Governance
Innovation Management Framework
We established the Research & Business Development Related Divisions and the Products & Services Related Divisions in April 2026 as an organizational framework aimed at promoting market value creation through technology and innovation. The Research & Business Development Related Divisions are responsible for research and development, business development, and the utilization of intellectual property, while the Products & Services Related Divisions are responsible for the delivery of products and services, formulation of marketing strategies, business process reform, and the promotion of BluStellar, a value creation model that leads our customers into the future. By operating these divisions in an integrated manner, NEC aims to swiftly capture changes in society and industry driven by technological advances, develop products and services that meet market needs using its cutting-edge technologies, and deliver them to customers promptly.
Additionally, NEC X, Inc., established in Silicon Valley in 2018, promotes open innovation by leveraging NEC’s talent and technologies in collaboration with the local ecosystem, aiming to create impactful new businesses. We are also accelerating value creation and new business development through initiatives such as the joint venture BIRD INITIATIVE, Inc., a co-creative R&D project with seven companies from different industries, our Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) function, business contests, and a newly launched startup studio in Japan.
1. R&D Bases Tasked with Creating Social Value Globally
The NEC Group has established R&D bases not only in Japan but also in North America, Europe, and other regions to create research outcomes that leverage global insights.
Thought Process
Innovation Management Policy
We apply our most advanced technologies to our Client Zero initiatives, using them internally with ourselves as the first customer to accumulate insights. The empirical insights gained through these initiatives are incorporated into the products and services within BluStellar, a value creation model that leads our customers to the future, thereby creating new value for society and our customers. The NEC Group’s research and development is the source of its competitiveness. It provides technological support for the NEC Group’s transformation into an AI-native company and the expansion of the value-creation model “NEC BluStellar,” while contributing to the sustainable growth of the NEC Group’s IT Services Business and the Social Infrastructure Business.
Technology Development Strategy
The NEC Group creates the social values of safety, security, fairness, and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. To realize this vision, the NEC Group is committed to developing technologies that advance its existing businesses, which serve as the foundation for creating social value, as well as creating advanced technologies for future businesses that can deliver new value to society and accelerating their commercialization, thereby supporting the NEC Group’s sustainable growth.
In research and development, we are working to strengthen the fields of AI and security, as well as platform technologies that support them. Specifically, in the field of AI, while advancing the development of AI Agents that enable more autonomous and sophisticated business operations, we are also establishing advanced governance technologies to ensure the reliability, safety, and ethical integrity of AI, thereby promoting a society in which humans and AI can work collaboratively. In the field of security, we are leveraging AI to analyze threat intelligence based on attack trends targeting specific industries and systems, and are advancing technology development aimed at systematizing insights that lead to responses according to the urgency of threats. Through these efforts, we will support highly effective security operations tailored to the distinct risk characteristics of each industry. We will also contribute to ensuring trust in the digital society and to the sound development of information infrastructure through the development of technologies to mitigate risks from advanced information manipulation. In the field of platform technologies, we will work to build and maintain more reliable and secure social infrastructure by using submarine optical cable system technologies, whose importance is also increasing from the perspective of economic security, as well as secure network technologies such as quantum cryptographic communications.
Integrated Report Innovation: R&D and Business Development
Research and Development (R&D)
NEC BluStellar – Empowering you with innovative technology and expertise
Accelerate Transformation with Responsible AI
Biometric Authentication
New Business Development Strategy
Since its founding, NEC has pursued sustainable growth by placing innovation at its core and generating social value. In 2013, we established a dedicated division for new business development and have since been working to create multifaceted value starting from social issues.
To accelerate these efforts, in February 2025, we systematized our open innovation functions and activities under the name “NEC Open Innovation.” Positioned as a growth engine, our open innovation strategy operates on two fronts: the inbound model of incorporating external technologies and ideas, and the outbound model of sharing our technologies and expertise with others. Through co-creation with startups and partner companies, these approaches are driving the development of new businesses and creating social value.
