspection robots to work at Naka semiconductor plant
Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. — Renesas Semiconductor Manufacturing has installed AI inspection robots semiconductor plant hardware at its Naka site in Ibaraki Prefecture: three ugo mini units that roam the Sub-Fab cleanroom alone, snapping pictures at checkpoints and compiling findings without staff involvement. The robotic cleanroom patrol tackles a labour crunch gripping Japan's chip industry by taking over repetitive checks.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan1 Oct 2026
Tensor Energy deploys AI automatic control at Fukuoka solar battery plant
Tensor Energy — Kyocera TCL Solar now runs AI battery storage control at Iizuka Daiichi Mega Solar in Fukuoka, handing a 1,500kW/6,000kWh unit to Tensor Energy's Tensor Cloud software, unattended, 24 hours daily. Sunlight and price forecasts drive automatic bidding and charge-discharge scheduling without staff involvement. This renewable energy management system links output prediction to storage dispatch.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan17 Sep 2026
Kansai Electric Power deploys Cognite AI platform across hydro operations
Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. — Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc. has selected the Cognite Industrial AI and Data Platform for AI in hydropower operations across its hydroelectric business, forming the data backbone of its Next Generation Hydro Reborn Project. The system unifies plant data to support real-time field monitoring, 3D equipment visualisation, and transfer of veteran engineers' expertise through AI, reflecting wider adoption of AI hydroelectric data platform tools as utilities digitise ageing infrastructure.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan7 Jul 2026
Tokuyama deploys AI ship scheduling system for cement logistics
Tokuyama Corporation — Slashing yearly travel costs by 5% and cutting scheduling time to a quarter, Grid Inc.'s ReNom VESSEL delivers AI ship scheduling to 40-plus Tokuyama Corporation cement sites nationwide. Forecast weather drives route calculations, a first among Japan's coastal carriers, via this AI-driven vessel route optimisation.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan22 Jun 2026
Daihatsu deploys AI quality inspection for auto parts at Shiga plant
Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. — Daihatsu Motor's Shiga (Ryuo) plant now catches hairline scratches inside machined transmission holes via an AI quality inspection system built with VRAIN Solution. Cameras and pattern recognition replace eyes trained by years of shop-floor intuition — machine-vision-based defect detection taking that call from people.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan10 Jun 2026
Toyota deploys 436 autonomous mobile robots across Japan plants
Toyota Motor Corporation — 436 Geekplus AMRs move parts unattended across Toyota Motor Corporation sites in Japan, roughly 200 per installation, marking this autonomous mobile robots Japan plants rollout. Coverage spans receiving to picking and processing, a robotic material handling swap for hand-pushed carts amid staffing gaps.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan14 Apr 2026
Marunouchi Heat Supply trials AI plant automation in Tokyo district heating
Marunouchi Heat Supply Co., Ltd. — Live-equipment trials of AI plant automation are underway at Marunouchi Heat Supply's Otemachi sub-plant in Tokyo, running Preferred Networks' PlantPilot software. Trained on past operating records and operator judgement, it forecasts conditions and proposes control responses. Marunouchi's push toward AI-driven district heating targets full automation by 2027.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan17 Nov 2025
Taisei launches Japan's largest construction-industry generative AI project
Taisei Corporation — OpenAI's first Japanese general-contractor partner, Taisei Corporation, is running firm-wide ChatGPT Enterprise adoption to retrain staff and reshape operations, a leading example of AI in construction industry deployment. From 250 users in April 2025 to 1,000 by August, results showed 5.48 weekly hours saved per person, 6.6万 hours saved yearly overall, 4.20 satisfaction, and 4.51 willingness-to-use. Generative AI in construction now heads for company-wide expansion.
Construction engineers and office stafftaisei.co.jp
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan2025-10
Kansai Electric rolls out ChatGPT Enterprise to all employees
Kansai Electric Power Company — Kansai Electric Power is deploying AI in utilities operations by rolling out ChatGPT Enterprise across its entire staff of roughly 8,300 employees, following a strategic partnership with OpenAI confirmed in June 2025. The utility fine-tuned the system using historical thermal-power-plant incident logs, applicable regulations and board-meeting records, producing a generative AI compliance tool capable of reviewing paperwork and responding to operational questions. A separate 'AI President' function, drawn from board records, lets employees query company strategy directly. The Yomiuri Shimbun noted plans to widen the deployment to group companies starting January 2026.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan10 Sep 2025
Tokuyama adopts Cognite industrial AI platform across manufacturing sites
Tokuyama Corporation — Tokuyama Corporation extends Cognite Data Fusion and Cognite Atlas AI to nine Tokuyama Factory departments by March 2026, merging sensor data, equipment diagrams, maintenance systems and inspection records. Japan's chemical and materials manufacturer uses AI in chemical manufacturing to automate operations, improve anomaly detection and speed inspection tasks: digital transformation via chemical plant AI.
