While Japan has been on the back foot with some recent technology trends, it is seen as having a greater incentive to keep pace with advances in AI and robotics to maintain productivity as its population shrinks. The watchdog noted the need to balance privacy concerns with the potential benefits of generative AI, including in accelerating innovation and dealing with problems such as climate change. Japan is the third-largest source of traffic to OpenAI's website, according to analytics firm Similarweb. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in April met Prime Minister Fumio Kishida with an eye to expansion in Japan ahead of the Group of Seven summit, where Kishida led a discussion on regulating AI.