To provide high-quality medical care to its population — around 30% of whom are 65 or older — Japan is pursuing sovereign AI initiatives supporting nearly every aspect of healthcare.
AI tools trained on country-specific data and local compute infrastructure are supercharging the abilities of Japan’s clinicians and researchers so they can care for patients, amid an expected shortage of nearly 500,000 healthcare workers by next year.
Breakthrough technology deployments by the country’s healthcare leaders — including in AI-accelerated drug discovery, genomic medicine, healthcare imaging and robotics — are highlighted at the NVIDIA AI Summit Japan, taking place in Tokyo through Nov. 13.
Drug Discovery AI Factories Deepen Understanding, Accuracy and Speed
NVIDIA is supporting Japan’s pharmaceutical market — one of the three largest in the world — with NVIDIA BioNeMo, an end-to-end platform that enables drug discovery researchers to develop and deploy AI models for generating biological intelligence from biomolecular data.
BioNeMo includes a customizable, modular programming framework and NVIDIA NIM microservices for optimized AI inference. New models include AlphaFold2, which predicts the 3D structure of a protein from its amino acid sequence; DiffDock, which predicts the 3D structure of a molecule interacting with a protein; and RFdiffusion, which designs novel protein structures likely to bind with a target molecule.
Japan’s Pharma Companies and Research Institutions Advance Drug Research and Development
Astellas, Daiichi-Sankyo and Ono Pharmaceutical are leading Japanese pharma companies harnessing the Tokyo-1 system, an NVIDIA DGX AI supercomputer built in collaboration with Xeureka, a subsidiary of the Japanese business conglomerate Mitsui & Co, to build AI models for drug discovery. Xeureka is using Tokyo-1 to accelerate AI model development and molecular simulations.
AI Scanners and Scopes Give Radiologists and Surgeons Real-Time Superpowers
Japan’s healthcare innovators are building AI-augmented systems to support radiologists and surgeons.
Fujifilm has developed an AI application in collaboration with NVIDIA to help surgeons perform surgery more efficiently.
Scaling Healthcare With Digital Health Agents
Older adults have higher rates of chronic conditions and use healthcare services the most — so to keep up with its aging population, Japan-based companies are at the forefront of developing digital health systems to augment patient care.
Fujifilm has launched NURA, a group of health screening centers with AI-augmented medical examinations designed to help doctors test for cancer and chronic diseases with faster examinations and lower radiation doses for CT scans.
Conclusion
Japan is leading the way in the adoption of AI in healthcare, with a focus on developing country-specific solutions to address the unique challenges faced by its aging population. From AI-accelerated drug discovery to digital health systems, Japan is leveraging AI to improve patient care and reduce the burden on its healthcare system.
FAQs
Q: What is NVIDIA BioNeMo?
A: NVIDIA BioNeMo is an end-to-end platform that enables drug discovery researchers to develop and deploy AI models for generating biological intelligence from biomolecular data.
Q: What is the Tokyo-1 system?
A: The Tokyo-1 system is an NVIDIA DGX AI supercomputer built in collaboration with Xeureka, a subsidiary of the Japanese business conglomerate Mitsui & Co, to build AI models for drug discovery.
Q: What is NURA?
A: NURA is a group of health screening centers with AI-augmented medical examinations designed to help doctors test for cancer and chronic diseases with faster examinations and lower radiation doses for CT scans.
Q: What is the NVIDIA Holoscan platform?
A: The NVIDIA Holoscan platform is a sensor processing platform that streamlines AI model and application development for real-time insights.
