Future Watch: AI developments in Japan

OTSIKKO
ALAOTSIKKO, KUUKAUSI VUOSIFUTURE WATCH: AI DEVELOPMENTS IN JAPAN
August 2018

AUTHORS AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Kazuko YUMA
Team Finland Future Watch Report2
Chief Fellow
Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies (IISE)
K-yuuma@ap.jp.nec.com
At Business Finland, we create new growth by supporting companies to go global, as well as funding innovations.
Our top experts speed up the identification of business opportunities around the world and help transform them
into global success stories. Future Watch is part of TF Market opportunities service and it provides actionable
insights from our global network for Finnish businesses and stakeholders. More information at
www.marketopportunities.fi
Teppo Turkki
Counsellor for Science, Technology and Innovation
Embassy of Finland Tokyo, Japan
teppo.Turkki@businessfinland.fi
+81 80 4149 1958

CHAPTER HEADING
SUMMARY
• In Japan high-quality data obtained in the industrial
sites has long been collected and utilized to improve
the productivity, which characterizes strong potential
of Japan.
• The AI development is progressing with the
cooperation of industry, government and academia,
and the government is also implementing policies to
accelerate the development.
• Japan’s strength is AI development in close linkage
with actual manufacturing site and the diversity of AI
engine development.
• The cooperative relationship between Japan and
Finland on AI will create strengths for both countries.

INDEX
1. Trends in AI policies in Japan
2. AI market trends in Japan
3. Major ICT vendor‘s AI engines, cases
4. Advanced cases studies
5. Future view of AI in Japan

TRENDS IN AI POLICIES IN
JAPAN

CHAPTER HEADING
“Artificial Intelligence Technology Strategy” was issued by the Strategic Council for AI
Technology on 31st March, 2017.
The background of this strategy has changed the conditions surrounding Artificial
Intelligence Technology, Data, and Computing.
The dramatic progress of the use and application of AI technology over the last few years
has been led by IT companies in the United States that have Internet platforms such as
search engines, from the perspectives of data quality and volume.
In Japan high-quality data obtained in the industrial sites has long been collected and
utilized to improve the productivity, which characterizes strong potential of Japan.
With proper integration of this potential power of Japan and AI technology the industrial
competitiveness is enhanced.
TRENDS IN AI POLICIES IN JAPAN
NEW NATIONAL AI STRATEGY LAUNCHED ON 31 MARCH 2017

CHAPTER HEADING
Following the prime minister’s instruction given in “Public-Private Dialogue for towards
Investment for the Future” in April, 2016 “Strategic Council for AI Technology” was
established.
The Council, acting as a control tower, has come to manage five National Research and
Development Agencies that fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
and Communications, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In addition to promoting research and
development of AI technology, the Council coordinates with industries who are actually
utilizing AI (so-called “exit industries”) and moves forward with social implementation of
AI technology.
“STRATEGIC COUNCIL FOR AI TECHNOLOGY” AS CONTROL TOWER FOR
PROMOTION OF AI TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER HEADING
In particular, the Council coordinates with three research centers (“three centers”) below
that are attached to the National Research and Development Agencies that are run by the
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology, and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and plays a central
role in promoting research and development of AI technology.
• Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet) and Universal Communication
Research Institute (UCRI) of National Institute of Information and Communications
Technology(NICT)
• Advanced Intelligence Project (AIP) of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
(RIKEN)
• Artificial Intelligence Research Center (AIRC) of the National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)

CHAPTER HEADING
• “Strategic Council for AI Technology”
is positioned as top of the structure.
Underneath there are positioned the
Research Coordination Council and the
Industry Coordination Council to
promoted the industry-academia
collaboration.
• The Research Coordination Council
progress research and development
carried out by the three research
centers under three ministries, namely,
the Ministry of Internal Affairs and
Communications, Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology,
and Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry.
• Along with the Research Coordination
Council the Industry Coordination
Council is responsible for drafting
roadmap for industrialization which is
implemented by New Energy and
Industrial Technology Development
Organization (NEDO).
• In November 2017 the functions of
“Strategic Council for AI Technology”
were enhanced with participation of
additional Ministries as the Cabinet
Office, the Ministry of Health, Labor and
Welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries, and the Ministry
of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
PROMOTIONAL STRUCTURES

