Runway, an AI-powered video generation company, opens a base in Japan.

Runway , an AI company specializing in video generation, has announced the opening of its Tokyo office, which will serve as its Japanese headquarters. According to Runway, the company is investing $40 million (approximately 6.339 billion yen) in initial investment and will be hiring a 'Head of Japan Operations' to advance its business in the Japanese market.

Runway News | Runway is Coming to Japan
https://runwayml.com/news/runway-is-coming-to-japan

Runway is seeking a head of its Japan operations to build a broader team across product, engineering, sales, and customer deployment in Japan. They stated, 'We are looking for someone who understands both the Japanese creative industry and the enterprise market and can work in collaboration with leading domestic companies in fields such as production, advertising, and robotics,' and have posted recruitment information.

According to Runway, Japan is one of their fastest-growing markets, even though they haven't yet launched a full-scale commercial presence there. With millions of individual users in Japan and a 300% increase in corporate clients over the past 12 months, Runway states that 'Japan is driving one-third of our total sales in Asia.'

Today we're announcing Runway's expansion into Japan: we're opening a Tokyo office and investing an initial $40M in the country, as we build on what is already one of our largest and fastest-growing markets. We've tripled our enterprise customer base in the country in the last 12… pic.twitter.com/v70eORVxyw

— Runway (@runwayml) May 14, 2026

Daisuke Fujihira, General Manager of the AX Solutions Division, Corporate Business Unit, SoftBank Corp., commented, 'Our corporate marketing team uses Runway's services for some of its operations. It's very well-received internally because it allows us to easily create high-quality creative assets. The opening of this office and this significant investment are fantastic news for the Japanese creative industry and proof that we see great potential in this market.'

Chrisval Valenzuela, co-founder and co-CEO of Runway, said, 'Japan is one of the most sophisticated creative industries in the world, and our organic growth there reflects that. However, Japan and other key Asian markets are also world leaders in robotics, manufacturing, and gaming, where world models play a crucial role. This investment and expansion in Asia reflects that opportunity and demonstrates our commitment to partnering with the companies that are building it.'