Science & Tech · AI · 22 hrs ago
Japan promotes AI use as small businesses lag behind larger firms
Japan’s 2025 AI Promotion Act encourages people and businesses to use AI rather than imposing fines or requiring licenses.
The law was introduced as Japan faced worker shortages and low AI use.
Use of generative AI among people in Japan rose from 9.1% in 2023 to 58.8% in 2025.
Small businesses still lag behind larger firms in putting AI to work, according to a review by researchers at the University of Tokyo and Tsinghua University.
Many people in Japan know about AI but are less confident in their understanding, and surveys found relatively low willingness to trust it.
A Cabinet Office team coordinates the government’s AI strategy, which it must review every year.
Japan is promoting artificial intelligence to address labor shortages, but a review says small businesses lag behind larger firms in putting AI to work.
The country’s AI Promotion Act, passed in May 2025, promotes AI use without penalties, licensing or registration requirements.
Use of generative AI among people in Japan rose from 9.1% in 2023 to 58.8% in 2025.
Researchers Hiromi M. Yokoyama and Shuo Wang say Japan’s governance challenge includes the economic and social cost of AI going unused.
Japan’s AI Strategy Headquarters was established in the Cabinet Office on September 1, 2025.
- Who
- Japan’s government and businesses, including small firms. The review was written by Hiromi M. Yokoyama and Shuo Wang.
- What
- Japan is encouraging AI use, while a review highlights a gap between experimentation and everyday business use.
- When
- The AI Promotion Act passed in May 2025. The review’s publication date is not stated.
- Where
- Japan.
- Why
- The government is promoting AI to help ease labor shortages. The review says unused AI can carry economic and social costs.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
9.1% of people in Japan said they had used generative AI.
Japan passed its AI Promotion Act.
Japan established an AI Strategy Headquarters inside the Cabinet Office.
The share of people in Japan who said they had used generative AI reached 58.8%.
- AI Promotion Act
- Passed in May 2025; has no penalties, licensing or registration requirements
- Generative AI use in Japan
- 9.1% in 2023; 58.8% in 2025
- Japan’s AI Strategy Headquarters
- Established September 1, 2025, inside the Cabinet Office
- Japan’s population aged 65 or older
- 29.3% as of July 2025
- United States generative AI use
- 46.3% in the 2023 government survey
What people are saying
The urgency of Japan’s governance problem comes not from the risks of AI being used, but from the economic and social cost of AI going unused.
The instruments a government chooses reveal its assumptions about the nature of the problem.