- Strengthen R&D to Stimulate Innovation
Since its founding, Toshiba Group has been working to solve social issues through its business activities. Toshiba will strengthen R&D aimed at stimulating innovation that will achieve carbon neutrality and realize a circular economy while maximizing its potential to the full by leveraging its strengths in technology and diverse development capabilities and combining the power of data with our core business areas of energy, infrastructure and devices.
FY2024 Key Achievements
- Contributing to the realization of a carbon-neutral society by introducing a rock-based thermal energy storage management system
- Habuki™ Pre-Treatment Equipment for Small-Scale Sewage Treatment Facilities That Contribute to Energy Savings
- Reducing vehicle submersion damage caused by flooding in depressions and underpasses -Launch of a demonstration test for the “Vehicle Submersion Emergency Alert” system
- Developed a battery that combines ultra-fast charging and long-life performance while maintaining the same volumetric energy density as LFP batteries -Niobium titanium oxide (NTO) anode batteries for large commercial electric vehicles achieve over 10 times the charge-discharge cycles of LFP batteries
R&D Strategy
Under its Basic Commitment, “Committed to People, Committed to the Future,” Toshiba Group will—supported by our proven technology—create products, solutions, and services to achieve carbon neutrality and a circular economy as well as safe and secure social infrastructure. Making the most of the technological diversity that is Toshiba Group's strength, we place great importance on fostering an environment in which the engineers and researchers who support these technologies can inspire one another and grow. Through co-creation with our partners, customers, and society, we will address and overcome even more serious social issues.
Toshiba Group R&D Structure
On April 1, 2025, many of Toshiba's R&D organizations were consolidated into the Corporate Laboratory at the headquarters. The Corporate Laboratory works in close collaboration with the headquarters' design and engineering departments, Group companies, and external partners to support the core technologies of our business domains, to develop new products and differentiated technologies aligned with business plans, and to advance commercialization and mass production to meet customer needs. And the Corporate Laboratory is also working to deepen the Company’s underlying technologies from a medium- to long-term perspective, and is engaged in research targeting new business domains as well as innovative and cutting-edge R&D.
Under the Corporate Laboratory, we have established three organizations dedicated to R&D related to innovative systems and technologies in the Group's business domains --the Energy Systems R&D Center, the Infrastructure Systems R&D Center, and the Advanced Devices R&D Center. In addition, we have established four new cross-business domain and production technology organizations: the AI Digital R&D Center, the Digital Innovation Technology Center, the Production Innovation Technology Center, and the Materials & Frontier Research Center. As AI and digital technologies become increasingly vital across all business domains as well as in design and manufacturing processes, the AI Digital R&D Center and the Digital Innovation Technology Center will take the lead, working with the other centers to accelerate the creation of DX initiatives and digital services. The Digital Innovation Technology Center will also collaborate with the Production Innovation Technology Center to develop and deploy technologies that improve the productivity and quality of hardware, software, and business processes, thereby driving business growth. The Materials & Frontier Research Center will pursue innovative research that goes beyond existing business domains, including areas such as quantum computing. Under this new structure, we will strengthen the lab functions currently stationed at major business and production sites, and we will enhance co-creation with society and other companies through the use of our new R&D building, the Innovation Palette, which opened in January 2024. Through cross-domain collaboration among engineers and these co-creation activities, we will focus on developing the technical talent that will support the Toshiba Group's future.
Corporate's R&D organizations
- The Energy Systems Research and Development Center also functions as the Energy Systems R&D Center of the Toshiba Corporation Corporate Laboratory. The Corporate Laboratory is advancing R&D in collaboration with other centers within the Laboratory.
See website below for more details.
R&D Expenses
Toshiba has defined strengthening R&D to stimulate innovation as one of its material issues.
The ratio of R&D expenses to sales in Toshiba Group stands at approximately 5%.
Ratio of R&D expenses to sales
| FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 |
FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.5% | 4.7% | 4.9% | 4.6% | 4.7% | 4.9% | 4.4% |
| FY2018 | FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 |
FY2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.5% | 4.7% | 4.9% | 4.6% | 4.7% | 4.9% | 4.4% |
Examples of R&D that contribute to solving social issues
Contributing to the realization of a carbon-neutral society by introducing a rock-based thermal energy storage management system
Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation and Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. are jointly conducting a survey and verification project aimed at introducing Japan’s largest-capacity rock-based thermal energy storage management system in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture.* This system is designed to maximize the efficient use of renewable energy and to contribute to the realization of a carbon-neutral society.
The system works by converting electricity generated from renewable sources into heat, storing such heat in rocks, and supplying the stored energy as heat or electricity when needed. This approach not only helps to balance electricity supply and demand but is expected to reduce environmental impacts as the use of renewable energy expands.
