Shafaqna English– Japan’s digital minister warned on Friday(5 Jun 2026) that the country could become victim to a new kind of colonialism in the AI era if it fails to keep up with the technology’s rapid advancement.
“I expect the Japanese people to realize that we must accelerate AI development, or else we will turn into an ‘AI colony’,” said Japan’s Digital Minister Hisashi Matsumoto.
Matsumoto issued the warning while defending a bill to revise Japan’s personal data protection law, which would allow AI developers to train their models on data such as medical and criminal records without obtaining individuals’ consent.
Source: Reuters