Today’s challenge will be tomorrow’s normal Today’s challenge will be tomorrow’s normal

Topics

June 23, 2022
SoftBank Corp. Signs Partnership Agreement with May Mobility with Aim of Early Implementation of Autonomous Driving Service in Japan
May 23, 2022
SoftBank Corp. and Sandbox AQ to Jointly Implement Next-Generation Cryptosystem Resilient to Cyber Attacks from Quantum Computers
Feb. 9, 2022
Inside Look: SoftBank Corp.’s Next-generation Battery Lab is Helping to Usher in a New Generation of Drones and More

About us

Advancement of the internet and digital made our business easier to connect. We can communicate anywhere thanks to the space filled with radio waves and there will be a future where software enables us to create and control all sorts of things. In order for us to open a future path and make it happen, we started as Advanced Technology Development Division in 2017, and ever since, we have been engaging in the activities to discover and develop a wide range of new technologies from next generation network, HAPS to autonomous driving and turning into the businesses.

We will accelerate these activities further to take on new challenges through thinking outside the box more than ever and in order to revitalize potential collaborations with the leading players worldwide, we started a new endeavor as Research Institute of Advanced Technology which is the organization placed directly under our CEO, effective from April 1, 2022.

Our institute will take advantage of state-of-the-art capabilities like network technologies, engineering, digital arts, data and trust to resolve our social challenges and create future society.

Fields of activity

1. Technology development

Foreseeing a future where Beyond 5G and 6G technologies will be widely adopted and various industries will transition to a digital world, we have been conducting R&D and validations of new technologies with a view to commercialization. Research we are currently working on includes new radio technologies using terahertz and optical frequencies, quantum technologies such as the post quantum cryptography which is essential for the next-generation security, V2X for autonomous driving networks, high-altitude platform station (HAPS), and next-generation batteries for carbon neutral efforts.

2. Business development and discovery of new technologies

We are actively engaged in tie-ups with state-of-the-art technology players around the world. Through investments and incubation activities, we are proactively seeking for the leading technologies and also leveraging connections of our group companies as HAPS MOBILE Inc. and MONET Technologies Inc. to engage in the business development from the technical perspective.

3. Joint research activities

We have been promoting the fundamental research efforts as well as the long-cycle R&Ds such as the radio technologies related to terahertz, optical communications and the next gen batteries. We are working with 17 universities and national institutes today.

[Note]
* Japanese syllabary order. As of July 2022

  • 岐阜大学 GIFU UNIVERSITY
  • 熊本大学 Kumamoto University
  • 慶應義塾大学 KEIO UNIVERSITY
  • 国立大学法人 佐賀大学
  • TOKAI UNIVERSITY
  • 東京工業大学 Tokyo Institute of Technology
  • TDU 東京電機大学
  • 国立大学法人 東京農工大学
  • 東京理科大学 TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE
  • 国立大学法人 名古屋工業大学
  • 一橋大学 HITOTSUBASHI UNIVERSITY
  • 国立大学法人 福井大学 UNIVERSITY OF FUKUI
  • 北海学園大学 Hokkai-Gakuen University
  • 三重大学 MIE UNIVERSITY
  • 産総研
  • 国立研究開発法人 情報通信研究機構
  • NIMS

Activity achievements

      Message

      Our mission is to realize our corporate principle of “Information Revolution—Happiness for everyone”. As the market keeps changing at overwhelming speed, we need to imagine the future and constantly take on challenges on R&Ds.

      It is important to take specific actions with no fear of failure in order for us to confront a question with no answer and learning from the failures would lead us to the right answers.

      Establishment and launch of systems are not the ultimate goal for technologies. We define our goal to make society better with the power of technology and we will be pursuing new technologies which would be truly contributive to the world.

      July 2022

      Vice President, Head of
      Research Institute of Advanced Technology
      Ryuji Wakikawa

      • Positions

        • - SoftBank Corp. Vice President, Head of Research Institute of Advanced Technology
        • - MONET Technologies Inc. Technology Group, Head
        • - HAPSMobile Inc. Board Director
        • - 5x5 Technologies, Board Director
        • - HAPS Alliance, Executive Board Director

      • Major papers

        • 1. “Data Naming in Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications,” IEEE Infocom Workshop on Emerging Design Choices in Name-Oriented Networking. 2012
        • 2. “Supporting Mobility for Internet Cars,” IEEE Communication Magazine, 2011
        • 3. “The Applicability of Virtual Interface for Inter-technology handoffs in Proxy Mobile IPv6,” Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, Wiley InterScience, 2011
        • 4. “Migrating Home Agents towards Internet-Scale Mobility Deployments,” ACM 2nd CoNEXT Conference on Future Networking Technologies, 2006

      Our researchers

      Hitoshi Yoshino
      Wireless Innovation Department

      • Research areas

        • Adaptive radio signal processing, cognitive radio systems, mobile communication systems
        • Application of 5G Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC) to automated driving, including truck platooning

      • Profile

        • SoftBank Corp. Technical Meister
        • ITU-R WP5A WG5 (New Technology) Chairman
        • IEICE Technical Committee on Radio Communication Systems, Member
        • IEICE Technical Committee on Smart Radio, Advisor
        • IEICE Communication Society Paper Award (2022)
        • ARIB The 32nd Meritorious Award on Radio - The Award of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication (2021)
        • IEICE The Paper-of-the-year Award and The Best Paper Award (2020)

      • Major awards

        • IEICE Communication Society Paper Award in 2022
        • ARIB The 32nd Meritorious Award on Radio - The Award of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication in 2021
        • IEICE The Paper-of-the-year Award and The Best Paper Award in 2020

      • Major publications / papers

        • H. Yoshino and M. Mikami, “5G as an Enabler for Truck Platooning,” pp.210-221, IEICE Communications Society Magazine No.55, Winter 2020.
        • H. Yoshino, “5G as an Enabler for Automated Driving,” pp.1078-1084, The Journal of IEICE Vol.101, No.11, 2018.