DeploymentManufacturing, Energy & ResourcesJapan2025-07
Suzuki deploys Ollo Factory work-analysis AI across Japanese plants
Suzuki Motor Corporation — Suzuki runs AI work-analysis software called Ollo Factory, built by Tokyo startup Ollo, to monitor assembly-line tasks at its Sagara plant and, since December 2025, at its engine plant too. Smartphone, tablet or wearable-camera footage feeds the system, which breaks down worker motions, flags anomalies like a missed screw as they happen, spots inefficient movement, and helps train staff by contrasting beginners' actions with those of experienced workers using this AI-powered factory motion analysis. The deployment sits within Suzuki's wider Smart Factory programme.
Kao rolls out ChatSense AI assistant across its research division
Kao — Kao has rolled ChatSense from Knowledge Sense out to every research team as a data assistant, applying generative AI for R&D across laboratories and product lines in Japan. Scientists can mine archived reports, and this research knowledge search goes past keywords to suggest new leads.
MISUMI hands product data for its e-commerce site to nine AI agents
MISUMI Group — MISUMI Group has handed listing upkeep for tens of thousands of store items to nine Fujitsu-built agents, a case of AI agents for e-commerce product data in Japan. The software drafts, sorts and scores entries that employees handled manually, with humans approving output. Delivery of this catalogue automation took about 2.5 months.
Lawson launches first full-scale AI-conceived sweets and bakery items
Lawson — Convenience chain Lawson has debuted its first large-scale AI-conceived sweets and bakery items, built from flavour pairings a generative AI system dreamed up before staff refined them into sellable products. The lineup spans a pickle-lemon tart, a sake-fermented red-bean-and-yoghurt bread, and a parfait-style salad in Japanese presentation. About 4,700 shops across Kanto and Koshinetsu began selling all three, with the AI-generated flavour concepts serving as the starting point for each recipe.
FamilyMart launches AI-conceived sweet nationwide from 1,000 AI ideas
FamilyMart — FamilyMart's debut in AI product development in retail: a caramel-sauced sweet potato canele, 285 yen, now stocked nationwide. An algorithm processed two years of sales and customer data into about 1,000 candidate recipes; humans chose this one. 10 AI-generated confectionery items follow by February 2027.
Trial Company completes AI ordering system across 264 stores
Trial Company — Every one of Trial Company's 264 super centre branches has gone live with CIX-自動発注 (CIX-Auto Ordering), finishing a nationwide push for this AI ordering optimisation system. Machine learning paired with digital twin simulation drives down surplus stock by close to 30%, while liberating 180 person-hours of labour monthly at each branch. Automated inventory ordering has become the chain's standard practice.
Shimamura deploys AI recommendation system across EC and app
Shimamura — Shimamura's group EC sites and store app now run on a Neural Group engine built for AI product recommendations in fashion retail. Tens of thousands of product images get cross-matched with live stock, buyer history and web trends to surface tailored picks, while the app flags nearby shelf availability instantly through AI-driven personalised shopping recommendations.
Lawson introduces AI sommelier for wine recommendations at Natural Lawson stores
Natural Lawson (Lawson) — Six Natural Lawson outlets in Japan now offer an AI sommelier, KAORIUM for Sake & Wine, to guide customers toward suitable bottles. Shoppers enter their mood and flavour preferences via a tablet, and the system pairs a recommended wine with snacks available in the shop, using interface options in English and Chinese besides Japanese. Whether the AI-driven wine recommendation tool spreads to additional branches depends on how this trial performs, per Lawson.
OWNDAYS rolls out AI avatar for multilingual customer service nationwide
OWNDAYS — 49 OWNDAYS branches across Japan have adopted JetB's AI avatar customer service system, expanding beyond a six-month trial at two Tokyo and Osaka shops. Branded 'Uchi no AI Avatar', it offers multilingual customer support via in-store QR code, conversing in 15 languages and reaching native speakers among over 90% of the global population. Staff can inspect logged chats before stepping in.
