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Countries / Japan

AI in Japan

Aims to be “the most AI-friendly country in the world”: soft law, state-backed industrial policy, and a focus on physical AI and robotics.

Profile reviewed 24 Sep 202614 developments tracked

FY2026 government budget for chips and AI
¥1.23tn
Nvidia H200 GPUs in the national ABCI 3.0
6,128
Share of people using generative AI, vs ~69% in the US (FY2024)
~25%

Updated daily · newest first

Latest from Japan

Invention Robots can learn two-handed tasks from people’s handheld recordings alone, a Japanese group’s open model suggests Japan's AI Robot Association has released AIRoA-0, a robot model trained on 16,151 hours of people using a handheld gripper, which it says beat four rival models on… Research · Robotics Invention Toyota will build Waymo’s self-driving bZ4X fleet in Japan, with testing from 2027 Toyota will build autonomous bZ4X vehicles for Waymo at its Takaoka plant, with testing in Japan from 2027 and the UK to follow. Robotics Invention KDDI and Wing plan drone deliveries in Japan from 2027 Wing and KDDI aim to start drone deliveries of food and daily goods in parts of Japan in 2027. Nothing is flying yet. Robotics Invention Sakana AI’s Japanese-tuned model goes into a clinical evidence search tool Sakana Namazu is now behind Evidence Finder, a doctor-facing literature search tool, with a 96.4% medical licensing exam score and a very carefully bounded claim attached to it. Applications · Models Adoption JERA, Dell and RHAELM plan up to 400MW of AI capacity at a Chiba power station JERA will explore up to 400MW of AI data centre capacity beside its Chiba thermal power station with Dell, RHAELM and Apollo, at an expected cost above US$15bn. Infrastructure Invention Sakana AI’s SAIL learns robot tasks from a few demonstrations by searching in simulation Sakana AI and the University of Tokyo lift a robot’s success rate from 25% to 73% by searching 45 candidate trajectories in simulation instead of gathering more demonstration… Research · Robotics Invention Toyota plans to put 400,000 AI-driven robots in its factories from 2028 Toyota plans about ¥1 trillion a year from 2028 to add up to 400,000 in-house robots across its own and group plants. Robotics

Profile

Reviewed monthly · Sources (9)

Strategy

The AI Promotion Act (May 2025) created a PM-chaired AI Strategy Headquarters, which issued a revised AI Basic Plan on 14 Jul 2026. The FY2026 budget puts about ¥1.23tn into chips and AI.

Regulation

No penalties: the Act relies on a duty to cooperate and naming companies, plus non-binding guidelines. The July 2026 plan signals a review that could add penalties. Copyright Article 30-4 permits most AI training.

Compute

The national ABCI 3.0 has 6,128 H200 GPUs. SoftBank is building a 27,500-GPU Vera Rubin cluster for the Noetra consortium. Rapidus targets 2nm mass production in 2027.

Key labs

Noetra (Sony, SoftBank, NEC, Honda), SB Intuitions, NTT, Sakana AI, Preferred Networks, Fujitsu.

Notable models

NTT tsuzumi 2 (Oct 2025), SB Intuitions Sarashina, Preferred Networks PLaMo.

What to watch

Whether the review adds penalties to the AI law; Rapidus’s 2nm ramp in 2027; Noetra’s first reasoning model.
Sources
  1. AI Promotion Act (FPF)
  2. Revised AI Basic Plan (Cabinet Office)
  3. Plan revision (Asia News Network)
  4. AI and copyright (Agency for Cultural Affairs)
  5. ABCI computing resources
  6. SoftBank Noetra cluster
  7. Rapidus funding
  8. FY2026 budget (SemiMedia)
  9. Generative AI use survey (JST)

Japan on the timeline

Full timeline →
  1. The Neocognitron introduces convolution
  2. Japan launches its Fifth Generation Computer plan
  3. Honda unveils the ASIMO humanoid robot
  4. Fugaku tops the TOP500 supercomputer list
  5. G7 adopts the Hiroshima AI Process code of conduct
  6. Japan enacts its first AI law, the AI Promotion Act

People

Who’s shaping AI in Japan

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