In short
  • 58.8% of people in Japan have used generative AI, up from 26.7% in the previous survey
  • Use is highest among 15–19-year-olds (91.7%) and people in their twenties (78.2%)
  • 86.4% of companies use AI, but nearly 30% have no organised approach to it
  • Japan still lags the US, Germany and China on image and video generation

The report at a glance

Original title
令和8年版 情報通信白書 — AIの進展がもたらす多面的影響
Publisher
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)
Published
July 2026
Survey
3,108 individuals and over 1,000 companies across Japan, the US, Germany and China
Language
Japanese; English edition and overview published
Access
Free, no registration
Open the white paper (Japanese) ↗

Key numbers and findings

58.8%of individuals have used generative AI (26.7% before)
91.7%of 15–19-year-olds have used it
86.4%of companies use AI in some form

People

  • Generative AI experience rose to 58.8% of individuals, from 26.7% in the previous survey.
  • By age, 15–19-year-olds lead at 91.7%, followed by people in their twenties at 78.2%.
  • Text generation is by far the most common use (55.0%). Image and video generation is used by 16.3% in Japan, compared with 41.0% in the US, 47.6% in Germany and 55.8% in China.

Companies

86.4% of companies surveyed use AI, but close to 30% of them say there is no organisation-wide initiative behind it — adoption is often driven by individuals and teams rather than company strategy.

What it means for companies entering Japan

Our reading

If your picture of Japan is ‘slow to adopt new technology’, update it. Among young Japanese, generative AI is now close to universal, and it is changing how they search for and compare products. For marketers, that makes clear, well-structured Japanese content on your own site more important, not less: it is what AI assistants draw on.

The company numbers are useful for B2B sellers. Widespread but unstructured AI use is exactly where Japanese firms are looking for tools, training and governance — a gap that UK and European SaaS and consultancy providers can fill, provided they sell in Japanese.

How to read the original

The Japanese white paper is published chapter by chapter in HTML and PDF. MIC also publishes an English edition, WHITE PAPER Information and Communications in Japan, with an overview document for each year.

Open the white paper (Japanese) ↗

This is an independent summary by Japan Business Insider. Figures are taken from the original publication; the interpretation in “Our reading” is our own. Please check the original before quoting figures.

Japan Business InsiderBorn and raised in Japan, based in the UK for 30 years. I help Western brands read, enter and grow in the Japanese market — trend intelligence, localisation, social and search — reading the original Japanese sources every day.