Why Japanese firms are being so slow to use AI

Studies show that Japanese firms are dragging their feet when it comes to using AI

Facing acute labour shortages, ageing demographics and chronic productivity problems, Japanese companies should be fertile ground for the take-up of artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, compared with the US and UK, adoption in many workplaces remains sluggish and cautious.

Japan's response to AI is beginning to resemble one of the country's slow-moving, traditional Noh plays.

All the masked characters up on stage agree that action is urgent, and the call is repeated with solemn agreement. Yet the actors remain frozen in place.

Great for heightening drama, terrible for addressing the country's immediate difficulties.

Data showing the use of AI in the workplace suggests that Japan has fallen behind. Just 8.4% of Japanese workers use AI as part of their job, according to a report , external at the end of last year by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

By contrast, separate statistics puts the US figure at 50%, , external and the UK at 32%. , external In Singapore, which is said to have seen the second-highest , external take up of AI after the United Arab Emirates, and the most in Asia, 56% of workers are said to use AI "multiple times a week". , external

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So why is Japan dragging its feet? Austin Xu, co-founder of US start-up Kuse AI, says it is due to Japanese companies being conservative and risk adverse. His business recently set up an office in Japan to sell its AI systems to firms in the country.

"There are organisations where process and consensus culture genuinely slow things down," he says. "Where tolerance for AI mistakes is close to zero, especially in anything client facing. Some would rather leave a role unfilled than let a machine handle it."

Xu says the situation in the US is very different, with some businesses already allowing AI agents far more freedom to boost productivity. "In the US, AI colleagues enter as helpers and gradually become part of the workflow. The attitude [of US bosses] is often - let it try, then correct it."

He adds that Japanese companies need more proof before they trust AI enough to use it.

Parrisa Haghirian, professor of international management at the Kyoto University of Advanced Science, agrees that many Japanese companies are too risk adverse to look at AI.