LTS, Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Hiroaki Kabashima) has been commissioned by Nagano Prefecture to support the FY2026 Shinshu-style Sandbox Program. On May 14, 2026, the company officially opened the program’s dedicated website and began accepting entries for both challenge-proposal and free-proposal categories. Matching applications are scheduled to open in June, and briefing sessions for companies in the prefecture and AI developers will be held in stages. As a best partner for the digital era, LTS will use its accumulated AI and digital transformation expertise and capabilities to strongly support local companies in solving issues and taking on new challenges, while promoting the formation of an innovation ecosystem in Shinshu. The Shinshu-style Sandbox Program, “Shinshu AI GEARS,” aims to build an innovation ecosystem that helps solve corporate and regional issues and creates new industries and services by matching companies and organizations in Nagano Prefecture with AI developers nationwide. Set against Shinshu’s diverse industries and rich natural environment, the program will generate and accelerate many new challenges. Selected projects will receive subsidies for development and demonstration expenses, with a maximum of 8 million yen, a subsidy rate of 10/10, and around five projects expected to be selected. Dedicated website: https://shinshu-ai-gears.jp/ The program uses gears, a symbol of Nagano Prefecture’s parts industry, as its main motif. The plural “S” expresses the idea of engaging multiple gears through matching to move Shinshu’s future forward and shift AI utilization into a higher gear. Companies, municipalities, organizations in Nagano Prefecture, and AI developers who want to work together to move Shinshu’s future are invited to participate. There are two main ways to participate, and entries for both have opened today. The challenge-proposal category invites companies and organizations in the pre