Accelerating and Innovating the Internet of Everything in Japan

After a whirlwind week in Tokyo, it’s clear that Japan – the world’s third largest economy — is embracing the potential economic value of the Internet of Everything (IoE). For Japan, we estimate an IoE opportunity of $870 million over the next decade (out of a global economic value of $19 trillion).

With its proud history of industry, technology and innovation leadership, Japan is an ideal location for Cisco’s 7th IoE Center of Innovation — a $20million investment for Cisco — which opened last Thursday with nine Japan-based ecosystem partners. The excitement is high around our open lab’s charter to bring together customers, industry partners, startups, accelerators, government agencies and research communities to collaborate on next-generation technology. Photos of the center’s opening are here.

In Tokyo, we will be working with partners to develop Fog Computing solutions focused on Manufacturing, Sports and Entertainment and Public Sector. These Fog solutions extend cloud storage, computing and services to the edge of the network, a critical element of realizing value from IoE.

On the same day, we announced an engagement with electronics leader Toshiba Corporation to jointly leverage IoE to dramatically improve processes, productivity and experiences in manufacturing, transportation and city environments – to attain what Toshiba calls, “The Human Smart Community.”

In addition to Toshiba, initial Cisco Center of Innovation partners include Mitsui, Tokuda Lab, Keio University, Fujitsu, Nissan, Alps, Preferred Networks, hide tokuda lab, and, smartFOA, the first recipient in Japan of Cisco’s worldwide $100 million IoE venture investment fund.

Similar partner ecosystems exist at other Cisco IoE Centers of Innovation in London, England; Barcelona, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Songdo, South Korea; Berlin, Germany; and Toronto, Canada. Each of these super hubs focuses on innovating solutions related to their region’s own particular area of expertise, such as urban services, transportation, energy or manufacturing environments.

We ended our week in Tokyo by co-presenting before more than 500 leaders from a broad cross-section of end-user industries at the inaugural Nikkei IoE Forum with Rob Lloyd, Cisco’s president of development and sales. Our theme, “The Internet of Everything: Revitalizing Society and Business,” prompted enthusiastic interest from leaders in manufacturing, finance, healthcare, government, energy and more. A most rewarding week indeed, reinforcing and validating our commitment to IoE and Japan.

Cisco’s Commitment to Japan

Cisco has operated in Japan for 23 years, employs more than 1,200 employees in seven offices, has more than 100 Networking Academies and 150,000 Cisco Certification holders. Our commitment to Japan is strong.

Related resources:

Internet of Everything

Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centers

Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Center Tokyo