Japan Convenes Government Panel to Tackle Student Overreliance on AI

TOKYO — Japan's Central Council for Education has been asked to start formal discussions on how AI should be used in schools, after education minister Yohei Matsumoto raised the issue at a general council meeting this week. The panel's brief is explicit about the concern driving it: growing signs that heavy AI use may be reducing students' ability to think through problems and make decisions on their own.

The council's recommendations will feed into Japan's next five-year basic education promotion program, covering fiscal years 2028 through 2032, with a compiled report expected by fiscal 2027. That timeline reflects how seriously Tokyo is treating the question — not a quick guideline update, but a multi-year policy planning cycle built around it. The same council was also asked to draft a new five-year school safety plan starting fiscal 2027, following a rise in accidents during extracurricular activities, giving this week's meeting a dual focus on both digital and physical student wellbeing.

The panel's work follows Japan's own data on how deeply AI has already embedded itself in student life: a government survey released earlier this year found 46.2% of high school students already use generative AI in their daily lives, alongside average daily internet use topping six and a half hours. Rather than a straightforward ban-or-allow decision, education minister Matsumoto has framed the goal as helping students use AI "appropriately and effectively" — language that puts Japan closer to Singapore's mandatory-integration approach than to the outright classroom restrictions some US states and districts have adopted.