JAPON PERSPECTIVE

Japan observes the global AI regulatory competition with its media apparatus's characteristic caution, but also with quiet pride: the AI Promotion Act, passed on May 28, 2025, makes Tokyo the second world power to have comprehensively legislated on AI after the European Union, and before the United States. Nikkei frames this advance as a victory for the Japanese model of 'promotion through coordination' — a system rejecting both Brussels's automatic sanctions and Washington's laissez-faire, preferring institutional pressure and public accountability. The Yomiuri Shimbun emphasizes the AI Strategic Headquarters, a centralized body operational since late 2025, placing AI governance directly under the Prime Minister's authority.

The economic and technological angle dominates coverage. Asahi Shimbun notes that the 'Government AI Gennai' platform — planned for May 2026 deployment to 100,000 civil servants — positions Japan as an avant-garde state adopter. But this pride masks a structural anxiety: Japan possesses no world-scale foundation model, and the AI Promotion Act, despite its name, is more a governance framework than a competitiveness tool. Nikkei admits the Trump framework could widen the technological gap by further unleashing American private investment.

The US alliance — an unquestionable pillar of Japanese foreign policy — filters all coverage. No mainstream Japanese outlet frontally criticizes the Trump framework. The Sino-Japanese rivalry also plays out on AI terrain, and Japan sees China's WAICO initiative as Beijing's attempt to marginalize democratic standards. The worker impact angle — in a country facing the world's most severe aging — is treated with typical euphemistic caution: AI as a 'solution to demographic decline' rather than a threat to employment.