Japan is facing a strategic dilemma that is affecting governments around the world today: how to catch up with the leaders in the artificial intelligence race without losing control of its own economy. Japan’s Minister of Digitalisation, Hisashi Matsumoto, has warned that the country is in danger of becoming an ‘AI colony’ if it does not accelerate the development of indigenous solutions. This strong rhetoric has just accompanied deep legal changes in Tokyo.
Medical and criminal data without citizens’ consent
At the heart of the debate is the amendment to the Data Protection Act. The bill, which went to the upper house of parliament for discussion after passing through the lower house, would allow artificial intelligence developers to train models using sensitive information. These include medical and criminal records, which developers would be able to process without having to obtain consent from citizens.
The government argues that with the current pace of technology evolution, Japan cannot afford legislative downtime. While opposition parties raise serious concerns about privacy risks and data leaks, the ruling camp sees radical liberalisation of legislation as a prerequisite for building a strong local AIsector.
A two-pronged strategy: Partnership and own-base
Tokyo’s actions reflect market pragmatism. On the one hand, the country seeks investment and knowledge transfer from US leaders such as Microsoft and OpenAI, combining technology cooperation with a security alliance with the US.
On the other hand, Japan is intensively building its own independence. Through subsidies and targeted government procurement, it is supporting domestic champions – including SoftBank and Sakura Internet – and local chipmakers. The goal is clear: to expand indigenous AI models and dramatically increase its own computing power.
Global fear of domination
Japan’s desire to remain independent is part of a wider international trend. Governments around the world fear that technological lag will relegate them to the role of supplicants dependent on foreign suppliers, mainly from the US and China. Similar motivations are behind the European Union’s recently announced technology sovereignty package to strengthen the EU’s cloud market and semiconductor manufacturing.
