The Yomiuri Shimbun

Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry will contribute about 390 billion yen this fiscal year to a new domestic AI development company in which SoftBank Corp. and other Japanese firms have invested, it announced Tuesday.

Total support for the company is expected to reach about 1 trillion yen through fiscal 2030, which ends March 2031.

Through investment, the ministry aims to boost the development of AI for applications such as robotics, an area where Japan holds a competitive advantage.

The new AI development company is Noetra Corp., formerly Nihon AI Kiban Moderu Kaihatsu (Japan AI platform model development company). SoftBank, NEC Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Sony Group Corp. were among the companies that formed Noetra.

In total, more than 40 Japanese companies are expected to invest in the company, including AI startups and major players in the electronics, finance, construction and pharmaceutical sectors.

Noetra plans to begin full-scale AI development this month. The company aims to develop physical AI, which acts as the "brain" that enables robots and other physical objects to move autonomously, over the five years through fiscal 2030.

Initially, about 100 AI engineers from companies that formed or invested in Noetra will join the effort. The company aims to develop a 1-trillion-parameter AI model, putting it at the cutting edge in Japan, by fiscal 2028.

The developed AI will be made available to Japanese companies in stages from next year, allowing each company to train the AI using its own data, as part of efforts to encourage them to switch from foreign-made systems.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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July 01, 2026 03:07 ET (07:07 GMT)

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