Japan IT Spring is a two-day trade show and conference held every May at Tokyo Big Sight, uniting the country’s key hardware, software and cloud buyers with domestic and international vendors. Designed for CIOs, IT managers, system integrators, developers and government technology officers, the 2024 edition ran 9–10 May and attracted roughly 38,000 visitors and 350 exhibitors occupying East Halls 1–3. The event is organised by RX Japan and operates under the broader “Japan IT Week” brand, but the Spring instalment focuses on emerging rather than mature infrastructure, giving visitors an early look at technologies expected to move into production within the next 12–18 months.

The 2024 agenda was built around eight themed zones: AI/Generative AI, Edge Computing & IoT, Information Security, Data Centre & Cloud, Software & Apps Development, Digital Marketing, Advanced Enterprise Mobility and Remote-Work Solutions. Each zone combined a small conference theatre with an expo floor; admission to both was free after online pre-registration. Keynote speakers included Digital Minister Taro Kono, who outlined Japan’s new “Digital Garden City” interoperability framework; SoftBank Corp. CTO Hideyuki Tsukuda, who demonstrated a live 5G-Advanced campus network controlling 1,200 IoT sensors with 4 ms latency; and AWS Japan Chief Evangelist Kameyama Ryosuke, who shared cost-optimisation benchmarks for large-language-model fine-tuning on Graviton3 instances. Parallel tracks offered 140 sessions by Toyota Systems, Hitachi, NTT DATA, Microsoft Japan, Trend Micro and start-ups such as EdgeCortix and ABEJA.

Major product launches included Kioxia’s 2 TB microSD card prototype for edge AI cameras, Fujitsu’s Fugaku-Edge Arm server optimised for on-premise inference, and SecureWorks’ managed XDR service tuned for Japanese compliance. A “Generative AI Park” featured 40 vendors offering prompt-engineering workshops, while an “IoT Security Shoot-Out” let penetration-testers compete to crack live sensor gateways. Networking events spanned a Women-in-Tech breakfast, an ASEAN buyers’ reception and a reverse-pitch session where retailers requested solutions for 2025 roll-outs. Although the main programme is Japanese, simultaneous English headsets were available for all keynotes and roughly 40% of seminars; international delegates could also book 30-minute interpreter-accompanied booth tours. The 2025 show is already scheduled for 14–15 May and will introduce a new sub-event devoted to qu