CTO Message

Value Creation Through Co-Creation

Since its founding, the Shimadzu Group has responded sincerely to the needs of customers and society, providing a broad range of technologies, products, and services. Today, social challenges are increasingly global and complex, and cannot be addressed through advances in individual technologies alone. Co-creation—bringing together knowledge across disciplines and rapidly translating it into market deployment—is essential. The Shimadzu Group will combine its own technological capabilities with new insights gained through open innovation to create social value across the four domains of Healthcare, Green, Materials, and Industry, while pursuing Planetary Health (the Well-Being of Mankind and the Earth). This aspiration is central to our R&D and business activities, guided by our Corporate Philosophy of “Contributing to Society through Science and Technology,” and our Management Principle, “Realizing Our Wishes for the Well-Being of Mankind and the Earth.”

A Common Foundation and Five Initiatives

The Shimadzu Group’s technology strategy is to provide customer-centric end-to-end solutions grounded in technology, connect core technologies directly to solutions for social and customer challenges, and achieve sustained business expansion and the creation of new businesses. To this end, we will strengthen execution by advancing five integrated initiatives, supported by a common foundation of advanced technologies, highly skilled talent, and advanced development processes.
These initiatives are aligned with the priority themes of the new Medium-Term Management Plan—acquiring new technologies and enhancing product competitiveness; accelerating technology development and market deployment; and leveraging intellectual property strategy to create new businesses—and are embodied in the six actions shown in the diagram.

Through these initiatives, we will further develop advanced technologies in areas such as advanced measurement, quantum technology, and biotech/life sciences into core technologies. At the same time, we aim to expand businesses and create new businesses across the four domains through collaboration with leading partners and the acquisition of external technologies through CVC investments and M&A. The following sections describe each of the six initiatives.

1. Advancing Cutting-Edge Technologies, Expanding Businesses, and Creating New Businesses in the Four Domains

Quantum Technology

Building on its strengths in optical technologies and analytical and measuring technologies, the Shimadzu Group will establish cutting-edge quantum measurement technologies.
The quantum infrared spectroscopy system, which uses entangled photons and is being developed through joint research with Professor Shigeki Takeuchi of Kyoto University, is attracting attention as a compact, highly sensitive, and low-cost new infrared measurement technology, with potential applications in healthcare, security, and environmental monitoring.

In time measurement, Shimadzu launched the world’s first commercial optical lattice clock in March 2025, based on strontium optical lattice clock technology invented by Professor Hidetoshi Katori of the University of Tokyo. The clock is over 100 times more accurate than the cesium atomic clock currently used to define the second. It is attracting attention as a leading candidate for the future definition of the second and is also expected to serve as a frequency standard for high-speed communications. Because it can detect differences in elevation from extremely small differences in gravity, it is also expected to be applied to infrastructure technologies such as crustal deformation monitoring, volcanic activity prediction, and underground resource exploration.

Biotechnology and Life Sciences Technologies

For the life sciences market, Shimadzu will enhance its liquid chromatographs and mass spectrometers while establishing and commercializing measurement and testing technologies that leverage molecular diagnostics and biotechnology. In the clinical business, we will expand sales of clinical testing instruments, including systems for early diagnosis and rapid infectious disease testing based on clinical platforms that use mass spectrometers, while also expanding recurring revenue businesses such as reagents and culture media.
To help create next-generation laboratories, we will build the Autonomous Lab, an experimental system in which AI and robots autonomously formulate hypotheses and conduct experiments based on analytical data.
In response to growing demand for alternatives to animal testing, we will develop microphysiological systems (MPS) that combine cell culture, measurement, and biochip technologies, as well as systems that simulate the intestinal environment. Through these technologies, we will contribute to R&D in drug discovery, personalized medicine, prebiotics, and functional foods.

2. Joint Research with Leading Partners

A co-creation process that links technology and talent is critical to creating innovation. The Shimadzu Group promotes co-creation and collaboration with external partners at each stage, from basic technology research to product development and applied technology development.
With academia, we enter into comprehensive collaboration agreements at the institutional level and deepen partnerships aimed at creating new businesses and developing highly skilled talent. Through open-call research partner programs such as the SHIMADZU Future Co-Creation Challenge, we also invite innovative ideas from academia, startups, and other partners, and continually cultivate opportunities for market deployment.

3. Acquiring External Technologies and Businesses Through CVC and M&A

To make open innovation effective, the Shimadzu Group invests in startups through its corporate venture capital fund, the Shimadzu Future Innovation Fund. Through this fund, we are rapidly incorporating innovative measurement methods, AI algorithms, biotechnology-related technologies, and other external technologies. We aim to launch new businesses and maximize business synergies arising from investments and collaborations.

4. Strengthening Business Incubation for Market Deployment

Looking ahead from proof of concept (PoC) to implementation and mass production, the Shimadzu Group has established a framework for launching advanced technologies as businesses. This includes providing demonstration opportunities at customer sites, supporting regulatory response, participating in standardization activities, and coordinating with marketing and sales channels. In the medical and healthcare, environment, and energy fields in particular, we will promote commercialization with an emphasis on social impact.

5. Enhancing Technology Development and Developing Talent Through AI and DX

The Shimadzu Group will actively incorporate AI and DX into its development processes, while building a design information infrastructure and optimizing operations. Through concurrent development from design to manufacturing, we will achieve faster and more efficient product development. We will also develop core talent through practical, cross-functional talent development programs, and continuously enhance our technological and development capabilities.

6. Enhancing Product Competitiveness Through the Strategic Use of Intellectual Property

We view intellectual property as a source of competitiveness and will establish a cycle from IP creation to IP utilization. Through an Open & Close Strategy, we will both expand markets and secure exclusivity where appropriate. By using generative AI and IP landscape analysis, we will build the necessary intellectual property portfolio and use earnings generated through business contributions to create new end-to-end solutions.

Toward More Creative R&D

Creative work is essential to value creation through R&D. Herbert Simon (1916–2001), who received the Nobel Prize in Economics, articulated the principle that routine work drives out creativity. The concept is that when people face a large volume of routine work, they become occupied with completing it, and essential, creative work is pushed back. With the development of AI, the nature of work is changing, and the way work is carried out is being fundamentally transformed. We see this as an opportunity to restore and reinvigorate creativity that has been crowded out.
With empathy and co-creation as its foundation, the Shimadzu Group will pursue creative and ambitious R&D, generating value simultaneously for society, customers, and the Group. We will translate the power of technology into reliable market deployment. Through continued dialogue with stakeholders, we will accelerate our progress toward realizing Planetary Health.