Japan’s Sluggish Move into AI

Mon Sep 14 2026 10:22:34 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Japan lags behind the US and UK in workplace AI adoption, with 8.4% of workers using the tech compared to double the figures abroad.

Japan’s ageing population and tight labour market make AI adoption urgent, yet risk‑averse corporate cultures keep firms behind. 2025 OECD data show only 8.4% of Japanese workers use AI, versus 50% in the US and 32% in the UK. Healthcare digitisation lags sharply, and many firms still rely on paper records. The government has introduced a light‑touch AI Promotion Act to accelerate uptake, while large firms like Kanematsu are now hiring graduates with AI literacy. Progress remains uneven, and productivity gains could stall without deeper technological integration.

Japan’s Sluggish Move into AI

Japanese firms are stuck in a tradition of cautious, risk‑averse decision making, which keeps workplaces far behind the US and UK in AI use. 2025 OECD data show a mere 8.4% of workers use AI, compared with 50% in the United States and 32% in Britain.

The gap is especially glaring in key sectors. Hospitals still keep patient records on paper, while the country’s government has just passed an AI Promotion Act to encourage broader adoption. Tokyo pledged that Japan will become "the world’s most‑friendly country for developing and utilizing AI", yet little progress has been visible.

According to Austin Xu, co‑founder of US start‑up Kuse AI, Japanese companies fear AI mistakes. Consensus‑driven cultures slow change, and some firms prefer to leave roles unfilled rather than risk a machine error.

Professor Parrisa Haghirian of Kyoto University of Advanced Science notes that generative AI is still unreliable and therefore used mainly for low‑risk tasks such as writing, summarising or information gathering. The very idea of AI making decisions in core business processes is considered too risky.

Healthcare is one of the slowest adopters. A hospital employee described a "Stone Age" of paper documents, a problem that could be solved by digital records and AI‑driven triage.

The Ministry of Finance reports that 75% of companies now use AI, up from 11% five years ago, yet the adoption is still at the lower end of the G7 nations. Digital literacy remains low, with almost 800,000 IT professionals projected to be short by 2030 according to an earlier report.

Despite this, private‑sector giants like Kanematsu now prioritize "AI literacy" in new graduate hiring. A new engineer at the firm shared, "AI helps me write emails, summarise documents and record meetings – but fully autonomous systems remain almost unheard of in Japan."

Change is slow, as society values "painless reform", and the top priority in hiring is to maintain full employment rather than to generate disruptive productivity gains.

For Japan to raise its productivity to meet G7 levels, an accelerated, well‑supported adoption of AI may be necessary – or the country risks remaining stuck in the digital slow‑lane.