CHAPTER HEADING
PROMOTIONAL STRUCTURES
Source: Strategic Council for AI Technology” Artificial Intelligence Technology Strategy”
Strategic Council for AI Technology
Control Tower for 3 Ministries for AI R&D and innovation policies
(Chairman, Adviser (CSTI), executives from 5 agencies．Academia. Directors of 3 Ministries,
Industry) (Jointly managed by 3 Ministries)
Research Coordination Council
Industry Coordination Council
Overall Coordination
(Confirm actual R&D themes)
Overall Coordination between R&D activities
and Industry
(Recruit staff, Standardization, Roadmap,
Market Research on technology, IPR, Rules and
Regulations)
Coordination
National Institute
of Information and
Communications
Technology
(NICT)
(Ministry of Internal
Affairs and
Communications )
Institute of
Physical and
Chemical Research
(RIKEN)
(Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science
and Technology, )
National Institute of
Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology
(AIST)
(Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry)
Task Force
For example, drafting the road map
Task force is set up to promote specific issue
Government Authorities and Industry associated with “Exit Industry”
Share results

CHAPTER HEADING
In order for Japan to lead the world in AI utilization in industrial context, it is necessary to come
up with a challenging roadmap oriented towards industrialization based on AI technology and
other related technology, based on the on-site strengths that Japan possesses with regard to
social issues that Japan and the world are directly faced with. It is also necessary for the
wisdom of industry, academia, and the government to be assembled, and for consistent
approaches, from research and development to social implementation, to be accelerated.
Purposes of research and development of Artificial Intelligence are to investigate social issues
involved in the areas of “productivity,” “health, medical care, and welfare,” “mobility” and
“information security” and to actually confirm how AI technology can contribute to solve such
issues in categorized 3 phases.
INDUSTRIALIZATION ROADMAP
Source: Strategic Council for AI Technology” Artificial Intelligence Technology Strategy”

CHAPTER HEADING
Productivity
To realize user-driven hyper customization
through the realization of automation and
optimization of production systems,
efficiency improvement and optimization
of service industries, and matching needs
with goods and services, leading to the
integration of manufacturing, distribution
and services for items such as energy and
food, which allows for the establishment
of an ultimate ecosystem that is efficient
and that will enhance productivity in
society as a whole.
To enhance people's creativity, leading to a
society where innovative services and
products can be continuously created.
Health, Medical Care, and Welfare
To be the leader in medical care and
welfare technologies by utilizing big data
together with AI as Japan becomes the
world’s most rapidly aging society.
To be the leader in industries for health and
longevity by advancing preventive medicine
to avoid diseases. In 2030, over 40% of the
Japanese population will be elderly, and at
the age of 80, people who are willing can
work actively. This will not only increase
individual life satisfaction but also reduce
social security expenses and address the
social issue of a shrinking workforce.
IMAGE OF SOCIETY PURSUED BY EACH THEME OF RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER HEADING
Mobility:
To make travel time and space not just for
travel, but for work, life, and
entertainment.
To build a society where anyone can travel
safely and freely, and to realize
environmentally-friendly travel by building
a sharing economy with transportation
equipment for both people and goods,
aiming for zero accidents caused by
human error in 2030 and achieving
minimal social cost associated with travel.
To realize a society where new value is
generated by creating high value-added
travel, autonomous automatic delivery,
and virtual travel.
Information Security:
The information security is cross-sectional
sector in which technological development
and implementation move forward, in line
with the development of AI in other
sectors.
With regard to “information security”
technology, not only will reliability and
stability be emphasized, but the
confidentiality of technology will also be
emphasized.

CHAPTER HEADING
AI related budget proposed in the national budget for FY2018 is 77,040 million Yen
(€601.9 million), 30% increased on year-to-year basis and largest ever proposed, but,
budgetary restriction stays to limit the increase.
This AI related budget scale is estimated less than one fifth of the budget of USA and
China where research and development is more progressed. The Government Office is
securing separate budget for strategic research and development in the scale of 55.5
billion yen (€429.7 million), and, they are considering to allocate some of them for AI
research and development.
The investment and spending from the Japanese industry is estimated as 600 billion yen
(€4.7 billion), which is far smaller than US industry where more than 7 trillion yen (€54.7
billion) is estimated as spent by such large companies as Amazon and Google.
AI RELATED NATIONAL BUDGET FOR FY 2018
• Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
39.3 billion yen (€307.0 million) for
research and development of core
robotic technology and of AI chip for
next generation computer
• Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
19.6 billion yen (€153.1 million) for
improved utilization of medical data and
development of new drugs

