However, critics argue that at each of these businesses only a tiny proportion of staff are actually using the AI, and that those who do so are only using it to a very limited extent.
Prof Yasushi Ogasawara, an expert on Japan’s social system and technology at Meiji University, says there aren’t enough tech-savvy people in the workforce.
“Although the Japanese like playing with gadgets such as smartphones, digital literacy is low here,” he says.
This is highlighted by one report earlier this year which said Japan faced a shortfall , externalof almost 800,000 IT professionals by 2030.
Many companies are also said to struggle with out-of-date computer systems, with around 60% more than 20-years-old.
Moreover, Ogasawara adds that Japanese companies are under more pressure to avoid fuelling unemployment than they are to develop AI which could result in job losses.
“The government is talking about AI, re-skilling, digital skills, but in reality, it is difficult to adapt human resources to digital skills because the top priority is to maintain full employment,” he says.
But there is a shift in recruitment, with some companies now prioritising “AI literacy” in their new graduate hiring.
In the private sector, larger firms such as Kanematsu, a major general trading company, are hiring savvy graduates such as Uta Yamaguchi who joined in April.
“I use AI quite often at work,” she says. “Many of my colleagues use it a lot. For writing emails for my boss, summarising complicated documents, meeting recording and summarising.”
But, by contrast with the US, she says AI systems that can autonomously handle multi-step work are still virtually unheard of in Japan.
However, her employer, known for its forward thinking, now has them onboard.
Ogasawara says that “change in Japan is limited”. He adds: “Japanese society expects painless reform, so I think it can be said that drastic reform is difficult, to say the least.”
Disruption may be a dirty word in Japan, but without it the productivity gains the country needs could remain elusive.
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