Japan Police Agency to Use AI to Thwart Lone Offenders; Seeks to Identify Social Media Posts Hinting at Danger
The National Police Agency plans to use generative AI to strengthen measures against “lone offenders,” individuals who become radicalized without belonging to any specific organization, according to sources. The agency aims to prevent serious incidents before they occur, by utilizing AI to quickly identify social media posts that pose a high risk of leading to crime and issuing warnings.
The National Police Agency of Japan is set to employ generative AI to combat "lone offenders," individuals who radicalize themselves without affiliation to any group. The objective is to preemptively identify and address potential serious incidents by swiftly pinpointing high-risk social media posts, according to sources. This initiative followed the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 during a speech in Nara City.
In response, the NPA formed an internal unit in April 2025 to focus on lone offenders, manually scrutinizing social media data to flag posts hinting at harm toward public figures and others. The agency has already piloted AI tests and aims to refine the system, which will detect posts containing keywords interpreted as death threats and evaluate context-based risk levels.
Additionally, the NPA intends to use AI in "active cyber defense" to infiltrate and disrupt servers initiating cyberattacks before they occur. In its budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, the NPA allocated around ¥8.98 billion for AI-related expenses, with cross-ministerial funds also earmarked for developing technology that employs AI to gauge the urgency of emergency calls and public inquiries.
Written by urgent.news from The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