AI MARKET TRENDS IN JAPAN

CHAPTER HEADING
IDC Japan published on 15th November 2017 the forecast of Japanese Market Scale for
Cognitive/AI systems.
In 2016 the total expense of users was estimated as 15,884 million yen (€124.1 million),
thereafter the market is growing at year-to-year average rate of 73.6%.
The market is estimated to reach 25,011 million yen (€2.0 billion) in 2021.
AI MARKET TRENDS
FORECAST OF JAPANESE MARKET SCALE FOR COGNITIVE/AI SYSTEMS
((in million yen)
15,880
250,011
Note: The survey target is 500 domestic user companies with 100 or more employees.
Source: IDC Japan, March 2017

CHAPTER HEADING
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications published on March 2017 the estimates
of market scale and Real GDP for IoT and AI
The Impact of IoT/AI on Economic Growth is estimated 1495 trillion yen (€11.7 trillion) in
2030. They will push real GDP 132 trillion yen (€1.0 trillion).
AI MARKET TRENDS
ESTIMATES OF MARKET SCALE AND REAL GDP
Source: MIC “Survey Research into Various Issues Relating to the ICT Economy in the IoT Age” 2017
The Impact of IoT/AI on Economic
Growth through to 2030 (Market scale)
The Impact of IoT/AI on Economic
Growth through to 2030 (Real GDP)

ESTIMATION OF
SHORTAGE OF
ADVANCED IT HUMAN
RESOURCES
ACCORDING TO A SURVEY
CONDUCTED BY THE MINISTRY
OF ECONOMY, TRADE AND
INDUSTRY, HUMAN RESOURCES
RELATED TO "BIG DATA", "IOT",
AND "ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE" ARE EXPECTED
TO BE PARTICULARLY SHORT IN
THE FUTURE.
BY 2020 THE NUMBER OF
ADVANCED IT HUMAN
RESOURCES WILL INCREASE TO
12.9 MILLION PEOPLE, BUT THE
NUMBER OF SHORTAGES WILL
BE ESTIMATED TO EXPAND TO
48,000 PEOPLE.
34,940 41,160 48,510
61,960
70,790
80,880
15,190
31,500
47,810
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
2016年 2018 Estimate 2020 Estimate
ICT vender Compnies as user Number of shortages
( Number of people)
Number of
people
shortage in
the future
AI MARKET TRENDS

MAJOR ICT VENDOR‘S AI ENGINES,
CASES

CHAPTER HEADING
NEC have been long engaged in research and development activities on AI technology to
cope with a variety of social and business needs and have been coping with various
demands with flexibility and speed through proper combination of different kind of AI
technology
MAJOR ICT VENDOR‘S AI ENGINES
NEC “NEC THE WISE”
• Textual Entailment Recognition :
Text analysis to find out the right
sentence with the same meaning or
implication out of a large amount of
sentences.
NEC’s strength is the recognition NEC
was awarded with No. 1 prize in the
contest sponsored by NIST (National
Institute of Standards and Technology)
in USA to judge with speed and
accuracy whether two texts contain the
same meaning or implication.
• Heterogeneous Mixture Learning:
To find a multiple number of regularities
automatically out of a large variety of
data.
In the heterogeneous mixture learning,
these reasons are openly visible and
people can understand the reasons why
the estimate or prediction is derived. It
is, therefore, easy and smooth to
implement the business and to make a
decision.

CHAPTER HEADING
Source: Website of NEC
MAJOR ICT VENDOR‘S AI ENGINE

CHAPTER HEADING
“corevo®” is unified brand name adopted by NTT group. It is developed employing AI
technology through NTT’s R&D activities and is aimed to accelerate collaborations with
many partners.
NTT positioned AI into following 4 directions when they develop underlying technology of
AI of “corevo®” supported by NTT’s strength in communication field.
NTT “COREVO®”
• Agent-AI: coexists with people and
enriches their everyday lives
Agent-AI understands a person's
intention or feeling from his/her voice,
speech or body language and is able to
engage in an advanced conversation
through a robot or a virtual agent that
performs multimodal interactions,
including gestures.
• Heart-Touching-AI：grips with the true
nature of the human mind, making it
possible to support people in improving
their sports skills or mental wellbeing.
Heart-Touching-AI understands, acts on
and expands a person's essential,
fundamental and yet subconscious
elements, instinct and physical body.

