AI Promotion Act
In plain wordsJapan's 2025 national AI law, which sets up a government AI headquarters and strategy to encourage AI development and use, relying on cooperation and guidance rather than fines.
Japan's first AI-specific statute, the Act on the Promotion of Research and Development and Utilization of Artificial Intelligence-Related Technologies, enacted in May 2025. A framework law rather than a regulatory code, it sets the goal of making Japan a country where AI is easy to develop and use while addressing risks such as misuse, disinformation and infringement of rights; establishes an AI Strategy Headquarters in the Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister and including all ministers; and requires an AI Basic Plan, the first of which the Cabinet approved on December 23, 2025. Businesses using or supplying AI must make reasonable efforts to cooperate with government policy; the government gathers and analyzes information on AI use and misuse at home and abroad, issues guidelines and may request cooperation from any entity, but the act imposes no monetary penalties. It relies on existing law, such as copyright, privacy and product-safety rules, and on non-binding guidance such as the 2024 AI Guidelines for Business — an approach often described as agile or soft-law governance.
Under the AI Promotion Act, the government can issue guidance and request cooperation, but it cannot fine the company.
Origin
Drafted after a 2024 government study group on AI institutions and passed by the Diet on May 28, 2025; it took effect in stages from June 2025, and the AI Strategy Headquarters first met in September 2025.
Usage note
Japan's light-touch model contrasts with the EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models. and South Korea's AI Basic ActAI Basic Act, prop. n.: South Korea's main AI law, in force since January 2026, which sets safety and transparency duties for AI used in sensitive areas and for AI-generated content.; together with Japan's permissive copyright rule for data analysis (see text and data mining exceptiontext and data mining exception, n.: A rule in many countries' copyright laws that lets people use computers to copy and analyze large amounts of text, images or data without asking permission — sometimes only for research, sometimes unless owners opt out.), it is cited as an effort to attract AI investment.
Related
- AI Basic ActAI Basic Act, prop. n.: South Korea's main AI law, in force since January 2026, which sets safety and transparency duties for AI used in sensitive areas and for AI-generated content.
- EU AI ActEU AI Act, prop. n.: The European Union's law on artificial intelligence, the first broad AI law anywhere: it bans some uses, sets strict checks for risky ones and puts duties on the makers of the biggest AI models.
- AI governanceAI governance, n.: The rules, institutions and habits that shape how AI is built and used — from laws and treaties to technical standards and a company's own review processes.
- text and data mining exceptiontext and data mining exception, n.: A rule in many countries' copyright laws that lets people use computers to copy and analyze large amounts of text, images or data without asking permission — sometimes only for research, sometimes unless owners opt out.
- G7 Hiroshima AI ProcessG7 Hiroshima AI Process, prop. n.: An effort begun by the G7 group of wealthy democracies in Japan in 2023 that sets voluntary rules for companies building the most advanced AI, which now report publicly on how they follow them.
Sources
- White & Case (2026). Japan's first AI legislation becomes law – Focus is on promoting research and development; no monetary penalties.