Seven-Eleven Japan rolls out 13-model AI platform to all 8,000 staff
Seven-Eleven Japan — AI in retail operations is now company-wide at Seven-Eleven Japan: AI Library covers 8,000 employees, up from 4,000 staff in 20 departments by June 2025. Staff choose among 13 large language models, including Claude, Gemini and GPT, for minutes, product development, and POS or social media analysis. This corporate AI rollout cut minutes per meeting from 40 to 10.
JINS trials self-developed AI customer service app in stores
JINS Holdings — JINS Holdings is piloting AI customer service retail technology through JINS AI, a self-built generative chatbot live in select eyewear stores. Shoppers scan a shelf QR code for frame suggestions, multilingual pricing and FAQ answers, part of an AI customer service system built in-house. Full rollout follows in 2026.
Shiseido Japan gives beauty advisors a generative AI chatbot
Shiseido Japan — Shiseido Japan's PBPs now type plain questions into a generative AI chatbot for beauty advisors, an AI-powered retail customer service tool built into their Beauty Tablet handsets, to pull up product, brand and promotion details. It cuts calls to sales and admin teams, helping staff assist shoppers faster. Shiseido Interactive Beauty and Accenture co-developed it with Shiseido Japan after a trial run.
Evidence of impactAgriculture & FoodJapan17 Sep 2026
JA Zennoh AI variable fertilisation lifts rice yields 5-15% in field trials
JA Zennoh — JA Zennoh trials put AI variable fertilisation rice gains at 5-15% above flat spreading rates. Z-GIS, the cooperative's farm platform, turns satellite NDVI scans into AI-generated fertilisation maps loaded onto Iseki and Yanmar transplanters, which throttle output automatically as crop vigour shifts within a plot.
JA Zennoh deploys AI digital twin for greenhouse crop monitoring
JA Zennoh — CTE's NouNou Vision digital twin now runs full-scale for JA Zennoh in a Kanagawa greenhouse, bringing AI-based crop monitoring into daily use. Cameras feed images that software converts into 3D models, extracting stem length, leaf area and fruit tallies without manual checks, grounding greenhouse agriculture research in sensor data.
Mitsui Norin deploys AI OCR for raw material management at tea factory
Mitsui Norin Co., Ltd. — Mitsui Norin's Sudama factory in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, runs AI OCR at full scale for raw material management, using Future Architect's Future EdgeAI. Staff snap packaging on portable devices to read lot numbers, product names and expiry dates. Character recognition makes receiving inspection through production line input paperless.
Otsuka Foods deploys AI flavour prediction system for Bon Curry
Otsuka Foods Co., Ltd. — Otsuka Foods built Oishisa LENS, an AI flavour prediction system running at its Biwako Research Institute for Bon Curry, the firm's 58-year-old brand. The tool digitises 40 years of paper formulation records, letting the AI recipe prediction system forecast taste outcomes and suggest substitute formulas whenever ingredients change.
Kamei trials AI smart farming system for asparagus in Miyagi
Kamei Corporation — Kamei Corporation has begun trialling AI smart farming for asparagus at its ZAO AGRI BASE site in Miyagi Prefecture, where the Zero Agri system controls watering and feeding without manual input. Paired with raised-bed growing equipment, the setup forms part of a wider push into next-generation agriculture, letting Kamei track harvest size, crop quality and reduced labour needs. The trial marks an early test of this AI-driven agriculture system before any wider rollout.
Ibaraki Prefecture deploys Sagri AI for satellite crop surveys third year running
Ibaraki Prefecture — Sagri has won a third consecutive contract from Ibaraki Prefecture to run AI crop surveys via its DETABA satellite imagery tool, verifying planting status for subsidy claims without manual field checks. Satellite data now replaces on-site inspectors, cutting officials' travel and labour costs. The renewal reflects rising confidence in satellite-based crop monitoring.
Saga Prefecture deploys Sagri satellite AI for farm survey efficiency
Saga Prefecture — Japan's Saga Prefecture named Sagri primary contractor for a demonstration project trialling AI field surveys to cut administrative spending on crop stabilisation measures. Sagri's software scans satellite imagery, flagging what is planted and which parcels need on-foot visits. Such AI-assisted farm checking could sharply trim paperwork.
JA Toyohashi becomes first Japanese agricultural cooperative to replace pest traps with AI prediction
JA Toyohashi (Toyohashi Agricultural Cooperative) — Aichi Prefecture's JA Toyohashi cooperative in Japan has scrapped pheromone traps for AI pest prediction in agriculture, running the TENRYO app built by Mirai Saien. Staff now flag outbreaks by blending weather data with farmer sightings instead of counting traps, cutting trap-based pest forecasting labour by about 90 per cent, down from over 40 hours monthly. No other JA cooperative nationwide has gone this far.
