REGISTRATION: SESSION #1

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Member Fee: ¥8,500
Guest Fee: ¥10,500

Early Bird Registration

SPECIAL RATE Until August 6, 12:00

AI Futures Series Session #1: AI Infrastructure, Energy, and Economic Security

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming a strategic driver of economic growth, innovation, and national competitiveness. At the same time, the infrastructure required to enable AI at scale—including semiconductors, compute capacity, energy systems, data centers, and supply chains—is emerging as a critical policy and investment priority for both Japan and the United States.

This session will explore the infrastructure foundations required to support AI competitiveness and economic resilience in Japan, bringing together industry leaders to discuss the opportunities, challenges, and strategic decisions shaping the next phase of AI development.

Topics include:

  • AI infrastructure investment and global competitiveness

  • Energy demand, power availability, and grid readiness

  • Semiconductor ecosystems and trusted supply chains

  • Economic security and geopolitical resilience

  • Sustainability considerations when scaling AI infrastructure

About the AI Futures Series

The ACCJ AI Futures Series is an executive dialogue platform bringing together senior leaders from government, industry, technology, infrastructure, and academia to explore the strategic implications of artificial intelligence for Japan, the United States, and the broader global economy.

As AI continues to evolve, the surrounding policy, infrastructure, workforce, economic security, energy, and societal considerations do as well. The series provides a platform for forward-looking discussions on the opportunities and challenges shaping Japan’s AI future by:

  • Convening senior US and Japanese leaders from policy and industry.

  • Supporting informed dialogue on AI competitiveness, resilience, and innovation.

  • Exploring opportunities for US–Japan cooperation and strategic alignment.

  • Providing ACCJ members and stakeholders with unique access to emerging perspectives on AI-related developments.

  • Fostering cross-sector collaboration on the infrastructure, policy, and investment decisions required to support responsible AI growth.

SESSION ONE SPEAKERS

Junichi Kitamura
Director of Government Affairs and Country Lead for Micron Memory Japan K.K., Junichi Kitamura oversees the company’s national and local government affairs strategy and operations in Japan. Before joining Micron, he worked in external affairs at Philip Morris Japan, where he led regulatory affairs and public policy engagement in the highly technical and heavily regulated tobacco industry. Kitamura began his professional career in the consulting industry and was later seconded to Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation), Japan’s largest business association, where he contributed to policy development and regulatory monitoring on corporate governance, sustainability, and related public policy issues, working closely with Japanese ministries and industry leaders.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree in international relations from James Madison College at Michigan State University.

Quint Simon
Vice President of Public Policy for Asia-Pacific at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and based in Tokyo, Quint Simon leads policy strategy across the Asia-Pacific region. Her responsibilities include negotiating policy outcomes on corporate investment, data center and energy infrastructure expansion, AI, data governance, cybersecurity, privacy, and trade—all areas that enable AWS to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable cloud services to customers worldwide.

Representing the company at the highest levels of government and industry across all AWS business portfolios in the region, Simon brings deep expertise in high-risk business decisions involving large-scale capital investments and complex stakeholder engagement programs. Her leadership supports AWS’s ability to meet growing demand for cloud computing and AI services from enterprise customers, governments, startups, and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Simon serves on the board of the US-ASEAN Business Council and regularly represents AWS at major global forums, including APEC summits, G7/G20/B20 meetings, Singapore International Cyber Week, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. She is a press-certified Amazon spokesperson and has been featured in leading regional media. She is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Nanako Tanaka
Country Director of Government Affairs and Policy at GE Vernova, Nanako Tanaka leads the company’s government engagement efforts in Japan across all business units, working closely with each unit and the global government affairs team. She led the launch of the METI–GE Vernova Focus Group on Energy Security and Innovation and maintains close partnerships with the Government of Japan, the US Embassy in Tokyo, and key energy-related government stakeholders.

In addition to her role at GE Vernova, Tanaka serves as chair of the Energy Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, where she actively leads energy advocacy initiatives. She is also a leader of the Energy and Sustainability Forum.

Prior to joining GE Vernova, Tanaka served as general manager of public policy and government relations and of business development at Tier IV Inc., an autonomous driving startup in Japan. She also spent seven years as a project leader at Mitsubishi Research Institute, where she provided policy consulting to the Japanese government on emerging sectors such as unmanned aerial vehicles, telecommunications, commercial space, and ocean energy resources. Earlier in her career, she worked as a researcher at the German Aerospace Center while pursuing her PhD at the University of Stuttgart. She holds a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), completed an internship at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and earned both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in aerospace engineering from Kyushu University in Japan. Outside of work, Tanaka serves as a director of the MIT Club of Japan.

Rebecca Green
Partner and APAC Technology Industry Lead at ERM, Rebecca Green has a background in commercial real estate and has supported the development of data center projects across the region, from new market entry through to operations. She began her career at ERM more than 17 years ago, leading sustainability projects for the built environment across APAC before heading ERM’s Japan power sector team, where she focused on renewable energy initiatives in solar, wind, and small-scale hydropower. In her current role, she advises hyperscale clients on the siting and operation of data centers in Japan and across the region, and leads value chain programs to help the industry meet supplier code of conduct requirements and 2030 commitments. Green also contributes to energy policy dialogue in Japan and cofounded the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan Energy Committee. She currently serves on the ACCJ Board of Governors.