Japan AI board weighs agent-ready rules at 先進的AI利活用アドバイザリーボード

The discussion sits inside a broader push by the Digital Agency to keep government AI use both fast and controlled. The board received a regular report on how ministries and agencies are using generative AI, and members noted that use across a single ministry or across several ministries is growing, albeit from a small base. That trend is what makes the guideline revision timely: as usage spreads, the question shifts from whether agencies may use AI to how they oversee it.

A recurring theme was that existing governance assumes humans read rules and apply judgment. With AI agents taking on tasks, members argued for a shift toward governance that AI itself can interpret and execute, while warning that layering new requirements onto old ones risks accumulating "governance debt." The secretariat responded that a risk-based approach is needed, weighing the autonomy of agents and how irreversible or impactful their actions are, and that human roles should be separated from agent roles.

On the private-sector side, a board member described the JDLA's C certification as a baseline for getting started on AI governance and a stepping stone toward organization-level certification such as ISO/IEC 42001, with renewal planned every two years. The secretariat added that it is not seeking to force a single qualification, but to treat certifications as reference points and ease procurement checks for holders, which it said need not burden startups.