Quantum User Targets Emerge
Setting Targets For Future Growth
While many nations have multi-billion-dollar quantum strategies, very few focus explicitly on tracking individual user adoption targets. Instead, most peer nations establish their quantitative milestones around ecosystem workforce sizes, infrastructure hubs, or financial market value. It’s all part of the Quantum Frontier Era.
Yet quantum tech won’t be a thing unless users and consumers emerge.
NOTE: At the end of this substack, I offer 5 paid subscriber options for countries to establish quantum user adoption targets.
First, let’s take a look at how certain countries have addressed this quantum metric.
Japan
Japan is the primary (and seemingly only) country with a prominent, specific national “user targets” goal for quantum technologies, as referenced by Alex Challans. In a LinkedIn post from June 2026 (after attending Q2B Tokyo), Challans highlighted Japan’s ambitious target: 10 million quantum users (often phrased as “10 million domestic users of quantum technologies” or “quantum technology users”).
Image source: Brian Lenahan/Midjourney
Japan’s Targets (from its 2022 “Vision of Quantum Future Society” strategy)
Japan’s plan to reach 10 million quantum technology (QT) users by 2030 is part of its Vision of Quantum Future Society (April 2022) and the Strategy of Quantum Future Industry Development (April 2023). These documents set three main 2030 goals:
10 million quantum technology users by 2030.
¥50 trillion (~$315–350 billion) in quantum-generated production value by 2030.
Fostering quantum unicorns/startup growth.
This user-adoption goal stands out as unusually concrete and user-focused compared to most national quantum strategies, which typically emphasize R&D investment, hardware milestones (e.g., qubit counts), talent development, or economic value without specific “user” numbers. Japan aims to drive broad domestic adoption across industry, education, and potentially the public. The approach emphasizes broad adoption through hybrid quantum-classical systems, practical use cases, accessibility, education, and industry collaboration — rather than just hardware R&D. It draws an analogy to the internet’s growth, where ~10 million users marked the tipping point for explosive adoption.
Other Countries
No other major quantum nations have established comparable specific numerical user targets (e.g., “X million quantum users by YEAR”). Here’s a quick overview based on available strategies:
United States, China, EU/UK, Germany, France, etc. — Focus on funding (often billions), hardware leadership, talent pipelines, commercialization, and economic impact projections (e.g., trillions in potential value globally). No public user-count goals.
Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Denmark, etc. — Emphasize research excellence, ecosystems/hubs, and early adoption but without quantified user targets.
Switzerland - FINMA (The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA) published a survey in July 2026 of 60 Swiss financial institutions. The findings were remarkable for this stage of the Quantum Frontier Era. Just 8% of the 60 Swiss financial institutions surveyed by FINMA have a concrete roadmap for becoming quantum-safe. Certainly quantum computing is a cybersecurity risk but it is the adoption numbers in the report that cause concern as well. 72% have not planned or implemented any quantum-related measures yet about two-thirds believe a quantum computer could break RSA-2048 in less than 24 hours within the next10 years. For those with a roadmap estimate it will take 4–5 years to migrate their critical systems and data to post-quantum cryptography. Yet FINMA expects board-approved PQC roadmaps by mid-2027; adding on 5 years would take the organization to 2032.
Japan’s approach is noted as uniquely bold in adoption-focused metrics. Initiatives like education programs (e.g., Quantum Kids) and industry partnerships (e.g., with KDDI, IQM, TOYO) directly support hitting that 10 million user mark. If new strategies emerge with similar user targets, they would likely be announced in national quantum roadmaps, but as of mid-2026 and based on my research, Japan leads uniquely in this area.
Key Pillars of the Strategy
Japan addresses barriers like limited use cases, skills gaps, high business risk, and access hurdles via three perspectives: Accessibility, Incubation, and Collaboration.
Accessibility: Make QT Easy to Use for Diverse Industries
Develop user-friendly environments, cloud platforms, testbeds, and hybrid systems (quantum + classical HPC/AI).
Create attractive use cases in priority sectors: materials/chemistry, finance, drug discovery/healthcare, energy, logistics, manufacturing, and semiconductors.
Expand shared infrastructure (e.g., G-QuAT center in Tsukuba with superconducting, neutral atom, and optical quantum computers) and cloud access for businesses and early adopters.
Incubation: Support Startups, New Businesses, and Innovation
Foster startups/unicorns with funding, pitch contests, idea contests, government-affiliated venture funds, and procurement preferences.
Build innovation hubs (e.g., at AIST, RIKEN, universities) for R&D, standardization, supply chains, and commercialization.
Reduce risks through shared equipment, co-creation projects, and performance benchmarks.
Collaboration: Industry-Academia-Government and International Partnerships
Public-private consortia like Q-STAR (led by Toshiba).
International MoUs and collaboration (e.g., with U.S. firms, EU partners).
Cross-sector co-creation to integrate QT into existing systems.
Human Resource Development and Education (Critical for User Growth)
Broad training programs — Target not just specialists but “quantum natives,” business professionals, and the wider public via recurrent education, online courses, summer schools, internships, and integration with AI/materials curricula.
Initiatives like Q-Leap’s Human Resource Development Program and university coalitions (e.g., with IBM, Keio, University of Tokyo) aim to train tens of thousands.
Outreach via science museums, SNS, videos, and “evangelists/ambassadors” to raise awareness.
Major Supporting Programs
Q-Leap (MEXT, 2018–2027) — Flagship R&D in quantum computers, sensing, and lasers + dedicated HR programs and a Quantum Academy.
Moonshot Goal 6 (JST) — Fault-tolerant quantum computing breakthroughs.
G-QuAT (METI/AIST) — New campus for practical applications and global business ecosystem.
SIP (Society 5.0) and other projects — Focus on social challenges and expanding users.
Progress and Approach
Efforts include enterprise deployments (e.g., first enterprise quantum computer purchases), testbeds for real-world validation, and hybrid integration to deliver value in the NISQ era. The government invests heavily (hundreds of billions of yen overall) while encouraging private-sector demand and international tech inflows. Japan’s plan is pragmatic and adoption-oriented: build infrastructure and skills so that millions can use QT (via cloud, apps, or hybrid tools) without needing to be quantum experts. Progress is tracked through use-case creation, talent metrics, and industrial output. While ambitious, it builds on Japan’s strengths in precision engineering, materials, and public-private coordination.