Succeed tutoring chain rolls out School AI platform to all locations
Succeed Individual Tutoring Institute — Succeed Co now runs School AI, an AI tutoring platform, across its Individual Tutoring Institute Succeed chain. Sister firm Mingaku built the system; over 1,600 schools nationwide already use it so staff can draft lesson plans while pupils get an AI study companion for unsupervised revision.
IPUT gives all students and staff Google Gemini certification and AI Pro
International Professional University of Technology — Proof of skill with Google's Gemini chatbot, through a fresh Google Gemini certification for AI in higher education, will reach every learner and employee at International Professional University of Technology, spanning its Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya sites. Underpinned by Google AI Pro for Education, the plan mixes web-based lessons with formal testing so graduates can later point to generative AI skills certification when job-hunting.
Nihon University gives 1万 staff Google AI Pro for Education
Nihon University — Ten thousand full-time employees at Nihon University gained access when Google AI Pro for Education launched campuswide, marking Japan's single largest paid generative AI deployment university administrators have undertaken. Staff and faculty work inside a closed, secure platform that excludes their data from training the underlying models. Supporting this shift, a newly formed Information Innovation Centre will push the school's broader AI in higher education strategy forward.
MIRAIE pilots FUTURE COMPASS AI platform at high schools nationwide
MIRAIE — Future Education (MIRAIE) built FUTURE COMPASS, a generative AI platform for high-school inquiry-based learning, on Google's latest AI. It coaches students on sharpening research questions and action plans, giving teachers live visibility into group thinking. This AI-assisted inquiry-based learning tool pilots at model schools from Hokkaido to Okinawa.
Niigata University introduces ChatGPT Edu for students and staff
Niigata University — ChatGPT Edu, OpenAI's education-grade generative AI platform, went live for Niigata University staff and learners on 1 September 2025, making it among the earliest Japanese national universities to roll out generative AI in higher education. Managed, secure access now underpins a newly launched practical generative AI course plus trial schemes spanning teaching, learner support and administrative work. The rollout builds on a course recommendation system driven by AI that the university launched in May 2025, after discovering that roughly 60% of incoming students had never used generative AI tools during secondary school.
Tottori gives 365 students AI-powered English tuition platform
Tottori Prefectural Board of Education — 365 students at Tottori model schools now use School AI, a generative AI platform for education, following its rollout by the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education on 20 August 2025. Under a Ministry of Education scheme for AI-enhanced English education, the system sharpens speaking and writing through conversation drills, feedback on essays and vocabulary matched to each learner. Staff also receive tools for setting tasks and marking work, a rare instance of AI in English language teaching led by a regional authority.
Tokyo gives 256 metropolitan schools a dedicated AI platform
Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education — Toritsu AI, a generative AI platform for schools, now reaches 256 metropolitan schools under the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education after two years of trials at 29 research schools. Its Tokyo-only tenant excludes prompts from model training, filters unsuitable material, and gives teachers ready lesson templates — the fruit of that pilot phase, now a full AI in education deployment.
Chiba Institute of Technology deploys Japan's first AI university lecturer
Chiba Institute of Technology — Chiba Institute of Technology now runs Japan's first AI university lecturer, built from ChatGPT joined with blockchain-based Verifiable Credentials for AI teaching in higher education. It studies each learner's history and answers through dialogue, tested in the school's web3 and AI course until July 2025. Activity becomes a tamper-proof credential, proving learners' progress.
ClassNK answers ship-survey questions through an AI assistant.
DeploymentTransport & LogisticsJapan14 Oct 2026
Seibu Railway trials an AI robot to inspect a Tokyo substation
Seibu Railway — Seibu Railway is piloting AI robot substation inspection at Ikebukuro in Tokyo through March 2027. The ugo mini unit tours three times daily, using cameras and AI to read dials, detect faults and log heat, replacing crew trips made at least once a month. With 34 substations, Seibu may widen this rail maintenance robotics.
ClassNK launches an AI assistant for ship-survey questions
ClassNK — ClassNK has launched 'Survey Compass', a natural-language AI ship survey assistant answering shipowners' and managers' classification-survey questions via its customer portal. For accuracy in safety-critical work it relies on retrieval-based answers drawn from, and linking back to, source documents instead of generating unsourced text.
