October 27, 2026
Company:Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd. Representative:Yuichiro Wakatsuki
Director, Representative Executive Officer & Co-President
Wee Siew Kim
Director, Representative Executive Officer & Co-President Contact:Ryosuke Tanaka
Corporate Officer
General Manager, Investor Relations, Sustainability and Public Relations

Nippon Paint and the University of Tokyo Selected for JST’s ARiSE Program — Joint Research to Advance AI Technologies for Industrial Materials Development —

A research project titled “AI for Industrial Materials Development Based on Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Evidence” has been selected for the “Strategic Target-Driven” research type of the AI to Redesign Scientific Exploration (ARiSE) Program, administered by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).

The project was jointly proposed by Nippon Paint Corporate Solutions Co., Ltd., which supports the Nippon Paint Group’s domestic operations and undertakes R&D, and the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering and Graduate School of Frontier Sciences. ARiSE (AI to Redesign Scientific Exploration) is a flagship initiative promoted by JST based on the Japanese government’s Basic Strategic Policy for Promoting AI for Science.

Drawing on the University of Tokyo’s expertise in AI and materials science and the tacit knowledge the Nippon Paint Group has accumulated over 145 years of paint and coatings development, the project aims to create AI technologies that support materials development through reasoning grounded in the physical behavior of materials.

1. Background and Objectives

AI technologies for materials development (“AI for Materials”) have advanced rapidly in recent years. At the same time, industry faces the challenge of effectively applying the knowledge and rationale accumulated through years of R&D to materials development. In particular, there is considerable scope to make greater use of the knowledge contained in technical documents and experimental records as digital assets.
This project aims to extract and organize knowledge and the rationale behind technical judgments related to materials development from the Nippon Paint Group’s technical documents and R&D data. The project will use these resources to develop an AI platform and AI agent technologies, and assess their applicability to the industrial materials field.

2. Future Outlook

The University of Tokyo and the Nippon Paint Group will assess the applicability and effectiveness of the AI platform developed through this project in the industrial materials field. Based on the results, further R&D will focus on its potential application in the field.
Collaboration between the University of Tokyo and the Nippon Paint Group has deepened through initiatives such as Social Cooperation Programs established under the industry-academia co-creation agreement. Although this project will be carried out under a different framework from our previous collaborations, it will bring together the expertise of both organizations to advance R&D in the industrial materials field and create new value.

Message from Dr. Jiang Hong, CTO, Japan Group

“The Nippon Paint Group is actively pursuing AI for Materials as one of its key technology strategies. Through this project, we explore a new form of industry-academia collaboration that will strengthen and deepen our partnership with the University of Tokyo.
Looking ahead, we will combine agentic AI with the expertise we have developed over many years in the paint and coatings field to accelerate innovation in product development and improve productivity for our industry.”

3. Selection Details

• Selected Program：AI to Redesign Scientific Exploration (ARiSE) Program―Strategic Target-Driven research type (“Strategic Target 1-3”)
• Project Title：AI for Industrial Materials Development Based on Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Evidence
• Principal Investigator：Junichiro Shiomi, Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
• Co-Principal Investigator：Koji Tsuda, Professor, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
• Co-Principal Investigator：Kentaro Kawata, General Manager, Technology Shared Service CoE, Nippon Paint Corporate Solutions Co., Ltd.

The Nippon Paint Group has established the following management structure for this project:

• Overall Management Officer： President and Representative Director, Nippon Paint Corporate Solutions Co., Ltd.
• Compliance Promotion Officer：Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Japan Group, Nippon Paint Corporate Solutions Co., Ltd.
• Highest Management Officer：General Manager, Technology Shared Service CoE, Nippon Paint Corporate Solutions Co., Ltd.