Accelerating government innovation in Japan

The Japan Digital Agency (DA) has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) as one of the cloud service providers that support Government Cloud, which delivers common cloud infrastructure that central government agencies, local governments, and other government organisations can use.

As a cloud services provider directly contracted with the DA, AWS will help the Japanese government modernize IT by directly offering advanced technologies and global best practices to help customers innovate securely at pace. Our extensive network of AWS Partners and startups in Japan will also help us to accelerate innovation in citizen services, and better deliver on DA’s missions based on what we directly hear from our customers.

AWS is committed to supporting the DA and Japanese government organisations in achieving their digital initiatives, drive local economic growth, and solve some of the biggest challenges in society. We have a dedicated public sector team of local employees in Japan who are helping to drive the innovation that our customers and partners in Japan are looking for.

Amazon, including AWS, has invested in Japan through enhanced service delivery capabilities, as well as digital talent development and the renewable energy market. AWS has also supported innovation in Japan, launching our first on-shore data center, the AWS Region in Tokyo, ten years ago, and a second in Osaka this year. Our world-class local infrastructure now supports hundreds of thousands of Japanese customers from startups to enterprises, public sector organizations, and AWS Partners.

Continuing to meet the highest security standards

We are committed to making long-term investments in purpose-built technologies and systems to keep raising the bar of security and confidentiality for our customers. In March 2021, AWS was among the first cloud service providers to be certified under Japan’s Information System Security Management and Assessment Program (ISMAP) program, a government initiative that assesses the security of public cloud services and sets a baseline requirement for government procurement. The certification scope includes a total of 121 AWS services.

AWS has achieved many international certifications and accreditations, demonstrating compliance with third-party assurance frameworks such as ISO 27017 for cloud security, ISO 27018 for cloud privacy, and SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3. This is backed by a deep set of cloud security tools, with more than 230 security, compliance, and governance services and key features including AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS), which helps customers create and control the keys used to encrypt or digitally sign their data, AWS CloudHSM, cloud-based hardware security module (HSM), and AWS Nitro System which supports confidential computing.

AWS is also offering Japanese customers an open source service template system called Baseline Environment on AWS (BLEA), which was developed and will be updated by a team of AWS solutions architects in Japan. This supports Japanese IT vendors of all sizes in applying baseline settings such as security and network to information systems. It also helps IT vendors to build information systems with heightened quality and more efficient cloud architecting by using Infrastructure as Code.

Supporting our customers’ digital talent development

A recent study carried out by AlphaBeta found that Japan will need 29.5 million additional digital workers by 2025—a 76% increase from today’s levels—to meet the demand.

AWS is committed to contributing to the Japanese economy by educating IT professionals, developers, and students on the latest technologies such as cloud computing and machine learning. We have trained more than 200,000 individuals in Japan in cloud skills since we began our skills training program in 2012. To further help train students and workers in cloud skills, AWS provides a range of no cost training opportunities, including more than 220 free courses in Japanese.

For example, in one training event, AWS held the AWS Robot Delivery Challenge, an autonomous driving software skills development competition designed to improve young people’s programming skills and creativity. The month-long competition involved more than 300 students in the past two years and culminated in an online event where teams competed using autonomous robots which they programmed to deliver cargo within a miniature city, with players from beginners to experts taking part.

Sustainable cloud computing and renewable energy

A recent study by 451 Research found that migrating IT workloads to the cloud can reduce carbon emissions for Japanese companies and public organizations by 77%. Our scale allows us to achieve higher resource utilization and energy efficiency than typical on-premises data centers. We also work closely with customers to help them meet their own sustainability goals on AWS Cloud. Amazon is also working towards running its worldwide operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025.

As part of this, Amazon and Mitsubishi Corporation jointly announced a 22 megawatt (MW) solar project to power our Amazon operations in Japan in September. We continue to collaborate with private and public partners, such as Mitsubishi Corporation and the Japan Climate Leaders Partnership (JCLP), to help meet sustainability goals in Japan.

Committed to Japan for the long-term

Our work in Japan over the past decade represents AWS’s long-term commitment to the government and the nation. We look forward to working with the Japanese government to accelerate its digital transformation while meeting the state’s requirements to support the secure management of government systems and data.

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