Japan Introduces AI System for Drafting and Revising Legislation

Japan Digital Agency Announces Phased Introduction of AI Systems

The Japanese government is expected to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for drafting and revising legislation as early as next year.

Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 9th that the Japanese government has initiated related work to reduce human errors in document preparation and unnecessary paper waste.

Taro Kono, Japan's Minister of Digital Affairs
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The Digital Agency of Japan plans to have government employees responsible for drafting legislation within government agencies experience the AI system as early as the end of this month. After verifying convenience and work efficiency, specific regulations will be established. The agency also announced plans to actually use the AI system next year and gradually enhance its functions.

By utilizing this system, when revising laws, it will be possible to automatically create draft clauses and comparison tables between old and new laws when deleting or rewriting existing provisions. The Digital Agency plans to equip the system with a function to determine whether changes in provisions conflict with other laws.

In Japan, when submitting a bill, five types of documents must be submitted together: draft clauses, summary, reasons, comparison tables between old and new laws, and reference clauses. As a result, documents related to law revisions can sometimes run into hundreds of pages. There are also cases where errors are discovered after submission to the National Diet. Taro Kono, Minister for Digital Affairs, expressed the position that related documents should be simplified during an online press conference the day before.