Amazon has declared its plan to invest 2.26 trillion yen in its Japanese cloud infrastructure by 2027. An economic study predicts that this investment will bolster Japan's gross domestic product (GDP) by 5.57 trillion yen.
In a press release issued by Amazon, the company stated that it anticipates this investment in the Japanese cloud infrastructure to support an average of 30,500 full-time jobs annually. The surge in demand from consumers in Japan has prompted this investment. Digital technology has played a significant role in fortifying Japan's economy, and further development of the digital infrastructure is deemed crucial for the country. Amazon's financial commitment to Japan dates back to 2009 when it inaugurated its first Amazon Web Services (AWS) office in the country. Between 2011 and 2022, Amazon invested a total of 1.51 trillion yen to expand and maintain AWS data centers, which cater to hundreds of thousands of customers.
The same press release further elaborated that this investment would enable companies in Japan to leverage generative AI offerings, potentially leading to productivity gains and driving business growth. The AWS LLM Development Support Program in Japan will provide selected organizations with technical mentoring and an investment of 868 million yen through AWS credits. To date, 17 diverse organizations have been chosen for participation. In addition, AWS has invested $100 million into the Generative AI Innovation Center, aimed at connecting AI experts with partners, worldwide, to accelerate enterprise innovation.
Tadao Nagasaki, president of AWS in Japan, said: "For over a decade, AWS has been committed to helping our Japanese customers access the latest cutting-edge technology, build digital solutions on highly resilient and secure cloud infrastructure, and adapt their businesses to maintain an edge in today’s complex economic environment." Nagasaki said in the release. "Our investment into cloud infrastructure generates a ripple effect across the Japanese industries including the public and government sector. It will help more Japanese organizations with the ability to access and adopt new, emerging and transformational digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning."
