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Good practice Imported

Japan's Whole-of-Government Regulatory Sandbox — 29 Projects Tested Outside Existing Rules Since 2018

Japan · Tokyo · See the Japan profile · See the Tokyo profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 51% 60/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since 2018, Japan's whole-of-government regulatory sandbox has let firms trial AI, fintech and mobility innovations under supervised exemptions. By March 2023, 29 projects had been approved — modest throughput for a now-permanent national mechanism.

29 projects
Projects approved under the sandbox (June 2018 – March 2023)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Cabinet Secretariat / Digital Agency, Government of Japan
Period
2018–2023
Keywords
regulatory sandbox, AI & IoT, fintech, mobility, healthcare, government reform

Context

Since June 2018, Japan has operated a nationwide regulatory sandbox (part of the 'Grey Zone Elimination'/sandbox system) allowing Japanese and foreign companies to trial innovations in fintech, mobility, AI/IoT and healthcare under supervised, case-by-case regulatory exemptions; the scheme was made permanent law in 2021.

Activities

Companies apply to the Cabinet Secretariat/Digital Agency, working with sectoral ministries such as METI, for bespoke supervised exemptions that let them test new products or services outside existing rules; by March 2023, 29 projects had received approval since the scheme's 2018 launch.

Results

Available sources, including OECD reporting and the March 2023 Cabinet Secretariat presentation, confirm 29 approved projects but do not report standardized outcome metrics for graduated projects, and no public project-by-project registry was located.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills
Cabinet Secretariat / Digital Agency administers applications and approvals, Sectoral ministries such as METI co-review applications

Conditions for success

  • Case-by-case supervised conditions rather than blanket exemptions
  • Cross-government coordination across sectoral regulators
  • Openness to both domestic and foreign applicants

Common failure modes

  • No standardized outcome reporting for graduated projects
  • No public project-by-project registry located, limiting external assessment of impact

Where it fits

Governance type
national government regulatory mechanism
Scale
national
Income level
high-income

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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