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Japan views artificial intelligence as a lever for economic resilience and social well-being – with an estimated opportunity of JPY 49.9 trillion (USD 331 billion) by 2030. Yet enterprise adoption is not keeping pace with that ambition. Our new study, Bridging the AI Gap: Advancing Adoption and Governance in Japan, examines what’s holding organisations back and what it will take to accelerate trusted, at-scale adoption.
The study
In February, we surveyed 210 senior executives across automotive, manufacturing, financial services, and retail, and paired the findings with an assessment of Japan’s AI policy landscape, including the new Act on the Promotion of Research and Development and Application of Artificial Intelligence-Related Technologies (the “AI Act”).
AI adoption as it stands
Awareness is widespread, with 93% of surveyed organisations reporting at least a general understanding of AI, but maturity lags: most firms are still in pilot (19%) or partial implementation (26%) stages, and only 8% have reached full scale. Early adopters cite efficiency, time savings, and cost reductions as top realised benefits, signalling a clear path to value once programmes move beyond experimentation.
The ART of adoption: Awareness, Readiness, Trust
To diagnose the adoption gap, the report introduces an ART framework:
- Awareness: understanding use cases, benefits, and risks.
- Readiness: technical capacity (infrastructure, compute, data) and organisational capacity (leadership, skills, processes).
- Trust: confidence that AI is accurate, fair, and privacy-preserving.
Our findings
- SME awareness lags: only 33% of small organisations feel very aware of AI’s benefits vs 74% of large firms, underscoring the need for targeted outreach and practical examples.
- Readiness is uneven: technical readiness (49%) outpaces organisational readiness (42%), reflecting cultural and change-management hurdles such as leadership buy-in and skills.
- Trust needs tooling: only 35% have implemented three or more responsible-AI practices, indicating room to strengthen accountability and transparency.
What businesses say they need
Respondents favour pro-innovation governance that is clear, workable, and sector sensitive. Their top asks: monitoring tools (46%), compliance benchmarks (44%), expert guidance on policy implementation (45%), and training – both workforce upskilling (50%) and governance/ethics-focused programmes (47%).
Why this matters now
Japan’s generative AI usage has risen, but overall adoption still trails global leaders – 27% in Japan vs. 69% in the US and 81% in China – reinforcing the case for practical governance and capability-building that turn interest into impact.
Download the full report to explore our findings and recommendations.
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