Japan not seeking domestic AI replacement of US foundation models, says key lawmaker
By Jeyup S Kwaak ( January 15, 2026, 07:29 GMT | Insight) -- Akihisa Shiozaki, a prominent Japanese lawmaker and architect of artificial intelligence policy for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Thursday Japan isn’t looking to compete head-to-head with American foundational models such as OpenAI’s GPT or Anthropic’s Claude. Japan is instead working towards a future where local models trained for specific uses complement foreign general-purpose models, framed by regulations.Akihisa Shiozaki, a prominent Japanese lawmaker and architect of artificial intelligence policy for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Thursday Japan isn’t looking to compete head-to-head with American foundational models such as OpenAI’s GPT or Anthropic’s Claude....
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