Japan has become one of the fastest countries to embrace new artificial intelligence tools and has the potential to accelerate its economy and technology sector moving forward, according to Microsoft Japan President Miki Tsusaka.
The country’s digitization drive received a boost during the pandemic as businesses adapted to new work-from-home patterns, and Tsusaka believes Japan is catching up after previously being a laggard.
“The Japanese caught up. And I think it will continue to accelerate at this point because technology allows us to do things that we couldn’t do,” Tsusaka said in an interview. “We are short of people, our population is aging, but generative artificial intelligence has the potential to accelerate growth.”
The Microsoft executive said she is particularly interested in upskilling more women in the local workforce. This is one of four activities of the American company in Japan, which is headed by $2.9 billion investment to expand its artificial intelligence data centers in the country over the next two years.
Announcement of new funding in April raised shares of the country’s utility and industrial enterprises on expectations of increased demand for electricity. countries growing energy needs prompted Tokyo’s minister of economy, trade and industry to lobby local officials to restart the country’s and the world’s largest nuclear power plant.
Tsusaka cited cybersecurity as another key priority because “you can’t use AI without security. It’s safety, safety, safety. And then you can use AI.” Microsoft is working closely with the Japanese government – both nationally and locally – and with businesses to ensure responsible and safe adoption of technology, she said. However, she sees AI as an inevitable and revolutionary new part of technology.
“We were all amazed when the Internet came along,” she said. “Mobile phones are now part of our body. But I think generative AI is a technological revolution that transcends all of that.”