CHAPTER HEADING
Source: Website of NTT

CHAPTER HEADING
Fujitsu is aiming for AI under slogans of “AI in coordination with people and with human
centric” and “AI with continued growth”
Fujitsu is endeavoring to offer “more human friendly ICT” and “ICT=Human centric AI
system” to customers and the society.
FUJITSU “FUJITSU HUMAN CENTRIC AI ZINRAI”
• Zinrai Deep Learning
Fujitsu offer “Zinrai Deep Learning”, deep learning platform service which realizes
Learning process capability of world-fastest level.
• Zinrai can deliver learnt model to edge devices and can propose Re-learning
functions.
• Zinrai enlarge the limits of AI application by advanced learning techniques of time-
series data and world-first learning technique of graphical data.

CHAPTER HEADING
MAJOR ICT VENDOR‘S AI ENGINE
AI applications
enlargedConventional Range of Deep
Learning applications
Image
Graphic
DataData in chronological orderVoice Text
Material
Recognition
Hand-writing
Characters
e.g. Evaluation of Credit
Risk
e.g. Detection of illegal
communication
e.g. New drug discovery
e.g. behavior recognition
e.g. Disease diagnosis
Fintech Fintech
Medical/Medicine Medical/Medicine
IoT
e.g. Economic
Forecast/Analysis
Wearable Devices
Source: Website of Fujitsu
Already put into
practical use

ADVANCED EXAMPLES OF COMPANIES

CHAPTER HEADING
• Sumitomo Electric developed an
automatic image inspection AI system
that detects minute cracks of automobile
parts with high accuracy.
ADVANCED CASES STUDIES
MANUFACTURING SECTOR
AI×Predictive maintenance AI×Defect prevention
• Mitsubishi Chemical uses AI for the
operation data base of plants
accumulated for many years to detect
signs of equipment trouble.
• kewpie introduced Image Recognition AI
in screening defective materials in the
manufacturing process of mayonnaise.
• The development partner is BrainPad Inc.
.
• Daikin Industries, Ltd. collaborates with
ABEJA Co., Ltd., aims at advanced
business improvement and efficiency by
AI by analyzing various information in the
company by utilizing
• ABEJA‘s strengths is deep learning .

CHAPTER HEADING
DISASTER FIELD
AI×Infrastructure maintenance AI×disaster prevention
• Fukuda Road Co., Ltd. and NEC
Corporation jointly developed a
"pavement damage diagnostic system"
that utilizes AI technology to
simultaneously detect rut coring and
cracks from images of the road surface.
• Weathernews Inc. forecast guerilla heavy
rain by AI analysis of 500,000 cloud
images collected from users
• the National Research Institute for Earth
Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED)
cooperated with NTT DoCoMo launched a
new surveillance system to capture
changes in slopes causing landslide
disasters. They plan to analyze the
monitoring data by AI.
• As part of the NEDO project, Metropolitan
Expressway Company Limited, the AIST,
and Tohoku University have developed an
AI system that can detect cracks in
concrete of 0.2 mm or greater in width
with high precision, detecting 80% or
more of cracks even in difficult conditions,
such as dirt or scratches on the surface of
the concrete.

CHAPTER HEADING
SERVICE ROBOT FIELD
AI×Service AI×Communication
• H. I. S operates a hotel “HENNA hotel
(meaning" strange "in Japanese)" where a
robot staff work , such as a concierge
robot equipped with AI.
• The sony dog robot "aibo" is equipped
with AI, learns the owner's behavior and
emotion, and makes a gesture according
to it.
Source: Website of aiboSource: Website of HENNA hotel

CHAPTER HEADING
AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY, AND FISHERY FIELD
AI×Livestock AI×Agriculture
• The JA group introduced Fujitsu's "GYUHO
SaaS" which is a system that detects the
estrus time from cattle behavioral
characteristics and enables breeding at a
high insemination
• Saga Prefecture and OPTiM cooperate in
the pest detection system by AI image
analysis at seven test sites in the
prefecture.
• Marui agricultural cooperatives and NEC
implement AI for breeding chickens. AI
detects a dead chicken in the chicken
house by comparing the actual image in
the poultry house with the preliminary
learning image. This system reduces the
worker's burden and leads to improved
egg quality.
• The Japan Weather Association launched
a project for a food demand forecasting
utilizing weather forecasting technology.
Manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers
will reduce food loss by sharing accurate
AI predictions .

