Japan plans 370 trillion yen for 17 key areas, with physical AI as a focus

Japan's government announced a plan to invest over 370 trillion yen (about 15.59 trillion yuan) in 17 strategic areas by 2040, with 10.5 trillion yen (about 442.91 billion yuan) allocated to physical AI.

Physical AI is expected to be used in industrial automation, unmanned transport, and infrastructure inspection to address labor shortages caused by an aging population and imbalanced labor market. The government believes this will boost productivity.

Japan also released a new AI policy draft aimed at improving risk management and safety assessments for high-performance AI.