In 2026, Anthropic has generated widespread attention amid all the AI-related news in the headlines. Headquartered in the United States, Anthropic has also recently entered the Japanese market as a provider of Claude, an advanced AI model. On April 23, the company officially announced its strategic collaboration with NEC.

Through this collaboration, NEC has become Anthropic's first Japan-based global partner. While Anthropic is a startup in its fifth year, NEC was founded 127 years ago. How did these two companies, which at first glance seem as different as night and day, launch their collaboration at such astonishing speed? The following conversation between Hidetoshi Tojo, Head of Anthropic Japan, and Takao Iwai, the executive officer at NEC who took the lead in making this strategic collaboration a reality, clearly reveals the inevitability of the collaboration and the vision shared by both companies.

Becoming Anthropic's first global partner in Japan at record speed: "Our first victory"

──"We haven't seen each other since yesterday." This is how the following conversation began between the two people whose tireless efforts made the first global partnership between Anthropic and a Japan-based company a reality.

Hidetoshi Tojo, Head of Anthropic Japan: My relationship with NEC actually goes back quite a long way. The company I joined fresh out of university dealt with software installed in NEC's PCs. I also vividly remember having many discussions with NEC about partner sales when I was at Google Cloud Japan.

Takao Iwai, Corporate Executive Vice President at NEC and President of NEC Solution Innovators, Ltd.: I joined NEC as a systems engineer (SE) and spent 25 years focusing primarily on financial services and solutions. Recently, I have made it my mission to further advance our development capabilities. That is where Claude, Anthropic's AI model, came in. It was just last year that I first realized how outstanding Claude truly is, both in terms of safety and stability.

Tojo: That is because Anthropic has made AI safety its top priority.

Iwai: NEC's own Purpose emphasizes "safety and security," so I believe commitment to safety is something we share in common. What was your first impression of NEC?

Tojo: NEC supports financial systems and a wide array of other social infrastructure that would plunge the world into chaos if they came to a grinding halt. Your history and track record of pursuing reliability, stability, and security align well with Anthropic's own priorities. This collaboration with NEC, however, shattered the image I once had of large Japanese corporations, albeit in a good way. The speed with which this collaboration took shape was absolutely incredible. And that is because you never once let go of the steering wheel.

Iwai: Thanks to my background as a systems engineer, I convinced others in the company of the impact that introducing Claude and engaging in joint development would have by showing them how it would affect them personally. This is one of the reasons we were able to make all of this happen in such a short period of time. The two of us are close in age, and with your extensive experience in the enterprise IT industry, I felt like we meshed right from the start.

Tojo: Everything came together in no time once we started talking. I would say the first victory of our partnership was the speed with which it came to be.

A proven track record in the financial, public, and manufacturing sectors: "That's why we chose NEC"

──Once again, why NEC? Why Anthropic?

Tojo: Anthropic Japan was established in October of last year, and we are now preparing to tap into the Japanese market. As a company that deals with corporate clients, it was vital for us to form a partnership with a Japanese company. I believe AI could make a truly significant impact in the financial and public sectors. While it will, of course, impact other sectors as well, we wanted to quickly team up with a company deeply involved in those two sectors, as well as the manufacturing sector. That company was NEC.

Iwai: Just to reiterate, Claude is absolutely outstanding.

Tojo: When you said that to me the first time we met, I thought to myself, "He's an engineer through and through."

Iwai: What I think sets Anthropic apart from the rest is its enterprise-first approach to AI deployment. Also, the ability to provide customers with staggering processing power, exceptionally high quality, and safety and peace of mind.

Tojo: One of the cornerstones of this collaboration is that Claude will be deployed to approximately 30,000 NEC Group employees. As they gain a better understanding of our mission and Claude's safety, these 30,000 employees will become highly skilled AI professionals. This means NEC will be building the ultimate Claude team right here in Japan.

Iwai: Starting with engineers, we will determine how best to utilize Claude to create value for customers. It’s not about simply making it usable. We must ensure that enterprise customers can use AI-powered products and services safely and securely by meeting security, regulatory compliance, quality assurance, and other requirements, and I believe NEC has the implementation capabilities needed to do just that. Our goal is to deliver value to customers as quickly as possible, and that includes integrating Claude into the NEC BluStellar Scenarios, which is at the core of NEC’s value creation model, NEC BluStellar.

