METI to Provide 1 Trillion Yen to SoftBank Alliance and Others for Domestic AI Development

Jul 02, 2026 | News On Japan

TOKYO - Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said on June 30 that it has selected a corporate group including SoftBank as a recipient of support for domestic artificial intelligence development, with funding expected to reach as much as 1 trillion yen.

METI will first provide around 390 billion yen in fiscal 2026 to Noetora, a new company established with SoftBank, Sony Group, NEC and Honda as its core members, along with other entities.

Noetora plans to develop domestic AI jointly with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, a national research organization. Total government support is expected to reach about 1 trillion yen over five years from the current fiscal year.

The public and private sectors aim to jointly develop core technologies for "physical AI," which enables robots and other machines to operate autonomously, as Japan seeks to compete with China and the United States, which are ahead in the field.

Source: テレ東BIZ

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