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A group of researchers from the Network Research Institute of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) led by Ruben Soares Lu?s, in collaboration with the University of L'Aquila (Italy), Heinrich-Hertz-Institute, Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications (HHI, Germany), Finisar Australia (Australia), Prysmian Group (Italy, Holland, France), and Nokia Bell Labs (Bell Labs, USA) achieved the first demonstration of a field deployed 15-mode optical fiber network, equivalent to 15 parallel fiber networks using a single fiber installed in the city of L’Aquila, Italy.

A group of researchers from the Network Research Institute of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, Japan) led by Georg Rademacher in collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs (USA), Prysmian Group (Prysmian, France, and the Netherlands), and the University of Queensland (Australia) succeeded in the world's first large-capacity transmission experiment with large mode multiplexing technology using 55 modes.

Tokyo - October 24, 2022 -Toppan (TYO: 7911), a global leader in communication, security, packaging, décor materials, and electronics solutions, and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) have developed PQC CARD®, the world’s first smart card equipped with post-quantum cryptography,1 which is difficult for even a quantum computer to crack. The organizations have also successfully confirmed effectiveness by applying PQC CARD® to control access to H-LINCOS,2　a system for the secure long-term storage and exchange of healthcare data.

Quantum computers, which are currently under development, are expected to have a major impact on society. Their benefits include reducing the environmental burden by reducing energy consumption, finding new chemical substances for medical use, accelerating the search for materials for a cleaner environment, etc.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) has successfully developed a highly efficient optical modulator using the organic electro-optic polymer (hereinafter referred to as EO polymer) for visible light. Conventional EO polymer optical modulators could operate in near-infrared light (wavelength 1,550 nm, etc.), but they couldn’t be used for visible light (wavelength 380 nm to 780 nm) because of the large absorption loss at visible light. NICT has developed an EO polymer which has small absorption loss in visible light and a large electro-optic coefficient required for the optical modulator. We fabricated an optical modulator using this EO polymer by microfabrication technology and operated the optical modulator in visible light (red, wavelength 640 nm). The demonstrated optical modulator for visible light is smaller and more efficient than the conventional EO polymer optical modulator for near-infrared light.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, president: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) is the first in the world to generate standard time referenced to an optical clock. By adjusting the time interval (the effective duration of the second) to match that generated by an intermittently operated optical lattice clock, the difference between the time generated at NICT and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is reduced to less than five billionth of a second. This is less than a quarter of the previous difference, which could reach up to 20 billionth of a second.

Japan Radio Co., Ltd. (Representative Director and President: Takeshi Koarai, hereinafter JRC), SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (President & Chief Executive Officer: Eiichi Yonekura, hereinafter SKY Perfect JSAT), and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (President: Hideyuki Tokuda, Ph.D., hereinafter NICT) jointly worked to conduct a Japan-Europe joint experiment for connecting satellite and 5G, including Japan-Europe long-distance network. Successful transmission of 5G control-plane signal, 4K video, and IoT data was achieved in January and February of 2022 for the first time in Japan. This experiment was conducted in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, School of Engineering, Nakao Research Laboratory, the European Space Agency (ESA), Eurescom GmbH, and Fraunhofer FOKUS Institute. This joint experiment shows that 5G communications can be established over long-distance links between Japan and Europe, including satellite links, and be expected to lead to the early spread of 5G networks in places where 5G deployment has been difficult, such as in the sky, at sea, or on remote islands.

Researchers from the Network Research Institute at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) report the world's first demonstration of more than 1 petabit per second in a multi-core fiber (MCF) with a standard diameter of 0.125 mm. The researchers, led by Benjamin J. Puttnam, constructed a transmission system that supports a record optical bandwidth exceeding 20 THz by exploiting wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) (President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) and the Financial Services Agency of Japan (JFSA) worked together to develop a new AI-based translation engine that can translate documents between Japanese and English in both directions with high accuracy. The JFSA has collected, and provided to the NICT, a large number of translation documents owned by the JFSA and financial industry groups. The NICT has refined them into data suitable for deep learning to develop the high-precision AI-based engine.

In March 2022, National University Corporation Tokai National Higher Education and Research System, Nagoya University (President: MATSUO Seiichi) provided approximately 530,000 Japanese-English translation sentences consisting of university regulations, notifications, and correspondences, to the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (President: TOKUDA Hideyuki; hereinafter “NICT”), a National Research and Development Agency. The data will be used to help improve the accuracy of machine translation engines developed under the “Hon’yaku (Translation) Bank” scheme run by NICT and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

NICT and nine other members today extended and expanded the underlying Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Asia-Pacific-Europe Ring (AER) in a virtual signing ceremony at the APAN53 conference held in Bangladesh, after three years of successful collaboration.

TOKYO—Nomura Holdings, Inc. (President and Group CEO, Kentaro Okuda, hereinafter Nomura HD), Nomura Securities Co., Ltd. (Representative Director and President, Kentaro Okuda, hereinafter Nomura Securities), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (President, Hideyuki Tokuda, Ph.D., hereinafter NICT), Toshiba Corporation (Representative Executive Officer and President and Chief Executive Officer, Satoshi Tsunakawa, hereinafter Toshiba), and NEC Corporation (President and CEO, Takayuki Morita, hereinafter NEC) have jointly verified the effectiveness and practicality of quantum cryptography for future social implementation using stock trading operations as a use case, where high-speed, large-volume, low-latency data transmission is strictly required.

National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) is conducting research and development on Beyond 5G, a future communication system that aims to be realized after 2030. For the realization of Beyond 5G, it is necessary to deepen discussions by incorporating opinions from various fields and age groups. Therefore, referring to the future social image shown in the NICT Beyond 5G/6G White Paper published in March 2021, we’re holding an event to frankly exchange opinions with people of various fields and ages and deepen discussions. We hope that this event helps people to increase interests in Beyond 5G, and also helps to create new collaborations, new ideas, and new services. We look forward to your participation.

RaNNC (Rapid Neural Network Connector), automatic parallelization middleware for deep learning developed jointly by Data-driven Intelligent System Research Center (DIRECT), the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.), and the University of Tokyo (President: FUJII Teruo), won first place at the PyTorch Annual Hackathon 2021 (PyTorch Developer Tools & Libraries category).