AI use cases in Japan
8 documented implementations
Toyota Industries Cuts Paint Defects 25% with an Azure Industrial AI Data Foundation
Toyota Industries worked with Microsoft and partner Sight Machine to build a unified, AI-ready industrial data foundation on Azure, structuring factory data from Azure IoT Hub for near real-time analysis at its Nagakusa Plant bumper paint process. AI and machine learning were used to analyze nearly 400 variables before narrowing to the signals most correlated with defects. The pilot showed a 25% drop in defects, and the deployed foundation cut analysis cycles from 5 days to under 4 hours.
ARUM Adds an LLM-Powered AI Character to Machining Centers Using Azure AI
Japanese manufacturing automation company ARUM developed TTMC Origin, a machining center operated through natural conversation with an LLM-powered AI character named KAYA, using Azure Speech, Azure OpenAI and Azure AI Search with GPT-5 running on an industrial PC. Users with no machining knowledge can perform high-precision operations by voice chat. Automating NC programming cuts the steps with CAM from 177 to 2, and since NC programming accounts for 50% of production cost per part, ARUM says automating it could cut production costs in half.
Money Forward compresses new developer onboarding from a week to a day with Claude Code
Money Forward, one of Japan's largest cloud financial software companies serving over 17 million users, ran a structured internal evaluation program called MEPAR before rolling out Claude Code company-wide, reaching 80% engineer adoption with over 90% code acceptance. API endpoint implementation time dropped from two days to five hours, a single engineer built the company's entire MCP Server solo in three months, and an automated onboarding command compressed new developer setup from a week to a single day as the company expanded engineering teams into India and Vietnam.
Money Forward· JapanClaude CodeCRESCO deploys Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI company-wide, saving staff about 10 hours a month
CRESCO, a Japanese systems integrator, trialed Microsoft 365 Copilot with 30 licenses starting April 2024, found it saved the average user approximately ten hours of work per month and cut post-interview data entry for executives from 30 minutes to 5 minutes, then expanded to 1,000 licenses company-wide by January 2025, reaching over 90% usage within six months. CRESCO also uses Azure OpenAI and GitHub Copilot in its core software development processes through its Generative AI Business Transformation Lab.
NTT DATA Transforms Its Enterprise with Agentic AI in Microsoft Fabric, Azure AI Foundry
NTT DATA adopted Microsoft Fabric data agents integrated with Azure AI Agent Service to build conversational, autonomous AI agents that let employees query enterprise data in natural language and get role-specific insights and recommended actions. Early deployments included a suite of HR-focused agents analyzing staffing, chargeability and productivity data, and agents monitoring back-office KPIs. The AI-driven platform delivered at least 50% faster time to market for new data solutions and improved productivity across HR, sales and operations functions.
NTT DATA· JapanMicrosoft Fabric · Azure AI Agent Service · Azure AI Foundry +1Subaru selects HPE Cray XD670 servers to accelerate AI development for next-generation EyeSight driver assist system
Subaru selected HPE Cray XD670 servers, powered by eight NVIDIA H200 GPUs each, to run an on-premises AI development environment at SUBARU Lab, supporting AI-driven image recognition for its next-generation EyeSight driver assist system as part of a goal to eliminate fatal traffic accidents by 2030. The energy-efficient XD670 delivers twice the performance of Subaru's existing system, using direct liquid cooling, and ranked top in MLPerf Inference v5.0 benchmarks.
Subaru Corporation· JapanHPE Cray XD670 · NVIDIA H200 GPUs · HPE Tech Care Service
NTT DOCOMO improves LLM usage analysis efficiency by 90% with Databricks
NTT DOCOMO built an internal 'LLM value-added platform' (approximately 10,000 monthly active users, 3 million monthly calls) and used the Databricks Data + AI Platform, including Model Serving for Azure OpenAI's GPT-4o and AI/BI Genie, to automate analysis of usage logs. This replaced manual Excel/Jupyter workflows, cutting monthly analysis work from 66 hours to 6 hours, a 90% reduction, while improving data governance via Unity Catalog.
Rakuten accelerates development with Claude Code
Rakuten, a large Japanese ecommerce company, uses Claude Code to automate coding tasks across its engineering teams, reducing time to market for new features from 24 days to 5 days and achieving 7 hours of sustained autonomous coding on a complex open-source refactoring project. Rakuten also deployed Claude Managed Agents across product, sales, marketing and finance, plugging into Slack and Teams for non-engineers to complete tasks.
Rakuten· JapanClaude Code · Claude Managed Agents