Nestlé Japan links 7,000 drivers via Hacobu AI logistics platform
Nestlé Japan Ltd. — Hacobu's MOVO Vista and MOVO Driver apps form an AI logistics platform now linking roughly 7,000 contracted truck drivers to Nestlé Japan's delivery network as a freight dispatch system. Dispatchers see wait times, arrival and departure schedules, and later location sharing, supporting compliance with Japan's revised logistics efficiency law.
Yorozu Logistics launches generative AI dispatch project
Yorozu Logistics Co., Ltd. — Osaka's Yorozu Logistics is trialling AI truck dispatch software with Super Academy, aiming to supplant decisions long resting on veteran schedulers' instinct. It weighs distance, fuel, tolls and driver hours to surface the single most profitable route, a generative AI logistics planning pilot run under live conditions.
Four autonomous ships enter commercial service in Japan's MEGURI2040 project
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) — Inspectors have cleared four Stage 2 ships under Japan's MEGURI2040 scheme for commercial sailing as certified autonomous ships Japan now recognises. A new coastal containership joined a ferry, a Ro-Ro carrier and a refitted older vessel, each self-navigating vessel running at Level 4-equivalent standard while shore teams at Fleet Operation Centres oversee them remotely.
JR East deploys AI commander for faster rail recovery
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) — East Japan Railway Company's "AI commander" system targets AI rail disruption recovery, aiming to cut Shinkansen and conventional-line restoration times by up to 50 per cent, a milestone for AI-driven rail service restoration. Deployed on the Tohoku, Joetsu and Hokuriku bullet-train lines and Tokyo-area conventional routes, the generative AI tool monitors dispatcher-crew radio exchanges, checks them against maintenance manuals and two decades of past incidents, then independently drafts likely causes, response plans and recovery estimates. The 50 per cent figure is the company's own projection.
ANA rolls out generative AI platform neoAI Chat to all operations divisions
All Nippon Airways (ANA) — Japan's ANA cut manual and regulation searching by approximately 90% with neoAI Chat, neoAI's generative AI platform, across airport, cabin, maintenance and flight operations. On ANA's secure private cloud, this AI in aviation shortens report and training material creation by 75%. A Narita Airport trial from August 2024 validated the airline AI.
JR East launches AI voice assistant for train information
East Japan Railway Company (JR East) — East Japan Railway Company (JR East) unveiled Japan's first AI voice assistant for train information: a spoken rail-status hotline named Dokotore Dial. Naming a station or route by phone lets generative AI retrieve live delay, departure-time and position data from JR East's train information system, aiding smartphone-averse riders anywhere.
RegulationMedia, Telecom & EntertainmentJapan15 Oct 2026
Japan Actors Union publishes guidelines on AI use of performers' voices
Japan Actors Union — The Japan Actors Union has issued AI voice generation guidelines asking companies, in principle, to keep the dead out of new productions and to stop machines replacing film and drama dubbing. Protecting voice actors' livelihoods drives these synthetic voice rules, and reviving a late performer remains possible only with permission from bereaved relatives.
DeploymentMedia, Telecom & EntertainmentJapan9 Aug 2026
TV Asahi airs Japan's first fully AI-generated TV commercial
TV Asahi — TV Asahi has aired Japan's first AI-generated TV commercial: a 30-second spot for Suntory's GREEN DA-KA-RA drink, made wholly from machine-generated visuals. Its AI Creative Studio, formed April 2026, steers generative AI advertising across animation, drama and promotional output.
DeploymentMedia, Telecom & EntertainmentJapan25 Feb 2026
NTT DOCOMO puts agentic AI to work on mobile network maintenance
NTT DOCOMO — Since 4 February 2026, Japan's mobile network has run agentic AI network maintenance under NTT DOCOMO, with the platform scanning alarm and traffic signals from more than one million connected devices to surface anomalies and propose fixes automatically. Engineers now resolve complex faults over 50% faster, per the carrier's own measurement. Built on one of the world's largest telecom datasets, the deployment marks a shift toward AI-driven fault detection at scale.
DeploymentMedia, Telecom & EntertainmentJapan29 Oct 2025
SoftBank puts Japan-built Large Telecom Model to work on mobile networks
SoftBank Corp. — Mobile network operations at SoftBank now run partly on its Large Telecom Model (LTM), a generative AI foundation model for telecom operations built around the company's own Sarashina large language model and hosted inside Japan-based data centres it controls. Forecasting accuracy topped 90 per cent against real readings when the system was tested during a fireworks festival, matching predicted signal quality to actual outcomes. A later upgrade added reinforcement learning, letting the model retune base-station settings on its own through an autonomous feedback loop for AI in mobile network management.