CHAPTER HEADING
HEALTHCARE FIELD
AI×Drug discovery AI×Diagnosis support
• CYTLIMIC is a biotechnology company
developing immunotherapy products for
the treatment of cancer, including a
cancer peptide vaccine. CYTLIMIC’s
products aim to activate immune systems
to attack cancer cells while enabling
patients to maintain a high quality-of-life
during treatment.
• Aichi Medical University, Nippon Zoki
Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and FRONTEO
Healthcare, Inc. Begin Joint Research on
Creating an AI System to Guide Pain
Management
• Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma and Hitachi
began collaborating towards improving
the efficiency of clinical trials of drug
development using AI technology.
• Canon Medical Systems Co., Ltd. will start
collaborative research with Kumamoto
University and Bordeaux University in
France on Deep Learning Reconstruction
(DLR), which is one of AI techniques.

FUTURE VIEW OF AI

CHAPTER HEADING
AI to be developed in close linkage with manufacturing site
In Japan “Kaizen”(constant improvement) activities have been promoted in the
manufacturing sites for years, and a large amount of information and data have been
collected and fed back for the system to improve product quality.
Collecting data on the daily practice is very effective also for the development of AI
systems and actual deployment. In Japan also rea-life “diaries” and experiences have
been abundantly and stored. These massive data will help in creating and developing
future AI-driven manufacturing processes.
FUTURE VIEW OF AI IN JAPAN
JAPAN'S STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Strength 1

CHAPTER HEADING
Diversity of AI engine development and black box issue
“Black-box style” in deep learning is the typical AI engine development style globally.
In the black-box style, the reasoning and algorithms – how AI has derived the results - is not
properly shown or clear. This, sometimes, may create challenging situations where experts can
not fully understand the logic or reasons behind the conclusion. In the fields like medical and
nursing care, this is a critical question.
In Japan many companies are developing white-box style AI engine derived from machine learning
and are engaged heavily in developing the technology to solve this “why?”.
Also, Japanese ICT companies are developing AI technology that enables high-precision prediction
even in a situation with small amount of learning data.
These diversified AI developments are also the strength of Japan.
Strength 2

CHAPTER HEADING
High awareness of information security and personal information protection:
Japan has many guidelines on information security, and the Personal Information
Protection Act has been amended in 2015.
On 31 May 2018, the Personal Information Protection Commission of Japan (PPC) and the
European Commission agreed to intensify the work with the shared commitment to
complete as soon as possible both procedures – the designation of the EEA by the PPC as
a foreign country establishing a personal information protection system recognized to
have equivalent standards to those in Japan based on Article 24 of the Act on the
Protection of Personal Information (APPI) and the parallel decision by the European
Commission that Japan ensures an adequate level of protection of personal data
pursuant to Article 45 of the GDPR.
This agreement will enable the transfer of personal data between Japan and the EU.
Strength 3

CHAPTER HEADING
Insufficient number of human resources with AI expertise
The world is progressing with innovation supported by AI technology, and Japan needs to
accelerate fundamentally the” recruitment of AI human resources ”.
In Japan, however, higher education emphasizes humanities and science and statistics is
not required in many faculties. It is therefore required that data science education is
substantially reviewed.
The number of students for engineering is 90 000 per annum, of which 28 000 major
information relevant studies. It is essential to increase the number of those students. It is
also essential and urgently needed to review the adult education system and to promote
practical education for data scientists through public-private collaboration program.
Weakness 1

CHAPTER HEADING
Difficulty in collecting high quality data in large quantities:
The development of AI requires high quality bulk data on national level. Lack of existing
processes to collect the data is considered as a weakness in this case.
Currently there is no well organized, secured, high quality national data collection in
Japan when in comes to national bulk data. Particularly national health information
exchange is not well organized or developed in Japan. In medical sector national
regulations controls the collection of data. Restrictions apply specially in such sectors as
medical and nursing care which are focused on social issues and aging society. Currently
the information exchange is limited to circulation of data between the individual and
hospital or institute.
Japanese Government made a policy decision that by 2020 Japan introduces “Medical
ID” system to identify the individual in the medical and nursing care field to promote the
utilization of medical data, but, the movement seems slow so far.
Weakness 2

