Takaichi orders AI action plan by year-end

Takaichi framed AI as part of a broader growth strategy rather than a standalone technology initiative. At the Council for Japan’s Growth Strategy, she instructed relevant Cabinet ministers to compile a concrete vision for AI use along with regulatory and institutional reforms, and tied it to a growth strategy implementation program that will be compiled at year-end together with the government’s budget proposal for fiscal 2027.

The design of that program reflects a push for planning discipline. Takaichi said she will designate the five years starting next April as an intensive period to promote public and private investment across 17 strategic sectors, including AI and semiconductors, and will include priority sectors and investment amounts in the program. Projects expected to effectively boost the potential growth rate are to be identified based on factors such as profitability and ripple effects. For private-sector companies, the government will also clarify budgetary measures spanning multiple fiscal years to provide predictability. Sectors of particular importance to economic security will be managed separately in a special account, contingent on projects that contribute to ensuring autonomy of the socioeconomic structure, competitive advantage over other countries and regions, and indispensability to the international community.

Separately, Takaichi instructed Cabinet ministers to compile a policy package aimed at resolving labor shortages in the construction sector, which the article says could hinder growth-oriented investment. The concrete scale and sector-by-sector targets of the AI measures appear likely to hinge on the year-end drafting process and the fiscal 2027 budget proposal.