SoftBank introduces autonomous generative AI to Y!mobile customer support
SoftBank — SoftBank has deployed voice AI customer support for Y!mobile PIN code inquiry calls in Japan, using an autonomous-thinking generative AI platform. Reading speech from several angles for context and intent, the platform questions callers and verifies details; a large language model plus a proprietary knowledge-reasoning engine handles complex conditional judgments and non-standard inquiries. SoftBank has used call-centre AI since 2019, co-developing generative AI platforms with Microsoft since March 2024.
Asahi Shimbun rolls out Microsoft 365 Copilot to nearly all staff
Asahi Shimbun — Asahi Shimbun deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot across nearly all departments after a four-month pilot with 300 staff found roughly two hours saved weekly per person. This AI in journalism rollout followed an AI Committee formed that April by its CEO, backed by a company-wide "AI full-commitment" mandate; adoption reached over 90% of staff within five months. Agent-building tools within Microsoft Copilot Studio are now under trial, extending generative AI in newsrooms into daily reporting.
DeploymentMedia, Telecom & EntertainmentJapan10 Mar 2025
KDDI launches au Support AI Advisor with digital human and generative AI
KDDI — KDDI brings AI in customer service to its call centre with au Support AI Advisor, merging a 3D digital-human avatar and generative AI to read voice, text and image queries. Ponta-point questions launch first; full au service coverage follows by fiscal 2025's end. It joins existing automated customer support: voice recognition since 2023, generative AI chatbots since 2024.
Mitsubishi Electric deploys BAKUTAN OS to unify HR data across 200 group companies
Mitsubishi Electric — BAKUTAN OS now underpins HR records for roughly 15万 (150,000) staff across 200-plus Mitsubishi Electric group firms, built by University of Tokyo spin-off BAKUTAN for this AI HR data integration push. Agents translate disparate HR formats into one shared standard, cutting integration effort by 60% or more. A pilot also tests algorithmic matching of rising leaders to roles, part of a shift toward AI-powered talent management.
NTT East Group — Roughly 30,000 NTT East Group staff now work under Mikiwame AI, an AI-based employee monitoring software covering personality checks, wellbeing surveys and management tools group-wide. Leadingmark built the engine; NTT HumanEX advises on turning its output into development moves, an AI employee wellbeing platform in practice.
Toyota Technical Development deploys AI for resume screening of 800 applications a year
Toyota Technical Development — AI resume screening has reached Toyota Technical Development: JAPAN AI HR filters roughly 800 applications yearly, once a single staff member's job. Weighted scoring replaces ad hoc judgement, giving the Toyota Group firm a uniform yardstick, while managers get the system's verdicts for the screening that follows.
Mitsukoshi Isetan HR arm cuts interview time 40% with JAPAN AI HR
Mitsukoshi Isetan Human Solutions — A 40% drop in interview workload followed Mitsukoshi Isetan Human Solutions' adoption of JAPAN AI HR for AI interview transcription across roughly 180 to 200 annual hires. Fixed-criteria scoring and automatic minutes replaced its dual-interviewer panel with one reviewer plus the system, standardising candidate evaluation company-wide.
Growth Experts deploys IBM watsonx Orchestrate AI agent to HR team
Growth Experts — Growth Experts fields staff queries, leave requests and system registrations through IBM watsonx Orchestrate, an AI agent in HR running chat support all 24 hours. Routine handling sped up 83%, manual input errors reached zero via integration, and foreign staff gained multi-language support. Accounting and general affairs are next for this watsonx Orchestrate expansion.
Japan has adopted a code asking AI firms to disclose their training data, carrying no legal force or penalties.
DeploymentTechnology & SoftwareJapan24 Sep 2026
Sky deploys Gemini Enterprise and creates 20,000 AI agents in five months
Sky Corporation — Sky Corporation's Gemini Enterprise deployment drove staff to build roughly 20,000 internal AI agents in five months across engineering, sales and administration, without central direction. Daily use of the Google platform doubled, with retention at 98%.
