"I'll Give You an Extra 1.4 Million Won a Month, But..." Major Firms Make Bold Moves, Even Conservative Japan Is Stirred

Honda Offers Up to 1.39 Million Won Monthly Based on AI Capabilities

FamilyMart Reflects AI Utilization in Personnel Evaluations

AI Adoption Rate: 22.5% in Japan, 37.1% in Korea

A system that incorporates employees' artificial intelligence (AI) utilization skills into their compensation is spreading among major Japanese corporations.

Tokyo, Japan. Photo is not directly related to the article content. Yonhap News Agency

On July 12, Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported that major Japanese companies such as mobility firm Honda are paying extra allowances to employees who are proficient in using AI for their work.

Japanese companies, which have been criticized for lagging behind overseas firms in applying AI to work, are introducing compensation systems to encourage employees to utilize AI.

Honda evaluates employees with AI skills on three levels and provides a monthly additional allowance of up to 150,000 yen (approximately 1,390,000 won). As of this month, 280 employees are benefiting from the program, with 10 individuals receiving the highest grade allowance of 150,000 yen.

Honda plans to use this system to spread a culture of AI utilization within the company and aims to increase the number of recipients to 1,000 within a few years.

Some companies have also begun to factor AI utilization skills into personnel evaluations. Since April, FamilyMart has required all employees to include an AI utilization plan as a personnel evaluation target. The AI utilization plans created by employees and their resulting achievements are reflected in performance evaluations.

FamilyMart stated, "We aim to establish a framework to embed an AI utilization culture throughout the organization." The company's administrative office supports each department's process of using AI, and employees with advanced AI skills also serve as mentors to others.

"Evaluating AI Skills Should Consider Job Characteristics"...Concerns About Overinflated Results

However, there are criticisms that uniformly demanding AI utilization without considering job characteristics is inappropriate, since the difficulty of applying AI varies depending on the job. Shohei Chino, a researcher at Recruit Works Institute, noted, "There are often disparities in the environment for learning AI skills among employees," adding, "Uniformly requiring AI utilization may be considered unfair."

There are also concerns that employees might exaggerate their AI utilization achievements for the sake of bonuses. For example, Amazon in the United States operated a ranking system to track employees' AI usage, but suspended it after cases emerged where some employees used AI agents for unnecessary work just to boost their records. In contrast, service company Salesforce introduced a metric in February to measure employees' actual contributions through AI utilization.

The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Pixabay

Japan Ranks 48th Globally in AI Adoption—Personnel Evaluations and Allowances Provide a Breakthrough, While Korea Ranks 16th

Japan's AI utilization rate remains relatively low compared to other major countries. According to a survey released by Microsoft in May, Japan ranked 48th in global generative AI adoption, with a rate of just 22.5%. Only a small number of Japanese companies are currently reflecting AI utilization in personnel evaluations. In a Nikkei survey of 143 major companies conducted in March, fewer than 10% had adopted such systems. Japanese companies are expected to expand these measures and further promote AI utilization in the future.

Meanwhile, Korea ranked 16th globally with an AI adoption rate of 37.1% in the same survey, representing a 6.4% increase from the previous study and demonstrating rapid growth. In Korea as well, there are moves to give preference to employees holding AI certifications in hiring and promotion, or to certify employees' AI utilization skills within companies. However, unlike Honda's system, there are no clear examples of companies providing separate allowances for AI skills at this time.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.