Between July 3 and 12, 506 organizations were asked a series of questions for a survey conducted by Nikkei Research for Reuters.
Just over 24% of respondents said they had already implemented AI in their companies, 35% said they planned to do so, and 41% said they had no intention of doing so. This shows how differently corporate Japan has embraced technological advancement.
When asked what their goals are for implementing AI in a multiple-choice question, 60% of respondents said they are trying to deal with labor shortages, while 53% want to reduce labor costs and 36% mentioned accelerating research and development.
One manager at a transportation company cited “anxiety among employees about possible downsizing” as one of the challenges to the rollout.
The survey also revealed that significant capital expenditure, lack of technological know-how and reliability concerns are some of the remaining barriers.
According to the survey, 9% of participants had business partners who were victims of cyberattacks in the same time frame, and 15% of respondents said they had personally experienced cyberattacks in the previous year.
When asked about the extent of the damage, 23% of individuals who either directly experienced a cyberattack or had colleagues targeted said operations were temporarily suspended, and 4% said there was a breach of information.
47% of respondents said they outsourced defense, while 38% said they had in-house experts on measures to improve cybersecurity.
The government is working to tighten cybersecurity safeguards in the wake of major publisher Kadokawa becoming one of the victims of cyber attacks in recent months.
According to the survey, half of the companies are in favor of changing the law that requires spouses to use the same surname. In almost 90% of marriages, women take over the roles of their husbands; Opponents of the practice say it strips women of their individuality and burdens them with the mountains of paperwork required to carry out the transformation.
After Keidanren petitioned the government last month to allow married people to keep their surnames, the issue gained more attention.
