Japanese tech news in May of 2024
This month, Japan’s technology sectors saw a number of significant developments, including: fast-growing partnerships between Japanese and South Korean tech businesses; cryptocurrency in Japanese e-commerce; a Japan-ASEAN bid to offset China’s EV domination; a Japanese large language model for domestic use; and more.
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IISS: Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2024
- Japan’s SusHi Tech Challenge concludes with Fermenstation taking 10M yen prize for most innovative startup, with circular approach to use of otherwise wasted resources / read it here
- Tokyo Metro Gov’t inks MOU with Startup Island TAIWAN and Thailand’s Nat’l Innovation Agency during SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024, aiming to boost startup ecosystem collaborations / read it here
- Japan: Mercari e-commerce giant launches Ethereum trading services on its app, adding to crypto exchange integration and acceptance of Bitcoin in payments / read it here
- Japan and ASEAN to create joint strategy on auto production and sales in bid to address China’s fast-growing presence in the region’s electric vehicles market / read it here
- An overview of the issues surrounding the Line messaging app data leak, given its 50-50 ownership by Japanese and South Korean firms / read it here
Stormwall: Q1 2024 report on DDoS attacks in Asia-Pacific
- Vertex Ventures Japan launches inaugural Vertex Ventures Japan Fund I, anchored by Vertex Holdings, venture capital arm of Singapore’s Temasek state fund / read it here
- South Korea’s K-Startup Center opens in Tokyo to help Korean firms expand via partnerships with Japanese firms, adding to KSC presence in Singapore, Vietnam, France and the US / read it here
- Japan: Researchers have developed a large language model trained predominantly in Japanese to serve as a foundation for generative AI, using Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer / read it here
- UTokyo Innovation Platform’s 1stRound deep-tech support program inks agreement with Germany’s Cyber Valley for mutual startup support between Japan and Europe / read it here
- Japan: Metaplanet investment firm adopts bitcoin as ‘strategic reserve asset’ as a hedge against Japan’s debt burden and volatility in the yen / read it here
- Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric partners UK’s Extend Robotics for VR tech for industrial robotics focusing on incidents and actions outside defined processes / read it here
LG Energy Solution: LG Battery Challenge 2024
- Japan: An overview of the country’s revitalized investment focus in advanced technologies / read it here
- Japanese research consortium announces 6G milestone with world-first 6G wireless device capable of transmitting 100 gigabits per second / read it here
- Japan: Osaka, Nagoya, Tsukuba and Yokosuka in talks with Microsoft, AWS and Google around guidelines governing use of AI in city and government work / read it here
- India: NoPo Nanotechnologies boosts production of advanced material that can replace silicon in semiconductors and batteries, with samples supplied to chipmakers in Japan and Taiwan / read it here
- A brief look at the recent Korea-Japan Venture & Startup Investment Summit 2024, and the new joint venture fund in which the two governments participate / read it here
- South Korea: NextRise 2024 Seoul tech and startup event is set for June, this year including Japan as inaugural ‘guest country’ with company and startup showcase / read it here
- ICYMI: In February, Korea Int’l Trade Assoc’n inaugurates Special Committee on ROK-Japan Cooperation to boost economic and trade collaboration between the two in the private sector / read it here
- PLDT, Philippines’ largest telecoms group, now in talks to sell up to 49% of data centre business to Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone in $750M deal / read it here
Critical technologies, globally, in May 2024
Asia’s tech news: Other editions
Our other tech news editions and formats span the range from daily to quarterly, and are available on a range of platforms so as to provide readers with the widest array of reading options.
LG Energy Solutions: LG Battery Challenge 2024