Japan adopts a code asking AI firms to disclose training data
Government of Japan — Japan's government has adopted principles on AI training data disclosure, pressing generative AI operators to share basic facts with users, rights holders and the public. Operators should publish an overview of their automated online data-collection tools, tell rights holders on request whether their works were used, and file their implementation with the Cabinet Office, updating it yearly. The non-binding principles carry no penalties and cover foreign as well as Japanese firms offering AI services in the country.
TechnoPro rolls out Claude Enterprise to 30,000 engineers
TechnoPro Holdings — TechnoPro Holdings has signed a company-wide licence for Anthropic's Claude Enterprise, extending AI in engineering services to over 30,000 staff. The deal folds the assistant into hiring, delivery and coding work group-wide, part of a wider AI workflow integration push. A 10 billion yen transformation budget also funds training 10,000 staff as 'AI implementation engineers' by June 2029.
NEC Corporation — NEC Corporation will roll out Claude to about 30,000 NEC Group employees worldwide, including developers and technical staff. The strategic collaboration expands AI in engineering and makes NEC Anthropic's first Japan-based global partner. An internal Centre of Excellence will develop AI-native engineering talent.
NEC has created a department staffed entirely by AI agents.
DeploymentBusiness OperationsJapan11 Aug 2026
NEC creates a department staffed entirely by AI agents
NEC — NEC has set up an AI agent department with no human staff: 'worker' agents run automation tasks under AI 'manager' agents, which answer to human supervisors. The company aims to lift productivity by separating human and AI work more clearly; the department's size and output were not disclosed.
SOMPO gives an AI agent to 30,000 Japanese group staff
SOMPO Holdings — SOMPO Holdings began rolling out an in-house AI agent for employees, about 30,000 across domestic group companies, from January 2026, including all staff at SOMPO Holdings and core operating company Sompo Japan. With Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise as the main tool, the group is testing what the agent actually changes about work. The goal is a foundation for reworking practices and processes rather than tinkering with them.
Mitsui Fudosan gives 2,000 staff ChatGPT Enterprise and builds a President AI Agent
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. — Japan's Mitsui Fudosan wants AI in real estate to trim firm-wide hours by over 10 per cent after handing roughly 2,000 employees ChatGPT Enterprise. Workers built about 500 Custom GPTs in a quarter, guided by 150 AI Promotion Leaders in 85 departments. Bespoke property AI includes President AI Agent, mimicking President Takashi Ueda's judgement, and Automated Document Generation AI.
Taisho Pharmaceutical uses Gemini AI to transform marketing strategy
Taisho Pharmaceutical — A single day now replaces what once took two months: Taisho Pharmaceutical collapsed its entire consumer-persona workflow after bringing generative AI in pharmaceutical marketing to life through Google's Gemini, working alongside Dentsu. Collaborative strategy sessions driven by this AI-driven brand strategy approach reshaped how the Ri-Up hair growth brand reaches customers. Physical retail sales climbed 6% year-on-year afterwards, and EC revenue jumped 39%.
Kirin deploys ChatGPT Enterprise to marketing, R&D and strategy teams
Kirin Holdings — Kirin Holdings put ChatGPT Enterprise AI deployment into its strategy, R&D and marketing units, covering patent searches, market studies, product creation and planning. Custom agents built for individual workflows come next on the OpenAI system, while a separate generative AI tool rollout called 'BuddyAI' already reaches roughly 15,000 staff inside Japan.
KDDI deploys AI system for brand-compliant ad creative generation
KDDI — KDDI's beta trials of an AI ad creative generation system, built with Recursive and Supership, cut digital marketing workload by 50% in Japan. A KPI prediction model trained on past campaign results flags likely winning banners, shaped to fit KDDI's brand guidelines and the 'au VISUAL IDENTITY' framework, as AI-generated banner ads.
Kanpo Life Insurance gives 1,200 corporate sales staff AI assistant
Kanpo Life Insurance — Kanpo Life Insurance rolled out bellSalesAI, a Salesforce data-entry agent from bellFace, to its 1,200-strong corporate sales workforce nationwide, using an AI assistant in corporate sales to pull structured details from calls. Post-meeting write-up time fell from roughly 50 minutes to about 10 — an 80% cut — with sharper record accuracy. Staff redirect the recovered hours to direct client engagement, an early case of AI assistant adoption in corporate insurance sales reshaping Japan's workforce routines.
