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Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) Japan President Miki Tsusaka said that the country has been among the fastest to adopt AI tools and has the capability to boost its economy and technology industry even more, Bloomberg News reported.
Tsusaka thinks the Asian nation has made up lost ground after previously being slow. “The Japanese have caught up. And I think it will continue to accelerate at this point because the technology enables things that we haven’t been able to do,” said Tsusaka in an interview, according to the report.
Tsusaka added that the country does not have enough people, and its population is aging, yet generative AI has the power to accelerate growth.
Microsoft (MSFT) is set to invest $2.9B in data centers in Japan by 2025 to boost its AI business in the country. Reportedly, the U.S. tech giant will install advanced AI semiconductors at two existing facilities in eastern and western Japan.
Tsusaka noted that she is also interested in helping skill up more women in the country’s workforce.
The Microsoft executive also sees cybersecurity as a vial priority. She noted that “you can’t use AI without security.”
The company is working with the Japanese government and businesses to make sure that AI is deployed responsibly and safely, Tsusaka added.
Tsusaka views AI as an inevitable and revolutionary new area of techology. “Mobile phones now are part of our bodies. But generative AI, I think, is a technology revolution that surpasses all of those,” Tsusaka noted, according to the report.
Japan has also been making efforts to boost local semiconductor manufacturing. In April, Japan approved about ¥590B ($3.9B) in subsidies to domestic chip company Rapidus. The funding is part of about ¥4T the country has set aside over the last three years to regain ground in the chipmaking arena, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida eyeing ¥10T in financial aid to chipmakers, along with the private sector.