The expertise of system integrators: Now more essential than ever in the age of AI

──Concerns are also growing that system integrators may eventually no longer be needed with the advent of exceptional AI models like Claude.

Tojo: I would say that is a misconception. When a company embarks on AI-driven corporate transformation, guidance from consultants and other professionals is vital. In addition to the inevitable need to handle linkage and integration with existing systems, it is crucial to implement security measures and train employees. You cannot do all of that using AI alone. This is where system integrators come in, putting to use the expertise they have developed thus far.

Iwai: There certainly are some misconceptions about the world of AI. Just as you cannot move your body using your brain alone, a large language model (LLM) cannot accomplish anything on its own. There are many components, including AI agent harnesses, that must be developed to support environments where memory and AI can function properly. You also need to integrate the LLM into your software, evaluate and monitor to make sure it is working properly, and continuously feed it data. To be able to go to such great lengths, you need the seasoned expertise of a system integrator.

Time and time again, engineers have kept pace with technological advancements. When it comes to the changes driven by AI, we should be capable of providing even greater value in a market that is bigger than ever before as long as we stay up to date.

Tojo: I wholeheartedly agree. To help dispel misconceptions about system integrators, I want to achieve tangible results together with NEC in AI-driven corporate transformation, and I also look forward to seeing how customers will react. The feedback from the announcement we made in April regarding this strategic collaboration was tremendous.

Iwai: The response we received from our customers also far surpassed our expectations, and I would like to talk a bit about the reactions of those within the NEC Group. While it goes without saying that many were from engineers, what I didn't expect was the response we got from those outside Japan. We have been flooded with positive feedback from members of the NEC Group in Europe and North America, and I was surprised when I traveled to the U.S. on business and had an employee tell me, "Our engineers are thrilled!"

Anthropic's first global partner in Japan: "We can figure out the answer together"

──More and more Japanese companies, aside from NEC, are now partnering with Anthropic.

Tojo: Our strategic collaboration with NEC has stimulated the industry as a whole in a good way. What matters most is that NEC is the first company we joined forces with. In addition, NEC is our sole global partner in Japan. In fact, this collaboration has also drawn a lot of attention from our U.S. headquarters, and I frequently hear from executives there who want updates on how things are going with NEC.

It is because we chose NEC to be our first global partner that we can continue moving forward on this journey. This includes the announcement made in June about NEC and Anthropic partnering with eight Japanese financial institutions.

Iwai: We have definitely made steady progress over the past two months. First, we began deploying Claude within the NEC Group back in June, and the number of users has jumped dramatically in the past month alone. One example of just how much attention it has attracted in the company is that the web seminar for NEC engineers held in cooperation with Anthropic had a number of participants that was on par with the number of employees at a small company.

Tojo: It was actually one of the largest web seminars ever for Anthropic.

Iwai: As for progress outside our company, there is the launch of an initiative in partnership with eight Japanese financial institutions that you mentioned earlier. Swiftly partnering with customers in the finance industry, which is highly receptive to AI, was a tremendous achievement. We also launched our first service through this strategic partnership in July. This service can be used to completely automate the creation of product and promotion plans based on consumer purchase data. Instead of putting the strategic collaboration first, NEC is fully committed to identifying how it can contribute to its customers.

Tojo: Taking one step at a time, we aim to positively expand our collaborative efforts throughout the industry and all of Japan.

I suspect the debate about AI taking jobs, which stems in part from misconceptions, will persist as AI becomes increasingly convenient. In such situations, both the impacted companies and we as providers must take responsibility for reallocating employees, implementing reskilling programs, or determining how to launch new businesses.
Otherwise, we will not be able to deliver value.

Iwai: I agree. When a company like NEC in Japan decides to join forces with Anthropic, the goal is not to use AI to cut staff and improve efficiency, but rather to provide new value. I would like to see us expand the provision of such value beyond Japan to customers worldwide.

Tojo: We can do that as long as we have NEC by our side. Having chosen NEC as our first global partner in Japan, I am confident that we will be the first to find the answer to the various debates going on worldwide, including those regarding how to live with AI.

Recommended Articles

NEC Stories Top