'About Japan' webinar series 271: AI Technologies for Energy Efficiency-Opportunities for EU Businesses and Investment

What business opportunities exist in Japan’s energy market within the AI landscape, and what implications does this intersection have for EU investors and SMEs?

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is currently revolutionizing many key industries, as well as the economy at large in many of the world’s key markets. This includes not only both the EU and Japan, but also European and Asian markets at large. This impact is driven by efficiency gains drawn from optimization on the one hand, and by substantial energy-input costs on the other.

In terms of the energy landscape, this input-output dichotomy needs emerges in terms of AI-related efficiency gains drawn not only from optimization but also from incorporation of renewables and energy storage technologies. This is of particular concern given the challenges renewables present in terms of supply and demand matching. On the output side meanwhile, these gains are balanced against the simple fact that the AI landscape is powered by increasingly hungry electricity, energy, and resource needs.

Japan’s energy landscape represents a particularly fruitful potential landscape for AI-related efficiency gains, given the country’s Post-Fukushima energy market and energy reforms. These have given rise to both an energy landscape characterized by increasing incorporation and diversification of renewable energy generation and related energy storage capacity, as well as clear opportunities to be had by this ecosystem’s increasing digitalization and incorporation of AI-related technologies - a reality deliberately encouraged by Japan’s regulatory posture.

International investment opportunities in this ecosystem are substantial, given the size of Japan’s energy landscape and associated firms and capital markets, as well as the scale, value-added, and economic impact of ongoing and future potential efficiency gains on Japan’s energy market landscape. 

The webinar is targeted at:

• EU Energy market, AI-market, and AI supply-chain investors.
• EU SMEs active in the AI market supply chain, ranging from R&D to chips and GPUs to semiconductors
• EU SMEs active in the digital renewable energy landscape

In 40 minutes from your desk, discover:

• The characteristics of the Japanese AI landscape
• Japan’s AI supply chain. Size, scope, and energy footprint.
• Opportunities to EU investors and SMEs

Programme:

• Introduction
• Expert’s presentation
• Q&A Session

Registration deadline: 05/10/2026

Speaker: Dr. Max Berre / Professor of Finance / EDC Paris Business School
Max Berre is a US-born financial and policy economist currently based in Paris and Brussels. His PhD from Université de Lyon focused on Valuation of Startups and SMEs. His published research focuses on understanding relationships between SMEs, trade, and the macroeconomy, and he has also acted as a financial correspondent in both Washington DC and Brussels.   

Moderator: Sofia Smerzi, Business Support Coordinator, EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation

Organiser: EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation - Brussels Office

Deliverables