Nikkei Computer's "IT Japan Award 2026" Grand Prize Awarded to JFE Steel's Core System Migration Project

Nikkei BP, Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Tetsuya Iguchi), publisher of "Nikkei Computer," the comprehensive information magazine for IT professionals, has announced the winners of the "IT Japan Award 2026," which recognizes outstanding IT case studies.

The IT Japan Award has been presented annually by Nikkei Computer since 2007 with the aim of "discovering companies and organizations that have achieved remarkable results by building and utilizing information systems, and widely sharing their success know-how." Entries are selected from IT utilization articles published in "Nikkei Computer" and the digital media "Nikkei xTECH," which conveys the latest developments in technology and business, over the past year, and are judged by external reviewers.

This year's IT Japan Award 2026, the 20th iteration, held its judging session on May 14 (Thu). Based on the three judging criteria: "Contribution to Management Innovation and Business Reform," "Originality in System Construction and Utilization," and "Advancement of Adopted Technologies and Methods," the following companies were selected, including JFE Steel Corporation, which completed its core system migration project running on mainframes at its steelworks and manufacturing plants nationwide over a period of 5 years and 2 months. The award recipients include one Grand Prize winner, one Runner-up Prize winner, and five Special Prize winners.

[Award Winners]

● Grand Prize

JFE Steel Corporation Open-sourced a core system with a total of 200 million steps, completed in 5 years and 2 months

● Runner-up Prize

Suzukama Co., Ltd. Utilizing everything from AI-OCR to Generative AI; all employees, regardless of position or tenure, are DX担当 (DX personnel)

● Special Prize

ASAHI GROUP HOLDINGS, LTD. Integrated and built a global procurement platform, achieving cost savings of 14.7 billion yen

APA Hotel Ltd. APA's little-known IT: A maverick technology expert in the hotel industry

MOL (Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.) AI-generated crew assignment plans reduce workload by 70% and improve working conditions

Sony Bank Inc. Full cloud migration of core banking system; parallel development of packages with Fujitsu

LAWSON, INC. "Real x Tech" Ambition: Creating the next-generation convenience store with KDDI

(Companies with the same award are listed in Japanese syllabic order)

[Judges]

Chief Judge: Ryota Tamaki (Editor-in-Chief, Nikkei Computer)

Judge: Shigetaka Ito (President, Information Systems Society)

Judge: Takeo Shima (Senior Executive Director, Japan Users Association of Information Systems)

Judge: Hideto Tanaka (Special Appointed Manager, Digital Transformation Department, Information-technology Promotion Agency)

Judging Cooperation: Nikkei xTECH Editorial Department (in charge of Nikkei Computer)

(In Japanese syllabic order / Affiliations and titles are as of the judging session)

For more details on the initiatives of the award-winning companies, please refer to "Nikkei Computer July 9th issue" or the article on Nikkei xTECH (https://xtech.nikkei.com/atcl/nxt/column/18/00001/11859/index.html).

[Contact Information]

For inquiries about the IT Japan Award, please use the inquiry form (https://support.nikkeibp.co.jp/app/ask_0301/p/235). For inquiries regarding coverage, please visit the inquiry page on Nikkei BP's corporate website (https://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/faq/).