# AI Guidelines for Business

- **Record type**: Policy instrument
- **Jurisdiction**: Japan
- **Instrument type**: Guidance
- **Status**: Guidance
- **Binding**: No — guidance, strategy or standard
- **Issuing body**: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
- **Adopted**: 2024-04-19

## In brief

AI Guidelines for Business is a non-binding guidance of Japan, issued by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Its current status is guidance. Scope is as set out in the official text linked below.

## Summary

The AI Guidelines for Business consolidate Japan's previous AI R&D, utilisation and governance guidelines into a single non-binding document addressed to AI developers, providers and business users. They set common guiding principles (such as human-centricity, safety, fairness, privacy, security, transparency and accountability) and describe agile governance practices, with an appendix of practical methods and checklists. The guidelines are updated periodically; version 1.0 was issued in April 2024 and version 1.2 in March 2026.

## Scope

Scope is as set out in the official text linked below. Issued by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Oversight: METI and MIC jointly maintain; secretariat shared with IPA/AI Safety Institute; voluntary adoption by developers, providers and users. Stated purpose: Unify earlier AI ethics and governance guidelines into one voluntary, risk-based guide for business.

## Key dates

2024-04-19: AI Guidelines for Business Ver1.0 published; 2026-03-31: Ver1.2 published

## Notes on dates

Only the announcement or adoption date is recorded from the source; in-force and application dates are to be confirmed by a reviewer.

## Provenance

- **Permanent id**: AIPT-POL-0114 (https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0114; never changes or gets reused)
- **Record page**: https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/japan-ai-guidelines-for-business
- **Official source**: https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/mono_info_service/ai_shakai_jisso/index.html
- **Source document**: AI Guidelines for Business
- **Published by**: Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
- **Review status**: verified
- **Confidence**: medium
- **Facts last confirmed**: 2026-09-26
- **Confirmed by**: Bhaskar Bhatt (see https://aipolicytracker.org/reviewers)
- **Retrieved**: 2026-10-27
- **Licence**: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- **Cite as**: AIPolicyTracker (2026). "AI Guidelines for Business" [AIPT-POL-0114, record version 1, verified 26 September 2026 by Bhaskar Bhatt]. https://aipolicytracker.org/id/AIPT-POL-0114 (accessed 27 October 2026).

> This record is a structured summary with a link to the official text. It is not legal advice. Open the official source before relying on any date or duty. How current each record type must be is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/verification; what a record must carry at all is published at https://aipolicytracker.org/coverage.