Japanese cities deploy AI to cut administrative costs and ease school workloads

Nara City established an AI Promotion Division in April 2025 and reported its first‑year results, citing the use of generative AI across municipal services. The city recorded about 17,200 hours of work saved in the latter half of fiscal 2025 and a reduction of roughly ¥50 million in annual procurement costs. An AI‑driven chatbot on the city website handled around 22,000 users and 46,000 inquiries, while AI tools streamlined document drafting, meeting minutes, and child‑welfare case management.

In Tokyo’s Koto Ward, NTT East Japan partnered with the local board of education to run a pilot from July to November 2025 that introduced generative‑AI tools in three elementary and middle schools. The experiment focused on creating AI‑assisted lesson plans, grading templates and workload‑reduction utilities for teachers. Early feedback aims to lower preparation time and improve AI literacy among students and staff, with plans to expand the program to additional schools.