Tech Only one-fifth of internet-using adults in Japan adopt AI

Only about one in five adults in Japan who use the internet reported using artificial intelligence in the past year, according to a recent study, a figure that appears to underscore the country's comparatively cautious pace of adoption relative to overseas trends. The results are based on an online survey conducted in January 2025 by a research team at Chiba University, which, for the first time, identified an emerging "AI divide" in Japan, with noticeable gaps in usage across age, gender, and living environments.

In the survey, 2,847 of 13,367, or 21.3% of respondents, had used services such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini within the past year. A similar government study in fiscal 2024 put Japan's AI usage experience rate at 26.7% -- far below 81.2% in China, 68.6% in the United States and 59.2% in Germany. The latest study, published in Telematics and Informatics, showed the usage rate among men was 1.8 times that of women, while those aged between 18 and 54 used AI about 1.4 to 1.7 times more than people aged 75 and over.

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Use of AI tended to be higher among certain groups, including students, people with higher levels of education and those with personality traits associated with openness. Among those who had not used the technology, approximately 40% reported not feeling a need for it. Younger respondents were more likely to say the available services were not appealing, while middle-aged and older people were more likely to say they did not know how to use AI. Many older participants also pointed to security concerns and an unsuitable environment as reasons for their reluctance.