Ericsson signed various agreements to bolster Japanese 6G and AI efforts.

The Swedish giant signed separate memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with industrial manufacturers Murata Manufacturing and Sumitomo Electric Industries to explore enhanced network performance and product energy efficiency using Ericsson tech.

The collaboration revolves around Ericsson's research and development center in Yokohama with joint technology evaluations and proof-of-concept activities to help hardware and component innovation directly with system-level engineering for radio access network (RAN) products.

“Japan is home to many of the world's most advanced component technologies,” Chafic Nassif, president of Ericsson Northeast Asia, explained. “Through closer collaboration with Murata and Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ericsson aims to combine system-level knowledge from global network deployments with Japan's deep component expertise, creating opportunities to accelerate innovation and expand the application of these technologies across communications, AI infrastructure, data centers, automotive systems, and other advanced industries.”

Japan represented 4% of Ericsson group net sales in the second quarter of 2026, driving most network sales in its Northeast Asia segment. The collaboration with Murata and Sumitomo follows Ericsson’s tightening of its telecom ties in the nation, most recently running a AI-native link adaptation scheduler trial in SoftBank's commercial 5G network.

The firm also provided its RAN compute platform to support NTT DoCoMo as the operator develops its next-generation telecom and AI ambitions, while working an AI-driven field trial with KDDI that help pave the way for level-four autonomous networks.