Japan's Digital Agency Deploys AI Platform to Kumamoto Earthquake‑Hit Municipalities

The Digital Agency announced on July 29 that its generative‑AI environment "Government AI Genai" will be provided on an emergency basis to the municipalities and disaster‑response agencies affected by the Reiwa‑8 Kumamoto earthquake. The service, intended to streamline the collection, organization and sharing of disaster information, includes a chat interface, several AI applications and prompt examples for tasks such as drafting notices, summarizing documents, web‑search‑assisted fact‑finding, translation, transcription, and converting Excel data into analysis‑ready tables. No data‑storage or sharing facilities are included. Access will begin around 11:00 a.m. on the announcement day and is planned to run for roughly three weeks.

Separately, Ogata City in northern Fukuoka Prefecture is pursuing an AI‑driven efficiency programme that targets a reduction of 35,000 municipal work hours per year by 2030. The city has rolled out the "自治体AI zevo" service, which lets staff use models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini within a secure local network. After an initial dip in usage, internal communications and training boosted adoption, increasing active users from 86 in January to 181 by June 2026.