The Response of Japanese Law to the Demands of the New Era of InformatizationWith Civil Law as the Primary Object of Inquiry

In response to the institutional challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) and digital assets, Japan’s legislative practices in the fields of informatization and intelligentization, together with its civil law doctrines, offer a valuable subject of comparative inquiry. Under the premise of preserving the relative stability of the civil law system, this approach may help identify pathways that are instructive for China’s legislative and judicial practice. Drawing on a three-tier analytical framework comprising foundational legislation, special statutes, and civil law interpretive theories, this analysis systematically examined Japan’s experiences with specialized legislation, including its Digital Basic Act, laws governing electronic transactions, and the IT-enabled reform of judicial proceedings. It further focused on key doctrinal debates concerning the legal personhood of AI, whether data qualifies as a “thing” under civil law, and the allocation of liability for autonomous systems. The review revealed that the Japanese civil law, as a general matter, rejects the attribution of legal personality to AI. Instead, it channels associated risks through mechanisms such as strict (danger-based) liability, product liability, and insurance schemes. This institutional design is fundamentally guided by two core normative commitments: human-centricity and risk regulation. At the policy level, it is imperative to establish a comprehensive and coordinated Digital Basic Act framework. Beyond the Civil Code, targeted special legislation—coupled with an integrated liability—insurance mechanism—should be incrementally developed to address the evolving regulatory demands of AI and data governance. Concurrently, as judicial digitization advances, procedural justice must be rigorously upheld, and ultimate decision-making authority on critical matters must remain vested in human actors.