Nikkei online reported on March 26 that the Japanese government, in an effort to accelerate the translation of Japanese laws into English, was going to employ AI. The goal is to achieve a four-fold increase in the pace of law translations.
Prime Minister Kishida is promoting foreign investment in Japan, one aim of which is to increase domestic production of strategic items such as semiconductors and batteries.
Nikkei reports that previous efforts to translate statutes relied on private companies and could take as long as one year. The new system is one developed based on software from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and enhanced by machine learning of terminology unique to laws.
The aim is to translate 160 laws in FY 2023 and 320 laws in each of FY 2024 and 2025. The laws translated will focus on business statutes relating to the Civil Code and banking laws.
Article concludes with mention that, with the increase in number of laws translated, the government is considering increasing the number of specialists to verify the translated content. It does not provide any details regarding those specialists and their qualifications.