NEC Open Innovation
Innovation Initiatives
Examples of Major Research Achievements Contributing to Increased Corporate Value
Make Japan Cyber Secure: Shifting from reactive to proactive measures
From using know-how to taking action. Autonomous agents that understand your business and execute tasks on your behalf
NEC Launches AI Agent Service in Japan to Automate Procurement Negotiations Using AI
JFCR and NEC Confirm Research Results for Developing Individualized Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines Using Whole-Genome Data
Open Innovation
To balance social and corporate value, we are advancing open innovation efforts known as NEC Open Innovation.
This is a core framework that connects internal and external knowledge, technologies, and talent to continuously generate new businesses that address a range of social issues.
1. Key Functions of NEC Open Innovation
- Startup investment （e.g., NEC Orchestrating Future Fund):
Strategic investments into startups to co-create new business opportunities and social value - NEC Innovation Challenge:
An accelerator program for global startup companies that creates opportunities for co-developing innovative ideas - NEC X, Inc.:
Offers support for early-stage startups and entrepreneurs by combining NEC’s latest technologies with the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
From December 2025, we launched a studio for Japan, NEC X - JAPAN Edition -. - Advanced Technology Consulting:
Researchers support companies with digital transformation and advanced technology implementation, helping to realize social application of technology
NEC leverages these comprehensive open innovation capabilities to promote flexible and multifaceted co-creation both in and out of Japan. Backed by broad technological and business domains and a systematic knowledge and support framework, we aim to create new businesses that address pressing social issues.
NEC Launches “BestMove,” a Marketing Strategy Planning Solution Leveraging Generative AI and Consumer Purchasing Data
NEC’s Open Innovation Initiative “NEC Open Innovation” Wins 2025 Good Design Award
Sumitomo Rubber Industries and NEC Build Globally Competitive R&D Infrastructure
NEC Orchestrating Future Fund Invests in PopID, Inc. to Accelerate Global Expansion of Biometric Payment Solutions and Launch a Strategic Collaboration
NEC Launches the Africa Corporate Innovation Program to Accelerate Business Through Co-Creation with African Startups
NEC Ranks 5th in Keidanren’s 4th Startup Friendly Scoring! Top 10 for Two Consecutive Years (Japanese language only)
R&D Expenses
Investment in research and development is concentrated in key business areas, along with investments in collaborations with external research institutions. R&D expenses for fiscal year 2026 totaled 105.2 billion yen.
Intellectual Property Initiatives
1. Intellectual Property Management and Rule Making/Standardization Division: Strengthening NEC’s Intellectual Property Capabilities
NEC’s Intellectual Property Management and Rule Making/Standardization Division has established a structure for advancing the Company’s intellectual property strategy by collaborating with IP officers in relevant divisions and Group companies. Through this structure, the division supports the development and utilization of a global IP portfolio.
Additionally, to expand business opportunities, the division also promotes licensing activities that make effective use of a wide range of intellectual property assets, actively utilizes AI, and engages in rulemaking and policy recommendations aimed at the strategic use of standards.
2. Intellectual Property Strategy
NEC is placing a particular focus on expanding its intellectual property in technology areas which will drive current growth and create the next pillars of growth. The Company regards IP as a vital management resource that supports business competitiveness, stability, and promotes co-creation. NEC is working to apply IP in sales activities, strengthen its licensing activities, and expand and utilize design and trademark rights that support the NEC brand. Through the use of IP, NEC promotes innovation and contributes to enhancing corporate value. The Company is also reinforcing its global governance framework to manage IP risks across the entire NEC Group.
2.1 Digital Transformation of Intellectual Property
NEC actively utilizes generative AI and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) technologies in its intellectual property operations, advancing the sophistication and efficiency of a range of IP processes, including prior art searches, specification drafting support, and patent filing and prosecution decisions. Based on insights, tools, and operational know-how accumulated internally, the Company has also begun providing IP DX solutions to external companies and is working to create new business value centered on intellectual property. By utilizing its own practical experience in IP DX, NEC will help reduce the operational burden on the IP departments of client companies and enable faster decision-making, thereby contributing to enhancing the intellectual property competitiveness of Japanese companies.
