About Us

While maintaining the stable operation of existing authentication services (GakuNin, UPKI, and eduroam JP), NII will conduct research and development on authentication infrastructure technologies at the Center for Trust & Digital Identity Research and Development.

This is in response to growing demands from academia and industry for greater convenience, security, and reliability in authentication infrastructure, and to support the advancement of academic activities by researchers and students in academic cyberspace.

The Center’s main research themes include the following:

  • Research and development of identity infrastructure and authentication and authorization technologies to promote industry-academia collaboration
  • Research and development of technologies to enhance inter-community collaboration and support interdisciplinary research
  • Extensive research and development on trust technologies and digital ID
  • Development of trust federation operation technologies in compliance with international standards

By establishing the Center for Trust & Digital Identity Research and Development as Japan’s leading hub for authentication and authorization infrastructure research, we aim to promote collaboration not only with universities and research institutions but also with vendors, and to further strengthen international cooperation and interoperability.

The Mission of Authentication: Building Trust on the Internet

The Internet has become an essential part of our daily lives and social infrastructure. At the core of the trust that supports this digital foundation lies authentication.

Our center is committed to advancing authentication technologies based on three key pillars: Services, Federation, and Next-Generation Authentication Development. Through various proof-of-concept initiatives—particularly in academic authentication—we are working with cutting-edge, standards-based technologies such as passkeys and Verifiable Credentials (VCs).

Our mission in authentication goes far beyond simple identity verification. It is about building a trusted Internet, and in turn, establishing a trustworthy foundation for society as a whole.

Through these efforts, we aim to realize a future Internet where researchers, users, and service providers alike can operate securely and with confidence.

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