GATEWAY TO JAPAN

DOCOMO Innovations collaborates with business partners, research laboratories, start-ups, and engineers in order to develop innovative products and services globally.

We exist as a gateway between Japan and Silicon Valley in the mobile market space to foresee and develop future opportunities through technology development, investment, and collaboration with our parent company.
About Us

NEWS
TOPICS

July 1, 2025
Japan's Telecommunications Carriers Strengthen Disaster Response Through Collaborative Information Sharing
June 16, 2025
NTT DOCOMO Announces New Management Team
May 9, 2025
NTT DOCOMO Announces New Management Team
March 27, 2025
Five NTT Group Companies and Biome Inc. Start Joint Development of Large-scale Estimation Technology for Vegetation and Organisms using Satellite Image Data
March 25, 2025
NTT Corp., NTT DOCOMO and NEC Demonstrate Distributed MIMO Technology for High-Frequency 6G Communications in Automobiles and Trains

DOCOMO Innovations is structured around 4 key teams, whose initiatives run the gamut from mobile applications to core networking technologies.

OUR GROUPS

01 Core Technology

We pioneer the future through deep exploration of cutting-edge technologies such as wireless communication, network systems, and artificial intelligence. Our mission is not to deliver short-term R&D value to DOCOMO, but rather to discover and develop core technologies that could become the pillars of innovation and services in the next 5 to 10 years. This long-term technology exploration is essential to DOCOMO's future growth strategy. The discovery of era-defining breakthrough technologies presents significant challenges, but we consider this pursuit to be a core responsibility of our mission. To enhance our innovation capacity, we will strengthen strategic collaborations with universities and companies, leveraging our local presence to access cutting-edge knowledge and ecosystems. We will continue to develop advanced and future-oriented technologies to support DOCOMO's sustainable growth and global competitiveness.

02 Intelligent Service Engineering

The rapid evolution of new technologies, led foremost by Al, is ushering in a major turning point in how services are conceived. A wave is upon us that is powerful enough to overturn every convention of service planning, development, testing, release, and maintenance. Traditionally, service innovation has begun with analyzing historical data to understand user needs and then scaling flexible cloud-based solutions accordingly. Al is reshaping that flow. From user interfaces to business logic and the backend systems that support them, sweeping changes are on the horizon. In just a few short years, accepted norms could be upended, fundamentally altering our values and outlook on life.

Against this backdrop, our group actively proposes new service paradigms born of the latest technologies, grounded in our long-standing expertise in Al, cloud computing, and data science. These practical capabilities will be indispensable for tomorrow's service creation. As intelligent components transform every stage of the service lifecycle from development to delivery, we commit ourselves to offering concrete technologies that maximize customer value and business profitability.

The benefits of our work will be shared not only with DOCOMO in Japan but also with local companies and other Japanese enterprises. Together with our partners, we aim to shape this new wave and build a better future for all.

03 Open Innovation Strategy

Nowadays, we are facing a multitude of social issues such as lifestyle diseases, population ageing, education gap, depopulation, and so on. Our approach is to contribute to solving them with new technologies. We are not a specialist in any of these fields. The work we do wouldn’t be possible without collaborations. We are always open for everyone to seek opportunities to work with.

DOCOMO Innovations is the hub of open innovation activities that create new value and business opportunities for the NTT DOCOMO Group. We explore and develop partnerships with startups and educational institutions to commercialize these cutting-edge technologies and business models.

04 Product Planning & Strategy

The next opportunity for the Japanese market, the next product, the next partner, the next strategy, the next innovation, the next technology… the Product Planning & Strategy Group is always looking for who or what is next.

DOCOMO Innovations’ Product Planning & Strategy Group (PPSG) is driving business focus innovation through not only smartphone and tablet products, but also peripheral devices such as XR devices and wearable devices connected with smartphones and tablets for NTT DOCOMO. We have three missions:

Creation: creating software and products strategy for the Japanese market,
Operation: operating day-to-day, innovative activities related to mobile products, and
Innovation: to realize the strategy as products through operation and collaboration with a variety of partners and start-ups in the U.S.

The group here at DOCOMO Innovations, Inc. in Palo Alto is working closely with NTT DOCOMO HQ in Tokyo, Japan. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested in working with us!

05 Business Development

We help the best and most innovative startups in the US to enter the Japanese market with a leading technology and distribution partner.

The business development and investment group works with innovative startups to structure a commercial deal with NTT DOCOMO headquarters. To support a commercial deal, we provide strategic investment concurrently or for a future commercial collaboration. Our mission is to help startups enter or accelerate growth in the Japanese market. Our team of professionals will make relevant introductions and help structure the commercial deal, as well as the investment deal, if appropriate.

ABOUT US

CEO Message

CEO MESSAGE

Innovation is a chemical reaction of identities. The combination of each idea, vision, background, and resource leads to innovation fatefully or serendipitously. In the Silicon Valley, many start-up companies work to create fresh ideas based on this innovative thinking.

After twelve years of solely conducting research activities as DOCOMO Communications Laboratories USA, Inc., “DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.” was established in August 2011. It was necessary for us to change the organization in order to enhance such “chemical reactions” with talented experts and start-ups from the Silicon Valley, reflecting the rapid change in the IT business market and the style of mobile technology. In October 2015, we merged with DOCOMO Capital, a CVC active locally since 2005, and as the new DOCOMO Innovations, have since been taking ample advantage of our Silicon Valley location.

We have four concurrent organizational functions, including AI & Data Analytics Innovations, Open Innovations Strategy, Product Planning & Strategy, and Business Development. Each group is able to fully communicate and exchange information, leading to synergy. Our mission is to take advantage of communicating and collaborating with business partners and engineers from other research laboratories in order to find triggers for global development of innovative products and services. It is also important to us to search the area thoroughly for possible business opportunities and react quickly to opportunities found. With all the functions of our company at our disposal, we strongly believe that we can create something innovative and contribute to the world’s keystone moments in mobile technology and business growth.

The Japanese market, the third-largest economy in the world (*1), is undergoing a rapid digital transformation of various industry sectors in this 5G era. By leveraging AI, IoT, xR and other advanced technologies via 5G, DOCOMO’s many partners are creating new solutions and business models solving problems faced by Japanese society. For instance, over 3,200 companies have joined in the DOCOMO 5G Open Partner Program, and over 300 PoC applications leveraging DOCOMO’s 5G network and edge-clouds have been created in the open-partner activities (*2). We also aim to enhance this transformation through researching advanced technologies with talented experts and collaborating with cutting-edge start-ups in the Silicon Valley. We’d be happy to impact Japanese society and economy through the innovation with you.

“Gateway to Japan.” We at DOCOMO Innovations are fully committed and excited to play this role.

Yoshikazu Akinaga, President & CEO

*1 : Nominal GDP base
*2 : as of March, 2020

DOCOMO Innovations, Inc. is the Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO, Inc. in Japan, a world leader in mobile operations and a growing provider of comprehensive mobile services. On August 1, 2011, DOCOMO Innovations was launched with an expanded mission for Open Innovation as an outgrowth of the last 10 years of cutting-edge technological research conducted at DOCOMO Communications Laboratories USA, Inc.

DOCOMO Innovations is more than a just an organization for business development and strategic investment. All groups within DOCOMO Innovations work together to realize new applications and services through collaboration with American companies for the next generation of mobile services and beyond. DOCOMO Innovations provides vital innovation to enable the future growth of NTT DOCOMO Inc. in the Japanese and Global Markets.