Japan has just fired up its first full-fledged quantum computer built on neutral atom tech. The project comes from the Institute for Molecular Science, with the quantum processor itself supplied by Infleqtion.

Shunkai Launch: System Highlights

This new system is called Shunkai. Out of the gate, it’s running with around 50 qubits—enough to crunch some serious numbers and put the tech’s scalability to the test. The team is aiming to ramp that up to about 500 qubits in the next phase.

Neutral Atom Technology

Shunkai is powered by quantum computing tech based on neutral atoms. This approach is seen as a strong contender for building scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems. The Institute for Molecular Science is targeting March 2031 to have a 10,000 physical qubit platform with error correction running on this setup.

Looking Ahead

The Shunkai project marks a big milestone for Japan’s quantum ambitions. Scaling up to 10,000 error-corrected qubits could unlock major breakthroughs for scientific research and real-world quantum applications.