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Cailianshe News, July 18 (Editor: Huang Junzhi)Nearly a quarter of Japanese companies have adopted artificial intelligence (AI) in their businesses, but more than 40% have no plans to use the cutting-edge technology, according to a media survey released Thursday.

The survey, conducted by Nikkei Research, asked 506 companies a series of questions between July 3 and 12, with about 250 responding on condition of anonymity.

research has shown,About 24% of respondents said they have already introduced AI in their business, 35% said they plan to do so, while the remaining 41% have no such plans.This shows that Japanese companies have different levels of acceptance of technological innovation.

In fact, it is not new that AI technology is "neglected" in Japan. Recently, the Japanese government published the annual "Information and Communications White Paper 2024" ("White Paper"), which comprehensively introduces the current development of generative artificial intelligence in Japan.

The white paper data shows thatOnly 9.1% of individuals in Japan use generative AI.This is a large gap compared with China's 56.3%, the United States' 46.3%, the United Kingdom's 39.8% and Germany's 34.6%.

This trend is also evident in the questionnaire survey for enterprises.The proportion of Japanese companies using generative AI in their business is 46.8%, which is also lower than that of the United States (84.7%), China (84.4%) and Germany (72.7%).

However, although the above survey shows that the current usage rate of generative AI in Japanese society is relatively low, the white paper states that the future growth potential cannot be ignored. 71.1% of the respondents said that they are willing to try using generative AI under appropriate circumstances.

Next, let’s look at the latest media survey mentioned above: In a question that allowed multiple answers, when asked about the purpose of adopting artificial intelligence, 60% of respondents said they were trying to solve the problem of worker shortages, 53% said their goal was to reduce labor costs, and 36% said their goal was to accelerate research and development.

As for barriers to introduction, a manager at a transport company said, “Employees are anxious about possible layoffs.” Other barriers include lack of technical expertise, large capital expenditures, and concerns about reliability, according to the survey.

The survey also showed that 15% of respondents had suffered a cyberattack in the past year, and 9% of respondents' business partners had suffered a cyberattack in the same period. When asked about the losses, 23% of companies that suffered a cyberattack or whose business partners were targeted said that their business was temporarily suspended, and 4% said they had suffered information leakage.

When asked next about strengthening cybersecurity, 47% of respondents said they were outsourcing defenses, while 38% said they had in-house experts.