The AI Wave Reaches Privacy Law

Japan is the latest country to amend its privacy law to foster AI development. By undoing digital rights, countries might be opening the door to a broader erosion of fundamental rights | Edition #286

“The Great Wave at Kanagawa” by Hokusai, 1831 (color woodcut print, modified)

This week, Japan officially announced amendments to its privacy law to become “the easiest country to develop AI.”

Before them, the UK, with its Data (Use and Access) Act in 2025, and more recently the European Union, with its proposed Digital Omnibus, have moved to change their data protection laws to foster AI development.

These recent developments show that, in different parts of the world, the AI race is leading to legal flexibility, including that of concepts and rights previously considered central to the protection of human dignity in the digital age.

In today's edition, I focus on Japan's AI strategy and recent amendments to examine whether these changes might become a slippery slope to a broader erosion of fundamental rights.

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To understand the rationale behind this week's amendments to Japan's privacy law, we first need to look at the country's AI law, enacted in May 2025, and its national AI strategy.

Japan's AI law is titled the “Act on the Promotion of Research and Development and the Utilization of AI-Related Technologies.” As the name suggests, it prioritizes promoting AI technology rather than protecting fundamental rights or avoiding harm (in contrast to the EU AI Act, which explicitly mentions these objectives in its first article). It also acknowledges AI's importance for national security.

The main legal strategy was to set out principles and a basic administrative plan, which could be called a soft, innovation-based approach, similar to what has been done at the federal level in the United States and India.

The law’s first article states:

“The purpose of this Act is, in view of the fact that AI-related technology is a foundational driver of Japan’s economic and social development, to set forth the basic philosophy and the basic plan for the promotion of research, development, and utilization of AI-related technology and other fundamental matters, and to establish the headquarters for AI Strategy. In conjunction with the Basic Act on Science, Technology and Innovation, the Basic Act on Forming a Digital Society and other relevant laws, it seeks to ensure the comprehensive and systematic advancement of measures for the promotion of research, development, and utilization of AI-related technology, thereby contributing to the enhancement of the public’s welfare and the sound development of the national economy.”

There is no list of prohibited or high-risk AI practices (as in the EU AI Act and other recent AI laws).

The law establishes broad state promotion of AI development and deployment and the creation of the “headquarters for AI strategy,” and divides responsibilities among local governments, research organizations, businesses, and the public.

Local governments have the freedom to formulate autonomous AI policies that leverage the characteristics of their jurisdictions to promote AI research, development, and deployment.

Aligned with Japan's AI law, in her speech last year to the country's national parliament, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said:

“Aiming to make Japan the world’s best country to develop and use AI, we will utilize data linkage and integration and other means to accelerate the research, development, and commercialization of AI and other new digital technologies. Beyond that, we will support the overseas expansion of industries related to digital technologies, including the content industry.”

An aggressive AI race is underway. Behind measures such as chip export bans and swift legal amendments is the belief that the country that reaches “superintelligence” first will gain an immeasurable advantage over all others in economic, political, technological, and military terms.

There is a sense of urgency in many parts of the world, including Japan, and a growing belief that digital laws enacted over the past two decades to protect against online harms are an obstacle to the limitless (and often desperate) pursuit of some form of AI supremacy.

Let's take a look at Japan's specific changes to its privacy law and what they mean in practice, including from the perspective of the protection of fundamental rights: