Amazon Web Services (AWS) yesterday announced its plans to invest 2.26 trillion yen into its existing cloud infrastructure in Tokyo and Osaka by 2027 to meet growing customer demand for cloud services in Japan. According to the new AWS Economic Impact Study (EIS) for Japan, this planned investment is estimated to contribute 5.57 trillion yen to Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and support an estimated average of 30,500 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in local Japanese businesses each year. Having already invested 1.51 trillion yen in Japan from 2011 to 2022, AWS’s planned total investment into cloud infrastructure in the country by 2027 will be approximately 3.77 trillion yen.
AWS’s investment will continue to play a pivotal role in helping organizations across industries in Japan to boost national productivity and transform customer experiences. Today, customers such as Asahi Group Japan,Ltd., FP Corporation, KDDI Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, and Nomura Holdings,Inc., RareJob Technologies, Takenaka Corporation, Ricoh Company, Ltd. and more leverage AWS’s generative AI offerings to deliver productivity gains, reimagine customer experiences, and drive new business growth. To accelerate generative AI adoption in Japan, AWS announced the general availability of Amazon Bedrock, in the AWS Asia Pacific (Tokyo) Region in October 2023. Bedrock is a fully managed service that offers a choice of high-performing foundation models (FMs) via a single API, enabling customers to run and store their generative AI applications and data locally and deploy workloads closer to their end-users.
AWS is also committed to accelerating the development of more diverse and industry-specific large language models (LLMs) with the launch of the AWS LLM Development Support Program in Japan. This program provides select organizations with technical mentoring and US$6 million (or 868 million yen) investment in the form of AWS credits to build and train LLMs on AWS, expert guidance for selecting and procuring computing resources, and business-side support to grow users. In July 2023, 17 diverse organizations were selected to participate.
In June 2023, AWS invested US $100 million in the Generative AI Innovation Center, a program that connects AWS machine learning and AI experts with customers and partners worldwide to accelerate enterprise innovation and success with generative AI. Customers in Japan such as Asahi Group Japan, a Japanese beverage holding company headquartered in Sumida, Tokyo, are collaborating with the Generative AI Innovation Center to drive new product innovation using data analysis and improve operational efficiency. AWS has also announced a collection of free and low-cost training courses, including four available in Japanese, to help people understand, implement, and begin using generative AI.
Takuya Hirai, former digital minister and current chair of headquarters for the promotion of a digital society, Liberal Democratic Party
The adoption of digital technology has become a source of a country’s competitiveness. The development of digital infrastructure in Japan is key to strengthening the country's industrial competitiveness, and data centers play an important role to this end. It promotes the use of important technologies such as AI and improves the capabilities of research and development in Japan. I greatly welcome AWS’s long-term investments in strategic areas for Japan, such as data centers, digital workforce development, AI, and renewable energy. These investments will create local jobs, improve productivity, grow markets for digital transformation and green transformation, and accelerate innovation for Japan. I hope that AWS will play an even greater role in strengthening Japan's digital industrial competitiveness in the future.
Tadao Nagasaki, president of AWS in Japan
For over a decade, AWS has been committed to helping our Japanese customers access the latest cutting-edge technology, build digital solutions on highly resilient and secure cloud infrastructure, and adapt their businesses to maintain an edge in today’s complex economic environment. Our investment into cloud infrastructure generates a ripple effect across the Japanese industries including the public and government sector. It will help more Japanese organizations with the ability to access and adopt new, emerging and transformational digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. We are committed to and excited about the future of Japan’s digital economy.
