Korean AI Firms Step Up Japan Push

Korean AI companies are pursuing Japan’s market with legal, medical, security and enterprise services showcased at local IT exhibitions and events. Industry sources said on the 23rd that about 60% of Japanese companies use aging legacy systems, while work reliant on paper documents, fax machines and seals continues. In the Information-technology Promotion Agency’s “DX Trends 2026” survey last July, more than 80% of companies said they lacked staff to advance digital transformation (DX). Japan established its Digital Agency in 2021, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare aims for a 100% electronic medical record adoption rate by 2030. Labor shortages tied to low birth rates and an aging population are also increasing demand for automation.

Law and Company took part in “Japan IT Week Autumn 2026,” held for three days from the 21st at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, and presented Lexpend AI, its legal AI service launched in September. The service supports nine Asian legal jurisdictions, and as of the 16th of this month, about 75% of its monthly active users came from Japan. Presidence Research forecasts that Japan’s legal services market will grow from about 67 trillion won in 2025 to about 179 trillion won in 2035. CEO Kim Bon-hwan said the company was seeing interest and demand from Japanese users and would work with local companies to advance legal AX across Asia, including Japan.

Siseon AI introduced its telemedicine platform SeeU Health in Japan. It uses vision AI to measure vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate without contact, supports voice-based AI consultations, and connects with electronic medical records (EMR). IMARC Group forecasts that Japan’s digital healthcare market will grow at an annual rate of 6.9%, from about $34.2 billion in 2026 to about $58.3 billion in 2034. CEO Nam Un-sung cited the workload facing medical staff and older patients’ limited access to care, saying demand for new technology and room for growth were substantial. He also said the company’s security solutions fit Japan’s medical DX policy. Raonmedi, a subsidiary of RaonPeople, completed regulatory approval in Japan from the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) for its AI orthodontic software Raon Orthodontics and recently secured orders.

Upstage has supplied customized OCR and LLM solutions in Japan, where it estimates the corporate document digitization market is 10 times the size of South Korea’s. It established a Japanese subsidiary in March last year and developed Shin Pro, an LLM specialized for Japanese, with local company Karakuri. Upstage plans to jointly develop industry-specific AI models tailored to Japanese companies. Sparrow launched Sparrow MCP in Japan at “Security Days Fall 2026” in Tokyo. The AI-generated code security assistant integrates with AI coding agents such as Codex and Claude Code to check security starting at the code-generation stage.

Korean AI companies are pursuing Japan’s market with legal, medical, security and enterprise services showcased at local IT exhibitions and events. Industry sources said on the 23rd that about 60% of Japanese companies use aging legacy systems, while work reliant on paper documents, fax machines and seals continues. In the Information-technology Promotion Agency’s “DX Trends 2026” survey last July, more than 80% of companies said they lacked staff to advance digital transformation (DX). Japan established its Digital Agency in 2021, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare aims for a 100% electronic medical record adoption rate by 2030. Labor shortages tied to low birth rates and an aging population are also increasing demand for automation.

Law and Company took part in “Japan IT Week Autumn 2026,” held for three days from the 21st at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, and presented Lexpend AI, its legal AI service launched in September. The service supports nine Asian legal jurisdictions, and as of the 16th of this month, about 75% of its monthly active users came from Japan. Presidence Research forecasts that Japan’s legal services market will grow from about 67 trillion won in 2025 to about 179 trillion won in 2035. CEO Kim Bon-hwan said the company was seeing interest and demand from Japanese users and would work with local companies to advance legal AX across Asia, including Japan.

Siseon AI introduced its telemedicine platform SeeU Health in Japan. It uses vision AI to measure vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate without contact, supports voice-based AI consultations, and connects with electronic medical records (EMR). IMARC Group forecasts that Japan’s digital healthcare market will grow at an annual rate of 6.9%, from about $34.2 billion in 2026 to about $58.3 billion in 2034. CEO Nam Un-sung cited the workload facing medical staff and older patients’ limited access to care, saying demand for new technology and room for growth were substantial. He also said the company’s security solutions fit Japan’s medical DX policy. Raonmedi, a subsidiary of RaonPeople, completed regulatory approval in Japan from the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) for its AI orthodontic software Raon Orthodontics and recently secured orders.

Upstage has supplied customized OCR and LLM solutions in Japan, where it estimates the corporate document digitization market is 10 times the size of South Korea’s. It established a Japanese subsidiary in March last year and developed Shin Pro, an LLM specialized for Japanese, with local company Karakuri. Upstage plans to jointly develop industry-specific AI models tailored to Japanese companies. Sparrow launched Sparrow MCP in Japan at “Security Days Fall 2026” in Tokyo. The AI-generated code security assistant integrates with AI coding agents such as Codex and Claude Code to check security starting at the code-generation stage.