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Japan's 32 Companies Honored in Clarivate’s Top 100 Global Innovators 2026

On January 21, 2026, Clarivate Plc, a global leader in innovative intelligence, unveiled its 15th annual list of the Top 100 Global Innovators. This benchmark report highlights organizations that continuously generate impactful inventions shaping the future of their respective industries. The 2026 edition emphasizes a notable shift in innovation leadership from 'scale' to 'precision,' accelerated by the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI).

The selected companies in the Top 100 are leading the industry with their ability to distill complexity, showcasing quality, originality, and global influence in their inventions. These firms contribute significantly to some of the world’s most valuable ideas, demonstrating that leadership in innovation is now defined by precision and strategic intent. The ranking not only celebrates steadfast innovation leadership but also reveals the power of AI in reconstructing that leadership amid evolving changes.

Maroun S. Mourad, President of Clarivate's Intellectual Property division, commented, “In the 2026 edition, we have 16 companies that have been featured for 15 consecutive years. Being consistently recognized in the Top 100 Global Innovators is remarkable, especially considering the rapid pace of change. Both long-standing and newly featured companies are investing in AI innovations that redefine the boundaries of research, engineering, and commercialization.”

AI is no longer a background player; it forms the backbone of innovation now. According to the analysis of the Top 100 Global Innovators 2026, patent activities related to AI have seen dramatic growth, doubling in applications since 2019, with over a million inventions expected to be published by mid-2025. Generative AI and deep learning are advancing at an astonishing pace, becoming the fastest-evolving sectors at the forefront of technology. In this landscape, the Top 100 companies account for 16% of high-intensity AI inventions, demonstrating that today’s leadership is defined not by quantity, but rather by quality and strategic clarity.

Japan continues to lead global innovation with 32 companies in the list. Among the Top 10, Japan has five entrants, with China and South Korea contributing two each, and the United States one. Following Japan, the U.S. has 18 representatives, Taiwan has 12, and both Germany and South Korea contribute eight firms, signifying their role as key global players. Moreover, an uptrend in companies from mainland China and the Netherlands has been noted, and this year marked the return of Irish and Saudi Arabian firms to the list.

Japanese Awardees (32 Companies):

• - Brother Industries, Ltd.
• - Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• - Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd.
• - Canon Inc.
• - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
• - Sony Group Corporation
• - Daikin Industries, Ltd.
• - Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
• - SUBARU Corporation
• - DENSO Corporation
• - NEC Corporation
• - Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.
• - FANUC Corporation
• - Nidec Corporation
• - Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd.
• - Fujifilm Corporation
• - NTT Corporation
• - TDK Corporation
• - Fujitsu Limited
• - Nitto Denko Corporation
• - Tokyo Electron Limited
• - Hitachi, Ltd.
• - Panasonic Holdings Corporation
• - Toshiba Corporation
• - Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
• - Ricoh Company, Ltd.
• - Toyota Motor Corporation
• - Kioxia Corporation
• - SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
• - Yazaki Corporation
• - Kyocera Corporation
• - Seiko Epson Corporation

(Companies listed in alphabetical order for their English names)

Other key insights from the Top 100 Global Innovators 2026 report include:

• - Samsung Electronics maintains its top position in the innovator rankings for the second consecutive year.
• - Six companies received their first recognition as Top 100 Global Innovators: Aptiv, CXMT, GE Vernova, Silicon Motion, Subaru, and ZTE.
• - Six companies have been re-awarded as Top 100 Global Innovators: Apple, KLA, LG Display, Saudi Aramco, Signify, and TCL Technology.
• - Sixteen companies have been recognized as Top 100 Global Innovators for 15 consecutive years: Boeing, Dow, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Honda, Honeywell, LG Electronics, NEC, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Shin-Etsu Chemical, Sony, Toshiba, and Toyota.

The rankings for the Top 100 Global Innovators are produced by the Clarivate Center for IP and Innovation Research, utilizing proprietary analyses derived from the Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI) and global patent data to conduct rigorous research measuring patent influence, success rates, rarity, and geographical investment.

For further details on the evaluation methodology and criteria used for determining the Top 100 Global Innovators, refer to the comprehensive insights provided on Clarivate's platform.

Clarivate is a premier global provider of innovative intelligence, offering robust data, insights, analytics, workflow solutions, and expert services across academia, intellectual property, and the life sciences and healthcare sectors. Further information can be found at clarivate.com.