TOKYO — Mazda has opened a Silicon Valley-inspired R&D center in a swank downtown high-rise, hoping the new digs in prime real estate will help the carmaker attract tech talent to spearhead its shift into software, artificial intelligence and advanced safety systems.
The Mazda R&D Center Tokyo, shown to media July 9, will help the small carmaker tap the talent and ideas circulating in Japan’s biggest city. It is part of a wider trend of Japanese auto companies setting up software shops in the capital for access to more international knowhow.
The hub, perched on the 49th floor of one of Tokyo’s newest skyscrapers, pursues a casual California vibe in one of the city’s trendiest neighborhoods. Its open layout, replete with a modern cafe and lounge seating for brainstorming, is ensconced in woody trim, green carpeting and ample fresh foliage. All with inspiring views of the urban landscape below stretching to the horizon.
Export-reliant Mazda Motor Corp., which is bracing for a big earnings blow this year from U.S. tariffs, said investments in such facilities are crucial, despite its tightening finances.
“Indeed, the environment surrounding us, including the U.S. tariffs, is becoming more severe and the outlook is becoming increasingly uncertain,” Executive Officer Noriyuki Takimura said. “But if Mazda is to continue to be the brand of choice for customers, it is important for us to deliver products and customer experiences that are in line with our vision.”
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The company will cut costs were it can to afford the investments that are essential, he said.
“It is important that we take a balanced approach, going on the offensive where we need to and on the defensive where we can at the same time,” Takimura said.
Mazda’s new R&D center helps software collaboration with Toyota
Mazda’s global headquarters is in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima, a four-hour bullet train trip from Tokyo. Opening the new office gives it an outpost for creativity and coolness in one of the world’s biggest cities and may attract tech-oriented talent.
Mazda Executive Officers Michihiro Imada, left, and Noriyuki Takimura say the Japanese carmaker’s new high-tech hub in downtown Tokyo will help it attract software engineering talent.
Mazda’s new base will focus on software, advance safety systems and artificial intelligence, along with sales and marketing. Also serving as Mazda’s Tokyo head office, the facility employs 240 people and handles some administrative and recruiting functions.
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The location will help attract software and artificial intelligence engineers that are now crucial to the development of today’s vehicles, Takimura said.
The Tokyo location also allows for convenient coordination with Mazda’s corporate partner Toyota Motor Corp., which has its Woven by Toyota software subsidiary headquartered nearby. Mazda is collaborating to adopt Woven’s Arene automotive software platform into its vehicles.
The newly opened Mazda R&D Center Tokyo aspires to a casual California worker-friendly vibe with leafy lounges and open seating.
“As for Arene, Toyota and we have formed an alliance in various ways, and we are continuing to consult with each other about Arene,” Executive Officer Michihiro Imada said. “We would like to participate in joint development and make use of it. It is good this center is located close by.”
Toyota, headquartered in Toyota City outside the central metropolis of Nagoya, is not the only automaker gravitating eastward to Tokyo as a hub of its advanced technologies.
Mazda opened a separate idea-creation office, called the Mazda Innovation Space Tokyo, here last year. Sony Honda Mobility’s headquarters is just down the street at another trendy site in the same Roppongi neighborhood. And in February, Subaru Corp. opened a second high-tech R&D hub in Tokyo to power its dive into software-defined vehicles and attract new engineers.
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AloJapan.com