At NVIDIA AI Day Tokyo, one of the world’s most anticipated gatherings on artificial intelligence, Japan took center stage in defining its AI-driven future. The event, held last week, brought together over 900 developers, researchers, and industry leaders to discuss sovereign AI, foundational technologies, and the future of computing infrastructure in Japan.
The Big Announcement: 320x Growth in AI Compute Demand
“Japan will see a 320x increase from 2020 in demand for AI computing power by 2030,” said Kuniyoshi Suzuki, Senior Director of the Cloud AI Service Division at SoftBank Corp.
Suzuki emphasized that Japan’s path to sustainable AI growth depends on building domestic technologies — including high-performance, Japan-made large language models (LLMs) and large-scale local computing infrastructure capable of continuous LLM training and development.
This vision aligns with Japan’s national agenda to ensure AI transparency, safety, and sovereignty, while reducing dependence on external compute ecosystems.
Why It Matters
The Japanese government is placing AI at the heart of its national growth strategy.
Last year, it pledged an investment of 10 trillion yen (≈ $65 billion) through fiscal year 2030 to strengthen the semiconductor and AI sectors.
According to Kazuya Ishikawa, AI Evangelist at NEC, specialized AI systems will fuel Japan’s digital transformation:
“Specialized AI for industries like manufacturing, finance, and healthcare will drive Japan’s digital transformation. LLMs such as NEC cotomi enable professional knowledge transfer and help mitigate the skill gaps and labor shortages Japan faces.”
This shift marks a powerful intersection of policy, innovation, and industry execution — one where Japan’s “Sovereign AI” ambitions could define a new era of national competitiveness.
Building the Foundations of Sovereign AI
Japan’s GENIAC initiative is designed to strengthen domestic generative AI capabilities, empowering local companies with:
- Access to AI compute resources
- Collaborative AI development environments
- Support for Japanese-language foundation models and industry-specific LLMs
This initiative reflects Japan’s commitment to localizing AI intelligence — ensuring that models understand not only the Japanese language but also its cultural, demographic, and industrial context.
The AI Ecosystem at a Glance
An infographic from the event showcased Japan’s thriving AI ecosystem powered by NVIDIA technologies:
- 281,000 Japan-based NVIDIA Developer Program members
- 400 NVIDIA Inception startups
- 6 major cloud providers operating NVIDIA-powered AI factories
- 29,000 NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute enrollments in Japan
These figures underline how Japan is rapidly mobilizing both talent and infrastructure to fuel the next wave of AI innovation.
Industry in Motion: From LLMs to AI Agents
Japanese companies showcased tangible breakthroughs using NVIDIA’s AI software stack — from NeMo to AI Blueprints and NIM microservices.
- Stockmark launched a 100-billion-parameter full-scratch Japanese LLM as an NVIDIA NIM microservice, boasting 2.5x faster inference.
- FastLabel introduced FastLabel Data Curation, powering next-gen autonomous driving and driver-assistance systems.
- Hakuhodo Technologies announced plans to use NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit and AI Blueprints to build AI agents that autonomously generate ad campaigns.
- Shimizu Corporation, a 200-year-old construction leader, is leveraging NVIDIA AI for video summarization and site monitoring, enhancing safety and project oversight.
Cultural Alignment: Nemotron-Personas-Japan
NVIDIA also unveiled Nemotron-Personas-Japan, the first open synthetic dataset aligned with Japan’s demographic, geographic, and cultural distribution.
This dataset ensures that AI models represent Japanese society accurately — a crucial step toward privacy-preserving, regulation-compliant, and culturally aligned sovereign AI.
Japan’s AI story is not about chasing global trends — it’s about building an independent, ethical, and sustainable AI ecosystem rooted in its culture, precision, and innovation legacy.
As NVIDIA, SoftBank, NEC, and a growing network of startups collaborate under the sovereign AI vision, Japan could become a global model for how nations shape AI revolutions around their unique values and strengths.