AI Tool Aims to Help Conserve Japan’s Cherry Trees by Assessing Many Photos

AFP-Jiji

12:45 JST, April 23, 2025

TOKYO (AFP-Jiji) — Japan’s famed cherry trees are getting old, but a new AI tool that assesses photos of the delicate pink and white flowers could help preserve them for future generations.

Many of the trees are reaching 70 to 80 years old, well beyond their prime blooming age.

This means increasing costs to tend to the trees and maintain popular flowering spots.

To help authorities identify ailing specimens, brewing giant Kirin developed a tool called Sakura AI Camera.

It tells users the condition and the age of the trees based on photos they take with their smartphones and upload them to a website.

A five-point scale — only available in Japanese for now — ranges from “very healthy” to “worrying.”

A tree with healthy flowers blooming densely all the way to the tips of the branches gets top marks.

The artificial intelligence tool has been trained using 5,000 images of cherry trees with the help of experts.

The photos are then mapped on the Sakura AI Camera website with details such as tree condition and location. About 20,000 photos have been collected since the launch last month, with the data available online for free for local authorities.