ARAB NEWS



 

The Japanese government has said that it has no intention to develop lethal autonomous weapons systems and that such weapons should not be approved internationally.

Japan plans to play an active role in making international rules on lethal autonomous weapons systems, which are capable of attacking targets without human involvement using artificial intelligence.

At a press conference on Friday, Japanese Foreign Minister KAMIKAWA Yoko said, “We will work to gain international understanding through discussions that take humanitarian and security aspects into consideration.”

In a report submitted to the United Nations in late May, Japan said it “places importance on conducting the military use of emerging technologies in a responsible manner, maintaining the ‘human-centric’ principle and ensuring reliability and predictability.”

“The lack of human involvement may result in the inability of a system to operate as intended by the users, which in turn may lead to unexpected harm to civilians,” the government said.

“Japan has repeatedly stated that it does not intend to develop ‘autonomous weapon systems with lethal force that operate completely without human involvement,'” it said.

The government said that the country considers that development and use of autonomous weapons systems “must not be permitted internationally.”

The country added that weapons systems that include an appropriate level of human judgment can reduce human error, provide efficiencies in labor and manpower and provide significant benefits for security.

Japan submitted the report after the United Nations sought member states’ views on autonomous weapons systems. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to release a report summing up the views as early as this summer.