From call centers to factories to hospitals, AI is sweeping Japan. Undergirding it all: the exceptional resources of the island nation’s world-class universities and global technology leaders such as Fujitsu, The Institute of Science Tokyo, NEC and NTT.
Japanese AI Pioneers to Power Homegrown Innovation
Japanese tech leaders are developing advanced AI models that can better interpret Japanese cultural and linguistic nuances. These models enable developers to build AI applications for industries requiring high-precision outcomes, such as healthcare, finance and manufacturing.
Fujitsu’s Takane Model
Fujitsu’s Takane model is specifically built for high-stakes sectors like finance and security. The model is designed to prioritize security and accuracy with Japanese data, which is crucial for sensitive fields. It excels in both domestic and international Japanese LLM benchmarks for natural Japanese expression and accuracy.
NEC’s Cotomi Model
NEC’s cotomi model uses NeMo’s parallel processing techniques for efficient model training. It’s already integrated with NEC’s solutions in finance, manufacturing, healthcare and local governments.
NTT Group’s Tsuzumi Model
NTT Group is moving forward with NTT Communications’ launch of NTT’s large language model “tsuzumi,” which is accelerated with NVIDIA TensorRT-LLM for AI agent customer experiences and use cases such as document summarization.
Kotoba Technologies’ Kotoba-Whisper Model
Kotoba Technologies, a Tokyo-based software developer, will unveil its Kotoba-Whisper model, built using NVIDIA NeMo for AI model building. The transcription application built on the Kotoba-Whisper model performed live transcription during this week’s conversation between SoftBank Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son and NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang at NVIDIA AI Summit Japan.
Academic Contributions to Japan’s Sovereign AI Vision
Japanese universities are powering the ongoing transformation with a wave of AI innovations.
Nagoya University’s Ruri-Large Model
Nagoya University’s Ruri-Large, built using NVIDIA’s Nemotron-4 340B — which is also available as a NIM microservice — is a Japanese embedding model. It achieves high document retrieval performance with high-quality synthetic data generated by Nemotron-4 340B, and it enables the enhancement of language model capabilities through retrieval-augmented generation using external, authoritative knowledge bases.
National Institute of Informatics’ LLM.jp-3-13B-Instruct Model
The National Institute of Informatics will introduce LLM.jp-3-13B-Instruct, a sovereign AI model developed from scratch. Supported by several Japanese government-backed programs, this model underscores the nation’s commitment to self-sufficiency in AI. It’s expected to be available as a NIM microservice soon.
Japan’s Tech Providers Helping Organizations Adopt AI
Technology providers are working to bring NVIDIA AI technologies of all kinds to organizations across Japan.
Accenture’s AI Agent Solutions
Accenture will deploy AI agent solutions based on the Accenture AI Refinery across all industries in Japan, customizing with NVIDIA NeMo and deploying with NVIDIA NIM for a Japanese-specific solution.
Dell Technologies’ Dell AI Factory
Dell Technologies is deploying the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA globally — with a key focus on the Japanese market — and will support NVIDIA NIM microservices for Japanese enterprises across various industries.
Bringing Physical AI to Industries With NVIDIA Omniverse
The proliferation of language models across academia, startups and enterprises, however, is just the start of Japan’s AI revolution.
Yaskawa’s Adaptive Robots
Industrial automation provider Yaskawa, which has shipped 600,000 robots, is developing adaptive robots for increased autonomy. Yaskawa is now adopting NVIDIA Isaac libraries and AI models to create adaptive robot applications for factory automation and other industries such as food, logistics, medical, agriculture and more.
Toyota’s Robotic Factory Lines
Toyota is looking into how to build robotic factory lines in Omniverse to improve tasks in robot motion in metal-forging processes.
Seven & i Holdings’ Retail Insights
Seven & i Holdings is using Omniverse to gather insights from video cameras in research to optimize retail and enhance safety.
Conclusion
Japan’s journey to AI sovereignty is well underway to support the nation in building, developing and sharing AI innovations at home and across the world.
FAQs
Q: What are the key players in Japan’s AI revolution?
A: Fujitsu, The Institute of Science Tokyo, NEC, NTT, and startups like Kotoba Technologies are leading the charge.
Q: What is the significance of Japanese language models?
A: Japanese language models can better interpret Japanese cultural and linguistic nuances, enabling developers to build AI applications for industries requiring high-precision outcomes.
Q: What is NVIDIA Omniverse?
A: NVIDIA Omniverse is a platform that brings physical AI to industries, enabling the development of adaptive robots, robotic factory lines, and other innovative applications.
Q: What is the significance of Japan’s sovereign AI vision?
A: Japan’s sovereign AI vision underscores the nation’s commitment to self-sufficiency in AI, enabling the development of AI innovations at home and across the world.