The project plan is to finalize the optimal installation location and thermal capacity by the end of FY2026, commence phased manufacturing of equipment in FY2027, and begin supplying heat and electricity to residential buildings, public facilities, and businesses by FY2029.
This technology is expected to deliver significant benefits—not only to the environment by reducing CO2 emissions but through its advantages in terms of economic efficiency and equipment reliability.
- This initiative is being carried out under the Ministry of the Environment’s Co-Creation and Cross-Sector Carbon Neutral Technology Development and Demonstration Program.
Habuki™ Pre-Treatment Equipment for Small-Scale Sewage Treatment Facilities That Contribute to Energy Savings
In recent years, sewage treatment facilities have faced challenges such as increased construction costs associated with changes in facility scale due to regional consolidation, as well as the need for energy-saving measures (reduction of power consumption) to promote carbon neutrality.
To solve these challenges, our company provides Habuki™, a pre-treatment system designed for the OD method*1. Habuki™ reduces the pollutant load flowing into the reaction tank by retaining a large volume of microorganisms on its internal rotating fiber unit, which efficiently removes pollutants from sewage while taking in oxygen from the air. This can increase the processing capacity of the OD method reaction tank by approximately 150–190%. As a result, even if the inflow of sewage increases due to changes in facility scale, there is no need to add more reaction tanks, which reduces both construction costs and CO2 emissions. It can also reduce the power consumption required for aeration by approximately 20%.
By increasing the processing capacity and enabling energy savings at sewage treatment facilities, Habuki™ contributes to solving various challenges, including the construction of sustainable infrastructure, the realization of carbon neutrality, and the conservation of water.
- OD method: Oxidation ditch method. A type of sewage treatment process used in small-scale sewage treatment facilities.
- BOD: Biochemical oxygen demand. This is the amount of oxygen used when organic matter in water is broken down by microorganisms, and it serves as an indicator of the amount of pollutants in sewage.
Reducing vehicle submersion damage caused by flooding in depressions and underpasses
-Launch of a demonstration test for the “Vehicle Submersion Emergency Alert” system
In April 2025, Toshiba Digital Solutions Corporation and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Co., Ltd. began a demonstration test of the “Vehicle Submersion Emergency Alert” system in four prefectures—Saitama, Chiba, Shizuoka, and Aichi—to help minimize damage from vehicle flooding.
In recent years, vehicle damage caused by natural disasters has been increasing, not only from frequent hailstorms but also from flooding in low-lying areas and underpasses. To prevent vehicle flooding, it is essential to identify high-risk areas through real-time rainfall analysis that takes into account the terrain and other factors. However, sudden and localized heavy downpours—known in Japan as “guerrilla” rainstorms—are difficult to predict in advance.
In response, Toshiba Group will leverage data analysis technology developed through its weather radar system business to deliver alerts aimed at mitigating vehicle flooding damage. In this demonstration, SMS alerts will be sent to target recipients based on rainfall prediction data approximately 30 minutes in advance, notifying them of the risk of vehicle flooding, and the preventive effects will be assessed.
Through this initiative, both companies aim to encourage behavioral changes that help customers avoid vehicle flooding damage and to expand the range of solutions that contribute to disaster prevention and mitigation, utilizing insights obtained from the experiment.
Developed a battery that combines ultra-fast charging and long-life performance while maintaining the same volumetric energy density as LFP batteries—Niobium titanium oxide (NTO) anode batteries for large commercial electric vehicles achieve over 10 times the charge-discharge cycles of LFP batteries
Toshiba has developed a lithium-ion battery that uses niobium titanium oxide (NTO) as the negative electrode, achieving the same volumetric energy density as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries while enabling ultra-fast charging for more than 10 times as many charge/discharge cycles.*1 Such batteries can be charged to approximately 70% in just 5 minutes and retain over 80% of their capacities even after more than 15,000 charge/discharge cycles, thus demonstrating longevity. In principle, lithium plating does not occur, ensuring safety in both low- and high-temperature environments. With high operational efficiency, the batteries are well suited for the electrification of large commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks, which frequently operate in harsh outdoor conditions.
The ultra-fast charging capability and long-life performance are expected to reduce both the quantity of batteries needed and the frequency of replacement, thereby lowering initial investment and operating costs. In 2018, Toshiba entered into a joint development agreement with CBMM (Brazil) and Sojitz Corporation to move forward with commercialization. Since June 2024, the three companies have been conducting real-world demonstration tests with electric buses equipped with the developed battery at the Araxá Mine in Minas Gerais State, Brazil, in which CBMM has an ownership stake.*2
- Based on Toshiba’s data for partial charge/discharge cycles (within a specified capacity range, not full cycles) under ultra-fast charging conditions.
- Toshiba, Sojitz, and CBMM have unveiled a prototype electric bus equipped with next-generation lithium-ion batteries that employ niobium titanium oxide and are capable of ultra-fast charging.