Honda Sales Operations Japan adopts Salesforce Agentforce AI
Honda Sales Operations Japan — Honda Sales Operations Japan now runs Agentforce, Salesforce's AI agent platform, inside its My Honda app to answer customers 24/7 with tailored replies. Applying AI in automotive sales, the tool lets drivers arrange test drives purely through chat, while an AI sales agent for car dealerships also speeds up staff tasks like compiling information, writing proposals, and flagging promising deals from buyer interests. Facing a shrinking labour pool, Honda is betting the setup lifts dealership sales efficiency.
Shinei Shoji deploys JAPAN AI platform across wholesale sales team
Shinei Shoji — Shinei Shoji, a Japanese wholesale distributor, cut weekly workloads from 52 to 12 hours after a two-month pilot of the JAPAN AI platform—an example of AI agents for wholesale distribution. Staff built 62 custom agents for order emails, document checks and sales reporting, shrinking one report task from 8 hours to 10 minutes. The JAPAN AI platform rollout now covers all 100 employees.
Billcom transforms into AI-native PR company with 36 AI agents
Billcom — Billcom, a Tokyo-based PR agency, has rolled out 36 AI agents across every department as part of its shift to becoming an 'AI Native PR Company', marking a notable case of AI in public relations. The agents draw on 23 years of accumulated PR expertise and proprietary media, trend and analytics data built up since the firm's founding. Automated systems now handle routine execution tasks, freeing staff to concentrate on client relationships and strategic decisions, illustrating how AI-driven PR automation can reshape agency workflows.
Mercari builds CC Agent for AI-powered corporate communications
Mercari — Mercari's Corporate Communication Division in Japan says its CC Agent for AI in corporate communications shrank in-house coordination to two business days from one week. The AI communications agent bundles 20-plus skills for setting strategy, drafting material and tracking press coverage, with writing and quality rules as safeguards.
RegulationLegal & Professional ServicesJapan21 Aug 2026
Guidelines on AI Use in Legal Business
Ministry of Justice — Japan's Ministry of Justice on 21 August 2026 set conditions for permitted AI in legal services under Article 72 of the Attorneys Act, easing the unauthorised-practice bar. Contract review support now qualifies, alongside two other named uses, provided the tool skips litigation design and builds in misuse safeguards for customers — a shift toward sanctioned use of artificial intelligence in legal work. This clears a compliance path for vendors, leaving courtroom work to licensed lawyers.
DeploymentLegal & Professional ServicesJapan11 Nov 2025
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune deploys Legal Brain AI agent for all lawyers
Anderson Mori & Tomotsune (AMT) — Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, a leading Japanese law firm, rolled out Bengo4.com's Legal Brain Agent, an AI agent for legal research, firmwide from November 2025 after a trial confirmed accuracy. This legal-specialist AI agent draws its output exclusively from statutes, case law, guidelines and expert reference works, attaching citations that can be verified instantly, sidestepping fabricated references typical of general-purpose LLMs.
Kirin puts an AI executive called CoreMate on its management committee
Kirin Holdings Company, Limited — CoreMate, an AI executive built by Kirin Holdings, now sits on the Kirin Group Executive Committee to guide corporate strategy. 12 distinct AI personas power it, drawing on 10 years' worth of board records, internal files and outside sources, then producing the issues and viewpoints that emerge when those personas debate each other during live meetings. Operating-company executive committees and Kirin's board of directors are next in line for this AI boardroom assistant.
Your essential monthly update on Applied AI, with Japan specially tracked
We research and keep track of applied AI globally. Japan's record gained 10 entries in October. Your next dispatch will open with Japan, then the most important news about how AI is being used, applied and regulated globally.
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Method and sources
Every entry on this page is a named organisation putting AI to work in a real job, taken from the State of Applied AI record. Each one is traced to the report it came from and dated, and where a figure is the organisation’s own the entry says so rather than presenting it as an independent result. Readiness, ecosystem and policy figures, where shown, are attributed on the card to the body that published them.
The record is maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI: entries are added as they are found and verified, not on a schedule, and nothing is published without an open source behind it. It currently holds 4731 entries across 249 countries.
Japan20 Oct 2026
South Korea
Singapore
China
India
Australia
Pakistan
Taiwan
Hong Kong
Malaysia
Indonesia
Thailand
New Zealand
Vietnam
Philippines
Kazakhstan
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Nepal
Kyrgyzstan
Sri Lanka
Uzbekistan
Mongolia
Cambodia
Cyprus
Papua New Guinea
Tajikistan
Macao
Brunei
Armenia
Myanmar
Georgia
Turkmenistan
Fiji
Maldives
Guam
Laos
North Korea
Afghanistan
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French Polynesia
New Caledonia
Palau
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu