Japan’s top court to test use of AI in civil trials

In fiscal 2027, Japan's Supreme Court plans to explore the potential utilization of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in civil trials. This announcement came alongside the court's budget request for the upcoming fiscal year, which allocated some ¥60 million for expenses associated with AI integration. This marks the court's inaugural inclusion of such expenditures in its budget request.

According to the Supreme Court, records of resolved lawsuits will serve as the basis for a demonstration test on AI implementation. Judges and other officials will feed documents into an AI system, with the aim of generating rough drafts of record summaries and lists of contentious points. The court is also developing a system to safeguard against the inadvertent disclosure of personal information pertaining to litigants and trade secrets of businesses involved in lawsuits.

In January and February of the current year, a panel of six mid-level judges from the Tokyo and Osaka district courts conducted a test using mock trial records. Their findings indicated that AI could prove beneficial in creating summaries and organizing contentious points; however, it also raised concerns about the potential for AI to exacerbate judges' biases by omitting crucial facts and points of contention, as well as by providing plausible yet inaccurate responses.

The panel concluded that AI should be treated as an assistant to judges rather than a replacement for them.

Acknowledging the growing issue of protracted civil trials, Masayuki Nagata, a senior official at the Supreme Court's digital policy planning office, expressed optimism about the potential of AI to streamline and expedite trials further. "We hope to present the results of the demonstration test within the next fiscal year," Nagata added.

Additionally, the Supreme Court's budget request encompasses approximately ¥38.7 billion for expenses tied to the digitization of trial proceedings, encompassing criminal and domestic cases.