OpenAI continued a push to grow its business internationally with the opening of a new office in Japan, while pledging to collaborate with the government to develop the technology in the country.

The company stated the office in Tokyo is its first in Asia and follows recent moves to open up locations in London and Dublin as it looks to build on momentum of its ChatGPT generative AI platform by targeting revenue opportunities globally.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the office represented the first step in what he believes will be a long-term partnership with the people of Japan, government leaders and research institutions.

“We believe AI will accelerate work by empowering people to be more creative and productive, while also delivering broad value to current and new industries that have yet to be imagined,” added Altman.

As part of the push, the company named Tadao Nagasaki as president of OpenAI Japan, charged with leading commercial and market engagement efforts. He will help to build local teams in global affairs, go-to-market, communications, operations and other functions.

OpenAI also explained it is providing local businesses with early access to a GPT-4 customer model optimised for the Japanese language, offering improved performance in translating and summarising text. It plans to release the custom model more broadly in the API in the coming months.

Notably, OpenAI named Japan-based Rakuten Group as a company it would use its local presence to get closer to.

Rakuten is already using ChatGPT Enterprise to automate business processes, assist in data analysis and optimise internal reporting.

OpenAI counts Microsoft among its most high-profile backers, with the technology giant in 2023 committing to invest billions.