      Ryo Yamaguchi
      Wireless Innovation Department

      • Research areas

        • Research and development of mm-wave, terahertz-wave antenna propagation related technologies
        • Research and development of in-vehicle antennas
        • Research and development of evaluations/measurement methods for mobile communication antennas and propagation

      • Profile

        • IEICE Communication Society, former Deputy Editor
        • IEICE Antenna/Propagation Expert Committee, former Vice Chairman
        • ISAP International Conference Committee, Vice Chairman
        • 2025 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP2025) Vice Chair

      • Major awards

        • IEICE Excellence Award for Papers, Japanese/English Paper B featuring Youth Talent in 2019
        • IEICE Papers Award in 2009
        • IEICE Academic Encouragement Award in 1994

      • Major achivements

      Manabu Mikami
      Advanced Technology
      Promotion Department

      • Research areas

        • Radio transmission and radio access control technologies for next-generation mobile communication systems including 5G evolution technologies (5G-Advanced)

      • Profile

        • IEICE Senior member and IEEE member
        • Editorial Committee of IEICE Transactions on Communications for Japanese Edition, Former Editor-in-Vice Chief and Member
        • Editorial Board of IEICE Communications Society, Former Board Member
        • IEICE Technical Committee on Radio Communication Systems, Former Member

      • Major awards

        • IEICE Communication Society Excellent Paper Award (2022)
        • 32nd ARIB Recongnition of Achievement Award – the Award of Minister of Internal Affairs and Communictions (2021)
        • IEICE Paper of the Award and IEICE Best Paper Award (2020)

      • Major publications / papers

        • M. Mikami and H. Yoshino, “Development and Demonstration of 5G Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication System for Truck Platooning,” ARIB Bulletin, No.114, pp.18-26, Sept. 2021.
        • M. Mikami and H. Yoshino, “Field Trial on 5G Low Latency Radio Communication System Towards Application to Truck Platooning,” IEICE Transactions on Communications, vol.E102-B, no.8, pp.1447-1457, Aug. 2019.

      Junichi Nakajima
      Advanced HAPS Research Office

      • Research areas

        • Stratosphere-based communications platform (HAPS), balloon radio relay station for emergencies, R&D for Beyond 5G/6G

      • Profile

        • Member of NICT Investigation Committee on ICT-based technology for forming a future society
        • CRL / Electromagnetic Measurement Dep. / Kashima Space Technology Center
        • NICT / New Generation Network Research Center / New Generation Wireless Research Center

      • Major awards

        • 27th Radio Achievement Award, ARIB Chairman Award (2016)
          - “Development and commercialization of a temporary radio relay system for LTE / LTE-Advanced / W-CDMA using captive balloons in a disaster”

      • Major publication / papers

        • Junichi Nakajima, Yoshichika Ohta, Haruya Miyajima, Mitsuyoshi Tokunaga, Yousuke Sugita, Hideki Omote, Hideki Hayashi, Teruya Fujii, "A Balloon-based Wireless Relay System for Disaster Response", IEEE VTC 2015 Fall, Boston.

      • Major achievements

      Yasuhiro Nagai
      Advanced Engineering Department

      • Research areas

        • R&D of MaaS (Mobility as a Service)-related elements and labor-saving autonomous driving

      • Profile

        • MONET Technologies System Manager

      • Major publications / papers

        • Yasuhiro Nagai, Takao Okamawari, Teruya Fujii, "A Streaming Method for Efficient Bandwidth Utilization Using QoS Control Function of LTE", in Proc. IEEE-VTC Spring 2016

      • Major achievements

      Katsuhiro Horiba
      Advanced NW Research Office

      • Research areas

        • R&D of high quality image IP transmission, cloud computing, virtualization of network and software control, mobile network

      • Profile

        • SoftBank Corp. Technical Meister
        • Keio University Research Associate and non-tenured Associate Professor before joining SoftBank Corp. in 2015

      • Major publication / papers

        • Katsuhiro Horiba, Ryo Nakamura, Yuji Sekiya, Jun Murai, "Design and Implementation of Service Chaining using NFV", pp.923-944, IPSJ Digital Practice, Vol.9 No.4, 2018
        • Katsuhiro Horiba, Ryuji Wakikawa, Yuji Sekiya, Jun Murai, "Process Base Software Middlebox Architecture in NFV", pp.625-634, Journal of IEICE B Vol.J98-B No.7,2015
        • Katsuhiro Horiba, Keiko Okawa, Jun Murai, "Large-Scale Cooperative Dissemination of Governmental Information in Emergency – An Experiment and Future Strategies," pp.2191-2199, IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Communications, Vol. E95-B No.7, 2012

      • Major achievements

      Ayumu Yabuki
      Wireless Innovation Department

      Research and Development Research and Development

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