Bentley Systems is opening a regional headquarters in Tokyo and plans to more than double its workforce in Japan over the next three years.
Bentley (NASDAQ: BSY), which makes engineering software used around the world to design, build, and operate critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, water systems, and power grids, said the new investment is timed to Japan’s i-Construction initiative. The program, run by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, requires nationwide adoption of 3D digital delivery by 2029—a wholesale shift away from the 2D drawings that still dominate much of the construction industry.
For Bentley, the challenge in Japan reflects issues also facing Europe, the U.S., and other countries worldwide: surging demand for resilient infrastructure colliding with a workforce that cannot keep up. “Japan is setting a global benchmark for infrastructure digitalization,” said James Lee, Bentley’s chief operating officer. Deepening the company’s presence in Japan, he said, will help engineers and contractors “accelerate their transition to 3D digital delivery to drive productivity, strengthen resilience, and improve decision-making across the infrastructure lifecycle.”
L to R: [Name, title]; [Name, Title], James Lee, Bentley chief operating officer; Patrick Cozzi, Bentley chief platform officer, and Graham Grant, CEO, Seequent.Central to the approach is an open, connected platform rather than a single product—and Bentley has embraced the ethos as it courts national digitization programs. In Japan, that means bringing together three core offerings: Cesium, Bentley’s engine for 3D geospatial visualization and the foundation for the Japanese government’s Project PLATEAU digital city models; Seequent’s subsurface modeling that can help reduce geotechnical risk in a country prone to earthquakes; and the iTwin platform, which synchronizes engineering and asset data so that traditionally siloed teams can work from a shared digital twin.
Those tools already have a local foothold. Bentley’s Cesium and digital twin capabilities are embedded in the Smart Construction solutions of EARTHBRAIN, a Japanese tech company that links design, simulation, and earthmoving in one environment. The venture is backed by construction giant Komatsu, telecoms company NTT DOCOMO, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, and the Nomura Research Institute.
To lead its expansion, Bentley appointed industry veteran Keishi Kono as general manager for Japan. The company plans to scale across all 47 Japanese prefectures alongside EARTHBRAIN, FUKUI COMPUTER, ITOCHU Techno-Solutions, and other partners.
Bentley’s Cesium and digital twin capabilities are integrated into the Smart Construction solutions of EARTHBRAIN.“Success in Japan is built on trust, collaboration, and local presence,” Kono said, arguing that Bentley must be “embedded in the communities” served by its thousands of regional contractors.
The Tokyo office is the latest pillar in Bentley’s global building campaign. In May, the company cut the ribbon on its first dedicated applied-AI tech hub in Québec City, co-locating engineers and AI specialists near major clients. The total investment of nearly 10 million Canadian dollars includes growing the local workforce by close to 60% to deepen Bentley’s integration into Québec’s high-tech sector. Bentley has since added an engineering presence in Vilnius, Lithuania, and in December, the company signed academic partnerships in Pune, India, opening infrastructure-innovation centers at two universities to train the next generation on AI and digital-twin tools.
The throughline across these global hubs is a recognition that the pace of infrastructure development is only accelerating. Closing the infrastructure gap demands sustained investment in people, technology, and digital delivery to enable entirely new ways of working.