CHAPTER HEADING
Balance between personal data protection and data utilization:
It is to be further noted that there are many other obstacles to clear from the point of
personal data use and protection when trying to secure the medical data.
The second utilization of medical data the ”Act on anonymously processed medical
information for research“ was in force in May 2018.
This act is to promote the utilization of medical data with due consideration that the
individual is not identified by anonymous arrangement to protect its privacy right. The
important point is that by this method opt-out use of medical data is secured. It needs,
however, to be noted that detailed method of data anonymization is not clear enough.
Further efforts are still needed to make it fully functional.
Weakness 3

CHAPTER HEADING
One of the possible collaboration between Finland and Japan is the AI competence
development. In Japan we are facing the urgent need of AI human resource
development. The situation might be the same also in Finland.
In Japan some arrangement is already made that 6 universities: the University of Tokyo,
Kyoto University, Osaka University, Kyushu University, Hokkaido University and Shiga
University are selected as key universities where overall data science education is
provided regardless whether the students are belonging to humanities or engineering
faculty.
In Finland there is Aalto University famous for its computer science education. The
University is also famous for its practical and constructive approach both in research and
education with close link with the industry. University of Jyväskylä is also famous for its AI
studies.
The collaboration might be possible in the area of arranging common curriculum or text
book, or, forming consortium between these universities.
POSSIBILITY OF COLLABORATION BETWEEN JAPAN AND FINLAND
Collaboration in AI human resource development

CHAPTER HEADING
Cooperative relationships with research institutes as well as universities are also
important. The AIRC and the Finnish organization “FCAI” from Aalto and Helsinki
Universities have agreed in May to set up this year 2018 mutual collaboration involving
research collaboration, and researcher and student exchange. We should strengthen
such relationship building.
Japanese Government launched “ Tobitate! (Leap for Tomorrow) Study Abroad Initiative,
Young Ambassador Program”, a public-private effort for the future of Japan. This initiative
offers various opportunities for students to embrace the chance to study abroad. The
basic philosophy behind this initiative is to support and to enhance student caliber in the
actual business based on the knowledge of the industry through the experience to study
abroad.

CHAPTER HEADING
The second opportunity for the collaboration between Japan and Finland is to establish
the scheme to share expertise to complement each other.
For example Japan is trying to make the best use of AI in such areas as manufacturing or
social robotic service area represented by “Omotenashi” , Japanese hospitality, thus
solving the issue of labor shortage and more progressing to higher valued areas.
In Japan there are many natural disasters, so, it is essential how we can make best use of
AI to protect and mitigate such disasters based on abundant experience from the past.
Japan is also suffering from the declining birth rate and aging population, most advanced
in the world. In parallel with it the information oriented society is being enhanced and
progressed. Japan can be considered as test bed for Finnish companies to foresee the
future of “Aging Society x Information oriented society”
Building a global ecosystem by supplementing in the field of specialties

CHAPTER HEADING
On the other hand Finland is famous for its advanced health care system.
As so represented by KanTa, Finnish National Archive of Health Information, a high quality
of health information is archived on national base and the utilization of AI technology is
advanced in medical research. HETU, personal identification number, is also popular in
the daily life, and, is used for government administration service and other financial
service. If we can utilize these data , although not available in Japan, for AI research and
development , we may expect a great success.
Because of EU GDPR being into force it becomes difficult to utilize personal information
between EU and Japan. The Personal Information Protection Commission of Japanese
Government announced in May 2018 that they agreed with EU authorities that EU would
check and confirm whether Japan is in “adequate level of protection” for EU personal
data. This direction is considered positive for the future utilization of personal data
between Japan and Finland.

Teppo Turkki
Counsellor for Science, Technology and
Innovation
Business Finland Tokyo, Japan
teppo.turkki@businessfinland.fi
Kazuko Yuma
Chief Fellow
Institute for International Socio-
Economic Studies (IISE)
K-yuuma@ap.jp.nec.com

Future Watch: AI developments in Japan

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