Commerce leads tech trade mission to Japan next week

Artificial intelligence, virtual/augmented reality dominate Washington state technology delegation exploring investment, partnership opportunities in Tokyo and Osaka

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Washington Department of Commerce will lead a delegation of nine companies on a state trade mission May 20-24 to Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Opportunities in the growing artificial intelligence (AI) space is the primary focus for the four days of corporate site visits, briefings, pitch sessions and business development meetings organized by Commerce partners Innovation Finders Capital.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming every sector of the economy, and our region’s technology cluster is rapidly becoming a major U.S. hub for AI,” said Dr. Lisa Brown, director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. “Opportunities in everything from autonomous vehicles to health care promise to change lives and create jobs, strengthening communities throughout Washington, thanks to the cutting-edge technologies emerging here.”

In Tokyo, the group will be hosted by Fujitsu, Orrick Tokyo, DNP (Dai Nippon Printing), Deloitte Tohmatsu, NTT Holdings and meet with top executives. DNP opened an office in Seattle this month.

The latter half of the trip is to Kansai region at the invitation of the Osaka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), which brought a similar Japanese delegation to Seattle in November 2018. Minoru Furukawa, vice chairman of OCCI, will address the delegation. Other honored guest speakers include American Consul General Karen Kelley and Susumu Saito, executive director of the Osaka Business Development Agency.

During the course of the mission, about 200 representatives of other major Japanese companies are expected to participate, including Daiwa House, Kaneka, Hitachi, Toshiba, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi Electric, Obayashi Corp. and many others.

Members of the Washington delegation are:

  • DataMesh, data science and mixed reality solutions for enterprises
  • Dimensional Mechanics, creator of NeoPulse® platform for experts and non-experts to create custom AI models for cloud, on-premise and IoT.
  • Energsoft, data analysis software for batteries and energy storage.
  • Gravity Jack, mobile AR and VR software for the leading smart phone and tablet operating systems.
  • Jethro, phone plans for international travelers.
  • Native English Institute, cloud-based service prepares employees of global corporations to use English effectively
  • Solutions Resource, customized, user-centered software design and development.
  • Vtrus, autonomous drones for indoor industrial inspections.
  • Sensoria Health, proprietary sensor-infused smart garments.

“Japan is a leader in a lot of areas where we at Gravity Jack have substantial intersection in machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer vision and augmented reality. Ultimately, our computer vision technology applies to robotics and the future way we compute. We are excited to work with Japanese companies in the hopes of seeing executions come to life,” said Jennifer Richey, chief strategy officer at Gravity Jack, which is joining its first state trade mission.

Washington AI at a Glance

  • Seattle is the second largest AI talent market in the USA, behind only the Bay Area.
  • The nation’s national laboratory for Cognitive Informatics is housed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Seattle.
  • Microsoft and the Allen Institute have created research centers for the ethics of AI.
  • The AI community in Washington crosses all industrial sectors, from maritime to agriculture to aerospace to automotive to manufacturing.  This cross-industry collaboration is a hallmark of our regional identity, for example: Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana have agreed to work together on improving natural language processing AI.
  • The University of Washington was #1 in the USA in 2017 for the most technology transfer licenses.

To learn more about all of Washington’s key industry sectors and doing business in Washington, visit www.choosewashingtonstate.com .

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