IBM and RIKEN, a national research laboratory in Japan, have unveiled the first IBM Quantum System Two to be deployed outside of the United States. Located in Kobe, Japan, the system is notably the first quantum computer to be co-located with RIKEN’s Fugaku supercomputer, one of the world’s most powerful classical systems. This deployment, a key milestone for quantum-centric supercomputing, is supported by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)‘s “Development of Integrated Utilization Technology for Quantum and Supercomputers” project.

The IBM Quantum System Two at RIKEN is powered by IBM’s 156-qubit IBM Quantum Heron processor, which demonstrates significantly improved performance over its predecessor, IBM Quantum Eagle. Heron achieves a two-qubit error rate of 3×10-3 (with a best of 1×10-3) and a speed of 250,000 CLOPS (Circuit Layer Operations Per Second), representing a 10x improvement in both quality and speed over the previous generation. The system is co-located with Fugaku within the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) and linked via a high-speed network at the fundamental instruction level, enabling the development of parallelized workloads, low-latency classical-quantum communication protocols, and advanced compilation passes.

This integration allows RIKEN and IBM researchers to advance quantum-centric supercomputing approaches, pushing research on complex algorithms for problems such as fundamental chemistry. The system is designed to accelerate the discovery of algorithms that can offer quantum advantage, where quantum computers solve problems more efficiently than classical methods. This includes work on sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD) techniques, which have demonstrated the ability of near-term quantum computers to provide scientific value when combined with powerful classical infrastructure. The installation expands IBM’s global fleet of quantum computers and reinforces Japan’s role in high-performance computing.

Read the full announcement here, and review Quantum Computing Report’s original coverage of the agreement here.

June 23, 2025

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