In 2017, the German Federal Government developed a joint strategy with Japan, which was laid down in the Hannover Declaration. In 2018, talks continued within the framework of the Digital Dialogues. Agreement was reached on the goals of joint R&D cooperation, including the goal of increasing productivity in the in-dustrial sector in both countries through the use of AI and IoT. The Joint Declaration of Intent between the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and the Japanese Ministries of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) in 2018 set the political framework for the cooperation.

So far, there have been two joint calls to fund one lighthouse project each. The first call resulted in the AIRPoRT project in the field of industrial IoT and AI. The winner of the second call on "Mobile Connectivity for key industries" is the EmKoI4.0 project.