July 6, 2026
TOKYO – The government will establish a training center as early as this month to train instructors for statistics, the basis for data analysis, to meet the demand for experts in AI and big data analytics, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry aims to train about 30 people per year and produce at least 500 highly skilled statisticians every year in the 2030s.
A research institution or university will soon be selected to host the center through an open call for applications. As soon as this month, the center may hold a one-year training program for young researchers, featuring workshops to develop statistical knowledge and skills, as well as mock lectures to prepare them for teaching at universities and other institutions.
The government plans to provide about ¥230 million in subsidies for this fiscal year to cover project costs.
The center will also develop teaching materials and share them, along with its training expertise, with universities and other institutions. The aim is to ensure a steady supply of highly skilled statisticians by having people who receive training at the center teach at their respective institutions.
The need for statistics, which is used to interpret and predict future trends and patterns in data, is growing as the use of AI and digitalization increases in everyday life and in the economy. An increasing number of universities are also establishing data science departments that use programming or statistical data to tackle social issues.
According to the ministry, the first such department in Japan was introduced at Shiga University in fiscal 2017. By fiscal 2023, 10 universities, including Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, had established similar programs. In fiscal 2025, the number of universities with such departments had risen to 40.
In its outline of “Japan’s AI Basic Plan” compiled last year, the government also said it will work to develop specialists with outstanding abilities.
However, the training of faculty members to teach statistics has not kept pace with demand, making introducing a system to train statisticians an urgent priority.