NEC’s IP DX Business
3. Standardization Strategy
NEC strategically promotes standardization activities that enhance the social acceptance and spread of advanced technologies, thereby expanding business opportunities. In key technology fields such as AI, biometric authentication, information and communications, and quantum computing, NEC takes on key leadership roles in the industry, including chairing standardization committees and leading both Japanese and international standardization initiatives.
The Company is also working to increase and utilize standard-related patents to further strengthen its business.
3.1 Examples of Initiatives to Promote Standardization Activities
In January 2026, at the Public-Private High-Level Forum on International Standards established by the Cabinet Office and Keidanren, Nobuhiro Endo, Executive Advisor of NEC Corporation (Chair of the Committee on Intellectual Property and International Standardization Strategy), co-chaired the forum alongside Kimi Onoda, Minister of State for Intellectual Property Strategy, Cabinet Office. Mr. Endo also delivered the “Action Declaration on International Standards and Rules” (provisional translation) at the inaugural general meeting. NEC is contributing to the strategic and proactive promotion of international standardization through unified public and private sector efforts.
Several NEC members serve in various government-related IP positions, contributing to the advancement of Japan’s intellectual property policies.
- Nobuhiro Endo, Executive Advisor: Committee Member of the Planning Committee of the Cabinet Office, Chair of the International Standards Strategy Subcommittee, Co-chair of the Public-Private High-Level Forum on International Standards, and Chair of both the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) and the Information and Communications Council
- Shigeki Wada, Corporate SVP: Committee Member of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the Industrial Structure Council and Member of the JPO Policy Promotion Roundtable
- Fumio Imoto, Senior Executive Professional of the Intellectual Property Management and Rule Making/Standardization Division: Committee Member of the Patent System Subcommittee under the Intellectual Property Subcommittee of the Industrial Structure Council
4. Results and Achievements Related to Intellectual Property Activities
- NEC received the Top 100 Global Innovator Award from Clarivate Analytics for the 15th consecutive year (only 16 companies worldwide have achieved this feat).
- NEC was named among the 2025 Asia IP Elite by Intellectual Asset Management (IAM), an intellectual property media platform operated by Law Business Research Limited
- At the Intellectual Property and Intangible Asset Governance Awards (FY2025) presented by the Intellectual Property & Intangible Assets Governance Promotion Association (IPIAGPA), NEC received the Excellence Award in recognition of its efforts to integrate financial and non-financial elements, design all corporate activities, and rebrand itself.
- As part of its support for startups taking on social issues, NEC has transferred patents to a cumulative total of six companies through Piece Future’s IP Hatch program. Through patent transfers to innovative startups in areas such as environmental value visualization solutions, NEC is contributing to the resolution of social issues and the creation of new value.
Empowering Climate Solutions Through Co-Creation: NEC Transfers Patent to Singaporean Startup
For more information on NEC’s intellectual property activities, please see below.
Intellectual Property at NEC
Number of Patents Held
NEC is working to enhance the value of its entire patent portfolio by increasing the ratio of high-quality patents, acquiring new patents, and conducting periodic portfolio reviews. These efforts help ensure that the appropriate number of patents in the appropriate jurisdictions are maintained in line with the Company’s utilization policy. The NEC Group held approximately 40,000 patents as of fiscal year 2026.
1. Emphasis on Focus Areas (Proportion in Focus Areas)
- Applications1 : 45% of all applications (end of FY2018) → 81% (end of FY2026)
- Holdings2 : 44% of all holdings (end of FY2018) → 68% (end of FY2026)
1. Includes NEC Group’s applications in Japan and direct PCT applications
2. Includes all patents held by the NEC Group
- Number of patents registered in Japan (by field)3 : Computer technology - 588 (Ranked 1st)
- Number of patents registered in Japan (by field)3 : Business methods - 362 (Ranked 1st)
- Number of patents registered in Japan (by field)3 : Controls - 256 (Ranked 2nd)
- Number of patents registered in Japan (by field)3 : Digital communications - 279 (Ranked 4th)
- Number of patents registered in Japan (by field)3 : Telecommunications - 90 (Ranked 4th)
3. Number of patents registered in 2024. Source: 2025 Annual Report on Patent Administration. Fields are defined by the Japan Patent Office.
Number of Patents Held (Data Collection)