The 21st century has brought all sorts of new tech into our lives. We now have fridges that talk, watches that track our every move, and AI that seems to know what we need before we do. But with this new tech comes new questions about where to draw the line between helpful and harmful.
AI slop and deepfakes are clear examples of the downside. This wave has reached Japan too, raising fresh concerns about how AI twists reality and shapes the way the world sees it.
A blurred line
Japan has always been the subject of disinformation and stereotypes online. Unseen Japan has pushed back against these false narratives since we started in 2018. It’s particularly fertile ground for conservatives who don’t even live here, who spread lies about conditions here to push harmful right-wing narratives back in their home countries.
AI has made this problem ten times worse.
So-called AI slop is low-quality, mass-produced AI content made with almost no human input. The problem isn’t just that it looks off; it’s that a lot of it is downright bizarre. Some of these images feature people or animals, others show surreal landscapes. What they all share is one thing: they distort reality and trick our eyes into believing something fake is real. And that’s where the damage starts.
These artificial creations are confusing but oddly believable, painting a false, animated version of the world. When we see them, it’s easy to get fooled, blurring the line between fact and fiction. And with social media spreading content at lightning speed, AI slop can quickly take over.
AI has stirred up a range of issues in Japan. For one, it reinforces tired stereotypes about Japanese people and culture by leaning heavily on clichés. It also poses growing threats to true creativity, with AI-generated content sparking growing copyright concerns. And then there’s the spread of misinformation, with deepfake disasters that stoke fear but also numb us to real crises.
The first issue hits harder with Japan, because when stereotypes already exist, it’s easy for AI to keep recycling them.
Too good to be true
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when picturing Japan? Maybe it’s cherry blossoms in full bloom, silent bullet trains, or neon-lit cityscapes. For many, it’s a vision of a high-tech, ultra-modern wonderland.
But how much of that reflects reality, and how much is just a romanticized, simplified image? Sure, these elements are part of its cultural fabric, but like any country, Japan is far more layered than the clichés suggest.
Still, these oversimplified portrayals persist, especially in AI-generated content. Many AI models pull from datasets filled with familiar patterns, generating fantasy-like images that lean into stereotypes. Social media is saturated with them. Some creators are upfront about using AI, but others aren’t, making it easy for viewers to mistake fiction for reality.
Take a look at the image below: Shibuya Crossing seen from above, as if snapped from an escalator floating in the sky. It feels cinematic, almost dreamlike, like a scene straight out of an anime. Too good to be true? That’s because it isn’t.
Then there’s this image of the Seikan Tunnel cutting through the ocean, surrounded by coral reefs. But a closer look, or a quick Google search, reveals it’s just AI slop.
So why does this matter? These AI-generated images create an idealized, kawaii version of Japan that flattens a country with complexities like any other — overtourism and climate change, to name a few. Without clear disclaimers, they shape public perception by turning a rich reality into a mere online aesthetic.
Most of the time, AI slop doesn’t just misrepresent Japan. It reduces it to a digital fantasy to attract likes and shares.
Creative crisis
As mentioned earlier, Japan might be a hotspot for AI-generated, stereotype-filled content. But that’s just scratching the surface. AI is also slipping into the country’s creative spaces, raising red flags about the future of human work.
In September 2023, the Asahi Shimbun reported that The HEADLINE, a web media outlet launched earlier that year, had to retract 49 articles. The pieces were written by generative AI and copied from other sources. In a public apology on September 15, the outlet admitted the articles “offered no new value, perspectives, or discussion” and were “clearly problematic from both a social and ethical standpoint.”
But the creative battle doesn’t stop at writing. Since March 2025, social media has been flooded with AI-generated “Ghibli-style” images. The trend, driven by ChatGPT, lets users turn their photos into dreamy scenes inspired by Miyazaki Hayao’s signature look. It quickly took off online, with everything from The Lord of the Rings to White House meetings reimagined in Ghibli-like art.
These images live in a legal grey zone, but some experts have raised concerns. Lawyer Mizokami Koji of Hashimoto Sogo Law Office told FNN that while the Ghibli style isn’t protected by copyright, using recognizable characters in Ghibli-styled personal photos could easily cross legal boundaries.
Of course, it’s possible to use these tools responsibly. Still, the larger concern remains: AI is starting to take credit, or at least attention, for work that’s really made by humans.
Naturally, not every AI creation is harmful. But our growing dependence on them raises questions about what we lose when machines start to mimic, replace, or dilute human creativity.
Dangerous zone
In Japan, AI has already been used in ways that go beyond entertainment and raise serious concerns about public misinformation.
In 2024, for example, Fukuoka Prefecture had to pull down a new tourism site. The problem? It generated the site with AI, which made up nonexistent facilities such as “Uminaka Happiness World.”
Another clear example happened in 2022, when a fake image made the rounds on social media and caused quite a stir. The photo, posted on Twitter on September 26, appeared to show massive flood damage in Shizuoka Prefecture after Typhoon No. 15.
At first glance, it looked like an actual drone shot from the aftermath of a real disaster. But it wasn’t. The image had been generated in less than three minutes using the AI tool Stable Diffusion. All it took were a few keywords like “flood,” “damage,” and “Shizuoka.”
The picture looked real at first. But certain details gave it away, like warped buildings, odd shadows on the water, and trees growing too close to nearby structures. The man behind it, a Tokyo resident, later told the Shizuoka Shimbun he just wanted to imagine what the scene might look like on the spot.
Unlike the dreamy, aesthetic style of typical AI slop, this image felt more serious and dangerous. Its realistic look made it much easier to mistake for the real thing. Nearly 6,000 people retweeted it, thinking it was an actual photo.
Misinformation during disasters isn’t new. But deepfakes take it a step further by adding a layer of visual proof that’s hard to question. When something like this goes viral early on, it can create chaos, spark panic, and waste precious time as people rush to separate fact from fiction.
Reality check
AI is reshaping how we see the world and Japan. That carries huge risks. It can keep us stuck in old stereotypes, turning multifaceted realities into pretty, clickable images. It also threatens true creativity, drowning human work in a sea of AI copies. And when it matters most, it can cause false information to spread and confuse people.
Of course, AI can’t decide what’s okay to share and what’s not. That’s where humans come in. As AI becomes a bigger part of life in Japan and beyond, how responsibly we use it is entirely in our hands.
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［ニュース解説］AIが生む「情報のゴミ」が現実を歪める？ 私たちは大丈夫か JOBIRUN
生成AIを使って書いた記事、盗用で謝罪 専門家「技術以前の問題」朝日新聞
チャットGPTの“ジブリ風”画像変換は著作権侵害か？欧米で話題の生成AI機能が物議…「○○風」画像生成の問題点 FNN
最新ＣｈａｔＧＰＴであふれる「ジブリ風」ＡＩ画像、威力示す一方で著作権問題も再燃 CNN
あなたが見ているその写真、本物ですか？ 進化するＡＩ画像生成技術、悪用も活用も 依頼に応え、調査しました 静岡新聞
SNS拡散の災害デマやフェイク画像 “AI生成の画像”も NHK
AI-generated website introducing nonexistent tourist spots in Fukuoka Prefecture shut down. The Mainichi
