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Japan’s new AI reform council meets and puts a review of the AI Act on its agenda

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Source: Digital Agency, Japan

Japan’s AI and Digital Reform Promotion Council held its first meeting on 22 October 2026 at the Prime Minister’s office. Toshiharu Furukawa, the Minister for AI and Digital Reform, tabled a draft of five discussion points: what an AI-driven society (the government calls it AX) looks like in 2030; regulatory reform under new AI and Digital Reform Principles, including a cross-cutting review of rules that presume a human, such as licensed professions, and of liability and remedies for acts done by AI; action plans for medical care, nursing care, construction and transport, a roadmap for vertical AI and robotics, large-scale trials of the government AI Gennai and faster deployment of self-driving vehicles; stronger AI governance; and AI-ready data, systems and local governments. Under governance the paper proposes that Japan evaluate frontier models’ capabilities in cyber and biological attack as other governments do, secure AI agents across whole systems through harnesses, identity, guardrails, permission management, evaluation and audit logs, and review the AI Act and related laws under what it calls responsible agile governance, citing cyber attacks that use AI and the possibility of recursive self-improvement. The paper’s schedule has an interim summary by the end of 2026 on the three items the Prime Minister asked for on 1 October (a picture of AX, reform principles and an action plan) and a reform summary around June 2027 that feeds AI Basic Plan 3.0 and the 2027 digital priority plan. Papers from the minister for AX social implementation, the regulatory reform minister and four outside members were also published.

Why it matters

Japan’s government has put a review of its AI Act on a timetable, with an interim summary due by the end of 2026 and a reform summary around June 2027.

When
22 Oct 2026
ID
WTA-N-2026-0369
Where
Japan
Who
Cabinet of Japan, Digital Agency; Toshiharu Furukawa
Rules involved

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Digital Agency, Japan. Checked against the source on 22 Oct 2026.

Read the original at Digital Agency, Japan

Source copy: download the page as saved on 22 Oct 2026 (PDF). Documents the source offers: document 1 (PDF), document 2 (PDF), document 3 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Earlier in this Storyline: What led hereJapan’s Cabinet sets up an AI and Digital Reform Promotion Council chaired by the Chief Cabinet Secretary

Cite this story

WTA-N-2026-0369: “Japan’s new AI reform council meets and puts a review of the AI Act on its agenda.” wheresthe.ai, 22 Oct 2026. https://wheresthe.ai/d/jp-japan-holds-first-ai-and-digital-reform-promotion-council-2026-10/ (source: Digital Agency, Japan).

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