NEC Corporation becomes Anthropic’s first global partner in Japan

NEC has announced a global strategic partnership with Anthropic, becoming Anthropic’s first partner in Japan. This collaboration is intended to combine Anthropic’s large language model technology with NEC’s deep industry expertise to develop highly secure solutions with industry-specific knowledge for the Japanese market, in response to the stringent requirements for security and performance throughout the digital transformation process. Yoshizaki Toshifumi, Executive Director and Managing Officer at NEC, (よしざき としふみ), said that long-term cooperation with Anthropic will provide NEC with opportunities to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence use cases in Japanese enterprises.

Co-developing customized AI application service solutions

The core of this partnership is to provide customized artificial intelligence application service solutions for highly regulated industries in Japan. The two sides plan to prioritize fields such as finance, manufacturing, and local governments, developing technical solutions that integrate specific industry knowledge. Since these industries maintain extremely high standards for information security and regulatory compliance, NEC will use Anthropic’s cutting-edge models to develop a secure and transparent foundational infrastructure. In addition, both sides also plan to introduce Claude Cowork desktop AI agents to help enterprises automate tasks and support decision-making in on-site operations. In the area of cybersecurity, NEC plans to integrate relevant technologies into its Security Operations Center (SOC) services to enhance its ability to defend against complex cyber threats.

NEC BluStellar integrates Claude

NEC plans to integrate Anthropic-developed Claude series models, including Claude 4.7 Opus, as well as the development tool Claude Code, into the application scenarios of “NEC BluStellar”: “BluStellar Scenario.” In the initial phase, it will focus on two major scenarios: “data-driven management” and “customer experience transformation.” It will help customers use artificial intelligence to optimize business management and service workflows. By embedding generative AI technology into existing digital transformation frameworks, enterprises can translate the technology into business value more directly. This integration approach is not merely the adoption of tools; it is also about reducing the entry barrier for companies when applying emerging technologies through structured scenario design, and ensuring that their operating models can continue to transform as technology evolves.

NEC launches the “Client Zero” program, first using AI agents for testing

To verify the effectiveness of the solutions, NEC has launched the “Client Zero” zero-client plan, and is the first to use AI agents comprehensively across internal enterprise development processes, covering everything from system design to software testing. This internal practice is intended to accumulate operational experience, promote successful transformation models to external customers, and at the same time, NEC announced it will roll out the deployment of Claude across the group worldwide, targeting approximately 30k employees. By establishing an internal Center of Excellence (CoE) to obtain Anthropic’s technical support and training, NEC aims to build Japan’s largest “AI-native” engineering team, ensuring that companies have a sufficient pool of advanced technical talent to remain competitive in the long term.

This article states that NEC Corporation will become Anthropic’s first global cooperation partner in Japan, and first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.