This article was originally published in the Brand Finance Japan 300 2025 report
NTT Group has been recognised by Brand Finance in 2025 as the third most valuable Japanese brand, with its brand value rising 16% to JPY 5.3 trillion, underscoring its role as a cornerstone of Japan’s digital and communications landscape. From its origins as a national telecommunications provider, NTT has evolved into a global technology leader, shaping the future of connectivity, computing, and digital infrastructure while embedding sustainability at the core of its growth strategy.
In this spotlight interview, Akira Shimada, Representative Member of the Board and President and CEO of NTT Group, shares how the organisation continues to drive long-term value through innovation and responsible leadership. He reflects on NTT’s progress in advancing next-generation technologies such as the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN), strengthening its global brand presence, and aligning technological advancement with environmental stewardship and social impact.
Interview with Akira Shimada
Representative
Member of the Board
President and CEO,
NTT Group
President Akira Shimada was ranked 96th in the Brand Guardianship Index 2025 and 4th in the Telecoms Brand Guardianship Index. What initiatives do you believe contributed to this recognition?
This recognition reflects NTT’s steadfast commitment to pioneering solutions that address the emerging challenges and opportunities in business and society. As digitalisation accelerates and AI adoption surges, rising power consumption has become a critical concern for a sustainable future. NTT is confronting these challenges head-on, advancing innovative technologies and solutions.
In our medium-term management strategy through fiscal year 2027, we articulated the vision of “Innovating a Sustainable Future for People and Planet” signalling our
intent to enrich lives while safeguarding the planet’s future. Central to this vision is the Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) concept, which aims to power
the next generation of AI infrastructure initiatives by leveraging advanced optical technologies for networking and computing.
IOWN is designed for ultra-low power consumption, high-capacity data transmission, and extremely low latency, with ambitious targets: improving power efficiency 100-fold, increasing transmission capacity 125 times, and reducing end-to-end latency to one two-hundredth of current levels, a milestone already achieved.
These advancements lower energy costs, cut carbon emissions, and enable faster, more reliable connections, helping bridge the digital divide. By combining advanced digital infrastructure with environmental responsibility, IOWN supports a more inclusive, connected, and sustainable society. As AI adoption accelerates, rising power consumption from GPU-based infrastructure has become a global concern. IOWN technologies can help address this by linking remote data centres with high-speed, high-capacity, ultra-low-latency connections, optimising resource use and improving energy efficiency. This distributed approach also supports sustainability through greater use of local renewable energy and reduces costs by enabling access to more efficient data centre facilities.
To accelerate the realisation of the IOWN concept, we have recently achieved significant milestones:
- Expo 2025 Osaka, Japan: At the Yumeshima site , we deployed All-Photonics Connect, leveraging APN to link the on-site network with external locations across 29 sites. At the NTT Pavilion, we introduced IOWN optical computing through photonic electronic convergence (PEC) devices, which partially replace electrical signals within servers with optical signals, reducing power consumption to one-eighth of conventional levels.
- Collaboration with Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (Taiwan): By introducing photonics based technologies across the entire network – from infrastructure to terminals – we successfully implemented the All-Photonics Network (APN), delivering ultra-low power consumption, high quality, massive capacity, and extremely low latency. In a world-first achievement, we established an international APN link between data centers in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Tokyo, Japan. Spanning approximately 3,000 kilometers and providing stable, fluctuation-free communication with one-way latency of about 17 milliseconds – approaching the speed of light.
Looking ahead, we plan to expand IOWN from communications into computing and data centres. In fiscal year 2026, we aim to launch PEC devices with double the transmission capacity compared of those showcased at Expo 2025 Osaka. With steady progress under way, we will continue collaborating with global partners to pursue the dual goals of creating a prosperous; AI-driven society and reducing environmental impact.
Additionally, May 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of NTT’s transition to a publicly listed company. To commemorate this milestone, we established our Corporate Identity (CI), comprising:
- NTT Group’s core: Innovating a sustainable future for people and planet.
- NTT Group’s values: Act with integrity, build trust, create connections.
NTT’s workforce is increasingly global with more than 40% of our approximately 340,000 employees based outside Japan. As our international footprint continues to grow, strengthening our brand presence worldwide and ensuring alignment around a shared
direction and set of values are essential to enhancing competitiveness and driving our transformation. With our newly defined CI, we aim to move forward as a unified, globally connected team.
Social responsibility and sustainable practices are increasingly important to stakeholders. How has NTT integrated sustainability initiatives into its brand strategy?
Sustainability sits at the core of our management strategy. Our ambition is to help create a world where people and the planet can thrive together, supported by personal well-being, societal prosperity, resource efficiency, and sustainable technologies. This
philosophy is clearly articulated in the NTT Group Sustainability Charter, which embraces the principle of “Self as We” – a philosophy of altruistic co-existence between people, nature and technology.
“Self as We” reflects the idea that individual actions contribute to collective well-being, encouraging behaviours and innovations that support both environmental harmony and social progress.
This principle is deeply connected to our brand identity. Through technologies such as IOWN and our broader business activities, we aim to enrich lives while safeguarding the planet’s future – values that define the essence of our brand.
To embed the sustainability commitment both internally and externally, we have hosted the NTT Group Sustainability Conference annually since 2014. At the 2025 conference, initiatives from 18 countries and regions – totaling 169 programmes – were submitted, with outstanding efforts recognised and shared across the Group. Through these initiatives, NTT continues to embrace sustainability as a collective endeavour, advancing our business and brand under the guiding principle of “Self as We” and contributing to the realisation of a truly sustainable society.
You mentioned earlier the establishment of the Corporate Identity for employees. Employee engagement is often said to have a significant impact on brand perception. How does NTT encourage employees to contribute to, and align with, the brand’s values and goals?
The NTT Group’s Core expresses our fundamental aspiration: “To contribute to enriching lives and safeguarding the planet’s future by placing customers at the origin of our thinking, continuously driving self-innovation, and delivering dynamic transformation to society as a corporate group.”
To develop this Core, we formed working groups of employees from across our domestic and local operations. Through employee surveys and interviews with external experts, we engaged in extensive discussions that reflected diverse perspectives.
At the heart of realising this Core is our people. We believe that the opportunities for personal growth and development fosters self-innovation and social transformation, forming the driving force behind our business strategy. Guided by this belief, NTT
has developed a human capital strategy built on three pillars:
- Strengthening support for autonomous career development: We have introduced a personnel and compensation system centered on expertise, offering dual career paths for management and specialists.This enables employees to choose career trajectories aligned with their aspirations and strengths.
- Fostering an open and innovative corporate culture: We prioritise psychological safety and open dialogue, encouraging bold challenges. By promoting diversity and inclusion, we are building workplaces where everyone can fully realise their potential.
- Enhancing and supporting the work environment: Through initiatives such as the Remote Standard system, we support flexible, hybrid work styles. We are also advancing measures to improve employee health, well-being, and productivity.
NTT places strong emphasis on employee experience (EX), striving to unlock individual potential through autonomous learning, a culture that values diversity, and an environment where employees can take risks with confidence.
Employee engagement is seen as a key driver of corporate value, with annual survey results informing management decisions.
In a rapidly changing world, NTT believes that empowering people and organisations to shape the future together forms the foundation of our distinctive innovations.
