Japan asks for examples of rules that hold back AI adoption

The Cabinet Office, the Digital Agency and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry are collecting examples of regulations and systems that block the use of AI or make it less effective. The list covers laws, cabinet orders, ministerial ordinances, rules, notices and circulars. It is aimed at people developing, providing or using large language models, multimodal AI, agent AI and physical AI (AI robots, fully driverless driving, AI drones and similar). Submissions run through an online form from Monday 19 October to Friday 30 October 2026, until 5pm.

The input is to feed Regulatory Reform Promotion Council deliberations, revision of the AI Basic Plan (a Cabinet decision of 14 July 2026) and cross-ministry rule reviews, and may be shared with the ministries responsible. Dempa Shimbun Digital reports that Digital Minister Toshiharu Furukawa announced the call at his 2 October post-Cabinet press conference.

What it means for business: firms building or using AI in Japan can flag specific regulatory obstacles through the form between 19 and 30 October.