Japan Govt Aims for 10-Fold Increase in Computing Power of Supercomputers for AI Use at Universities, Research Institutions

The Yomiuri Shimbun

7:00 JST, March 10, 2026

The government plans to realize an at least 10-fold increase in the computing power for artificial intelligence on shared supercomputers at universities and national research institutions by 2030, with a long-term goal of reducing the time required for research and development in cutting-edge fields to one-tenth, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The draft outline of the strategic plan to promote research utilizing AI will soon be presented to an expert panel of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.

AI is expected to accelerate research activities, leading to new scientific findings. It has already been in use in research settings for tasks such as exploring candidates for pharmaceuticals and new materials, enhancing the accuracy of simulations and automating data analysis.

To support these efforts, the ministry plans to finalize the strategy as early as this spring. According to the outline, the next five years are considered to be a “period for concentrated reform” to establish the research base for AI utilization.

According to a report by the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the number of AI-related papers worldwide increased about 13-fold over the 10 years up to 2024. As the use of AI is expected to expand further, the government will realize an at least 10-fold increase of the computing power of supercomputers held by universities and other institutions over the next five years, primarily through adding graphics processing units, which are crucial for AI calculations.

To handle increases in data traffic, the speed of the Science Information NETwork, the ultra-high-speed academic information network connecting universities and other institutions nationwide, will be doubled by 2028. The capacity of the National Institute of Informatics’ research database will be expanded fivefold by 2030.