Amazon brings rebuilt Alexa+ to Japan, free for now, 3,000 yen later

Amazon frames the rebuild as starting from zero: Gianmaria Visconti, Asia-Pacific regional manager for Amazon Alexa International, said the company combined advances in AI and large language models with nine years of experience and context in Japan to remake Alexa as Alexa+. That local development setup is also the stated reason Japan waited months after the U.S. early access began in February. Michele Butti, vice president at Amazon Alexa International, said the roughly half-year gap reflects the time needed to reach the right experience level rather than a focus on competitors. The timing is nonetheless crowded: Apple's Siri AI started in Japan on the 27th and Meta's Muse on the 23rd, putting three AI assistants in front of Japanese users within days. Amazon's stated differentiators are simplicity — no app needed, usable by all generations — and deep ties to local services. On shopping, Amazon says it requires explicit user confirmation before completing a purchase or booking, contrasting with rivals that allow small automatic payments within a budget. The push sits inside what Amazon calls ambient AI, an assistant that anticipates needs like turning on the air conditioner or reminding about lights, built on a base of 2.6 billion smart-home operations in Japan over the past 12 months.