At a presentation in Tokyo, LINE Yahoo's former chairman, Kawabe Kentaro (川邊健太郎), presented his own analysis of the current state of AI adoption by Japanese companies. He expressed the view that AI use in Japan lacks depth and has effectively stopped short.
Kawabe Kentaro (川邊健太郎) analyzed the state of AI adoption by Japanese companies at an event held by WalkMe, noting that the individual generative AI usage experience rate was only 26.7%, based on the 2025 edition of the Information and Communications White Paper. He explained that there was a significant gap compared with the United States at 68.8% and China at 81.2%.
As background, he said that traditional Japanese companies are “membership-based,” with jobs assigned to people, and that strong employment protections make AI adoption likely to lead to surplus personnel issues. By contrast, he analyzed the United States as “job-based,” with roles defined, meaning that AI adoption leads to faster decision-making and workforce restructuring.
Based on the comparison between the 2 countries, he concluded that AI adoption in Japan has effectively stopped short. Kawabe Kentaro (川邊健太郎) also said that he is currently aiming to become an AI solopreneur and launch a business driven by AI alone.