Organizations shaping AI

NEC

Technology company whose research labs employed early machine-learning researchers.

Japan's leading research university and a major source of AI and engineering research.

Sakana AI

Tokyo-based AI research company founded by David Ha and Llion Jones. Focuses on nature-inspired AI, foundation model merging, and evolutionary approaches to building and improving AI systems.

Computer-science research institute and graduate school on the University of Chicago campus, focused on machine learning and theory.

Public research university in Kyoto, Japan, founded in 1897 — Japan's second-oldest university and home to many Nobel laureates.

MERL, the North American research arm of Mitsubishi Electric, working on signal processing, vision, and machine learning.

RIKEN

Japan's largest comprehensive research institution (Rikagaku Kenkyūsho), founded in 1917, conducting research across the physical and life sciences including its AIP Center for AI.

Japanese multinational with research labs working on AI, electronics, and computing.

Research institute in Iizuka, Japan, focused on fuzzy logic, soft computing and intelligent systems.

Public research university in Hiroshima, Japan, founded in 1949.

Japanese e-commerce company, founded in 2013, operating the country's largest consumer-to-consumer marketplace app.

Public technical university in Nagoya, Japan, focused on engineering.

Sony is a Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate founded in 1946, with interests spanning consumer hardware, gaming, imaging sensors, and AI research.

National college of technology in Suzuka, Japan.

Toyota Research Institute is Toyota's AI and robotics research arm, founded in 2015 and based in Los Altos, California, working on autonomous driving, robotics, and materials discovery.

Alternative Machine Inc. is a Tokyo-based AI company that develops AI tools for creative industries, including the image generation platform Nijijourney.