OpenAI marks arrival in Asia Pacific with opening of Tokyo office

OpenAI has established a presence in Asia by opening its first office in the region in Tokyo, Japan.  

The move comes as part of the AI firm's strategy to tap into new revenue streams worldwide and to foster a long-term partnership with Japan's local businesses, government, and research institutions. 

The new Tokyo office is spearheaded by Tadao Nagasaki, the former president of Amazon Web Services in Japan and serves the platform's existing clients such as Toyota Motor and Daikin Industries. 

Nagasaki will lead OpenAI’s commercial and market engagement efforts and help build its local team that will consist Global Affairs, Go-to-Market, Communications, Operations and other functions in serving Japan. 

“We’re excited to be in Japan which has a rich history of people and technology coming together to do more. We believe AI will accelerate work by empowering people to be more creative and productive, while also delivering broad value to current and new industries that have yet to be imagined,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. 

OpenAI has introduced a custom GPT-4 model tailored for the Japanese language, designed to enhance performance in translation and summarisation tasks. 

With plans to release this custom model more broadly in the API in the coming months, Open AI says it's already seeing improvements in applications with existing products. Speak, an English learning app in Japan now has 2.8 times faster tutor explanations in Japanese when users make a mistake with a 47% reduction in token cost, Open AI says. 

In 2023, after a meeting with Japan's prime minister Fumio Kishida, Altman had said he was considering opening an office in Japan. Since then, OpenAI has also opened offices in London and Dublin. 

In Japan, some local governments such as Yokosuka City have use ChatGPT to improve the efficiency of public services in Japan. Over the past year, the city has gradually provided ChatGPT access to almost all city employees, and 80% have reported increases in productivity. Now Yokosuka City has formed a network with 21 local governments—including the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the City of Kobe—to share best practices of ChatGPT use in government.