Japan’s main AI law has been in place since 2025, and it contains no penalties at all. Government advisers have now drafted a plan to change that for the most powerful AI systems. Companies that ignore an official order could face a penalty.
The draft was presented on Wednesday 11 November at a closed meeting of a working group under the Cabinet Office, the department that supports the prime minister. The government has published the documents from the meeting online. Japan passed its AI law in May 2025. Today the government can investigate a company and give it guidance, but it cannot force the company to act.
Four steps, from reports to orders
The new rules would not cover all AI. They would apply only where two things meet: AI above a certain level of performance, and a set of specific serious risks. Other AI would stay under existing laws and guidelines. According to the meeting documents, the draft has four parts.
- Companies that meet the criteria must take measures to keep their AI safe from those risks.
- They must report information about those risks to the government.
- The government could formally recommend steps to a company that falls short.
- If needed, the government could issue a binding order, with penalties for breaking it.
Members of the group named cyberattacks and attacks using chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive weapons as risks that need action. The rules would target companies that provide AI first, not people who use it. The group still has to decide which kinds of company are covered, from research labs to firms that sell AI services. Members also said the rules must work against foreign companies, so the burden does not fall only on Japanese ones.
Six companies took part
Six companies spoke to the group. Three of them were Japanese: the telecoms group NTT, the startup Sakana AI and SB Intuitions. The other three were Anthropic Japan, Google and OpenAI Japan. Each company was asked about AI risks, its own safety work and which rules it would support.
Penalties are expected to apply only to incidents involving advanced AI, according to the news agency Kyodo. The group aims to publish an outline of the changes, including any revision of the law, by the end of the year. The size of any penalty has not been set.
The meeting documents also compare the plan with rules in the US and the EU. New York and Illinois give the largest AI developers 72 hours to report a critical safety incident, and California gives 15 days. Under the EU AI Act, companies behind the most powerful models can be fined up to 3% of global turnover or €15 million.
New York opened registration under its own AI safety law this week. Australia also announced plans for an AI safety regulator.
Why it matters: Japan has so far relied on voluntary guidance for AI. If this draft becomes law, the biggest AI labs would face safety rules backed by penalties in Japan as well as in the EU and several US states.
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