Japan's digital minister issued a stark caution about the nation's place in the global technology landscape, saying the country could face a new kind of dependency if it fails to keep pace with advances in artificial intelligence. "I hope many Japanese people understand that we need to press ahead with AI development, or we’ll end up becoming an ’AI colony'," Digital Minister Hisashi Matsumoto told reporters.
Matsumoto made the remarks while defending a proposed amendment to Japan's personal data protection law. The government-drafted bill would permit AI developers to train models using certain categories of personal data - explicitly cited examples include medical and criminal records - without securing consent from the individuals concerned.
"The point of this change is that, with AI development moving so fast, Japan can’t afford to fall behind," Matsumoto said, framing the legal revision as a response to the speed of technological change.
Opposition parties have raised objections to the bill, pointing to potential risks tied to data breaches and the handling of sensitive personal information. The legislation passed the lower house of parliament last week and is currently under consideration in the upper house, where debate is ongoing.
The amendment is part of a broader push by the Japanese government to strengthen domestic AI capabilities amid an intensifying global contest largely described as led by the U.S. and China. Policy tools include subsidies, targeted government procurement and changes to the legal framework intended to accelerate development and deployment of AI technologies.
Parallel to those domestic measures, Japan has sought investment and technology access from U.S. companies. The government has courted partnerships with firms such as Microsoft and OpenAI, within the framework of U.S.-Japan security ties. At the same time, policymakers have supported homegrown industry participants - including SoftBank, Sakura Internet and various chipmakers - in efforts to build out domestic AI models and computing infrastructure.
Those combined steps reflect the administration's aim to reduce reliance on foreign technologies by bolstering local capacity, while navigating the legal and privacy trade-offs that accompany accelerated AI development. The outcome of the upper house debate will determine whether the personal data protection rules are loosened to permit the broader use of sensitive records for AI training.