Japan’s First Leading-Edge Quantum Computer Being Installed at Kawasaki Business Incubation Center

(Malnichi.jp) IBM Japan Ltd. announced on March 23 that the computer made by its U.S. parent IBM Corp. will be installed at Kawasaki Business Incubation Center (KBIC) in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo. It will be in place within a few months, and will be in operation by the end of the year.
Japan’s first machine will be a “gate-model quantum computer,” which theoretically has very broad applications. IBM and Google LLC are both developing this type of computer.
The University of Tokyo signed a partnership with IBM Japan in December 2019, and established the Quantum Innovation Initiative Consortium in July 2020 to turn quantum computers to practical use through the cooperation of government, industry and academia. The two universities and 12 companies that make up the consortium include Keio University, Toshiba Corp., Mitsubishi Chemical Holding Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. The consortium members will be able to access the quantum computer in Kawasaki through cloud technology.
Hiroaki Aihara, the consortium’s project leader and vice president of the University of Tokyo, said, “It’s overwhelmingly advantageous to be able to get a lot of time on a cutting-edge computer. We want to develop quantum computer apps through industry-academia cooperation and accelerate the technology’s use.”