JUNE 2025
Norms in New
Technological Domains
Japan’s AI Governance Stratey
By Tagui Ichikawa
This report is part of Strategic Japan, a CSIS Japan Chair initiative featuring analysis by Japan’s leading foreign
policy scholars on key regional and global challenges and the implications for the U.S.-Japan alliance.
Introduction
Articial intelligence (AI) governance systems vary based on countries’ cultural and social attributes.
Inuenced by its culture and social background, Japan’s AI governance policy focuses on promoting
innovation, taking an agile, “soft-law approach” to governance, and emphasizing international
interoperability of AI systems.
The Japanese government recently strengthened its legal eorts regarding AI by introducing legislation
in the Diet (parliament) at a time of dramatically shifting debate on global AI governance policies in 2025.
With the start of the second Trump administration in the United States and the AI Action Summit held
in Paris in February 2025, the direction of global AI policies is shifting rapidly in favor of innovation, and
Global South countries are beginning to participate in discussions about global AI policies.
This white paper presents the issues that Japan should address in its AI governance policies and the
direction of future collaboration between Japan and the United States. The paper begins with a review
of the evolution of Japan’s AI governance stratey and a summary of recent developments in Japan’s
Japan’s AI governance policy focuses on promoting innovation,
taking an agile, “soft-law approach” to governance, and
emphasizing international interoperability of AI systems.
