Japan's digital minister Hisashi Matsumoto has warned the country risks becoming an 'AI colony' if it falls behind in AI development, using the framing to defend a bill that would allow AI developers to access sensitive personal data — including medical and criminal records — without individual consent. The government acknowledges Japan lags other advanced economies in AI, and the bill aims to close that gap by providing access to large, high-quality datasets. Critics argue the proposal weakens protections over the most sensitive categories of personal data. Alongside the bill, Tokyo is piloting Gennai, a generative AI platform for internal government use targeting 180,000 civil servants across 39 agencies. The sovereignty-vs-privacy tension mirrors debates seen in Europe around the EU AI Act.
