What choices will we make to avoid becoming a "digital colony"? – Sovereignty and entrepreneurial spirit in the age of AI

When considering a career change, many people unconsciously look at whether "this company seems likely to grow" or "this industry has a future." If you are currently considering a career in the advertising, branding, production, or IT industry, there is a question I would like you to pause and consider: Is the company you are about to join one that is "used" by the changing times, or one that "uses" them?

I recently watched a video on the theme of "digital sovereignty." It argued that Japan is slowly relinquishing its national sovereignty in an era where it relies on American companies' infrastructure in every aspect of life, and where AI learning data is becoming ingrained in our judgments and thoughts themselves. The part where it mentioned that China has been pursuing a national AI strategy for over eight years, and that Japan's national strategic budget is only about one-sixth of what Google poured into Anthropic at one point, honestly sent chills down my spine.

However, I think it's dishonest for a business owner to simply dismiss this issue as a "national problem." The same structure exists within branding and production companies like ours, and ultimately, it exists within each individual's career. Will we remain companies and individuals that simply depend on overseas platforms and AI tools, or will we take the lead by possessing our own perspective and technology? In this article, I'd like to share my own thoughts on this crossroads.

What happens between nations also happens within industries.

When you look at the numbers, this disparity is quite stark.Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry documentAccording to the report, 1.239 trillion yen of Japan's national budget for fiscal year 2026 will be allocated to AI and semiconductor-related projects, with 387.3 billion yen specifically for the development of domestically produced base models, representing a support plan of approximately 1 trillion yen over five years. Meanwhile, in April 2026,Google has reportedly invested up to $40 billion (approximately 4 trillion yen) in Anthropic.If you include Amazon's investment, a single investment decision would amount to more than five years' worth of Japan's domestic AI budget.

Furthermore, a report by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry estimates that the "digital deficit" resulting from reliance on overseas platforms will reach 3.4 trillion yen in the first half of 2025 alone, about 2.6 times the amount from 10 years ago, and could balloon to a maximum of 45 trillion yen by 2035 if left unchecked.JIPDEC surveyHowever, the utilization rate of AI-generated organizations among companies remains at 361 TP3T, with a gap of approximately 30 percentage points between large companies (59.11 TP3T) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (around 301 TP3T).

What I realize when I look at these figures is that the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots," whether at the national or corporate level, will widen on its own if left unchecked. And whether you can become one of the "haves" within a company ultimately depends on each individual working there—whether you are used as a tool or you become the one who makes the most of the tools. I feel this is not just about other companies, but a question that applies to our own companies and the careers of each individual working there.

I've spent a quarter of a century feeling like I'm "climbing a downward escalator."

I've been in this industry for over a quarter of a century, and to be honest, I've witnessed countless irreversible changes. By the time I joined the company, phototypesetting had already disappeared, and digital production using Illustrator and Photoshop was the norm. We went from burning data onto MOs or CD-Rs and sending them by courier to online submission, completely disrupting the workflow that relied on postal schedules. Each time, I've seen the skill sets that were once valid become meaningless.

The business world is always relative, and I often describe it as "like climbing a descending escalator." Even if you feel you're working hard, if your surroundings don't change, you'll relatively fall behind. I feel that with AI, the speed at which that escalator descends has become overwhelmingly faster and greater than with any previous technological change.Change itself is frightening. But being afraid of change and stopping in the moment is actually even scarier.This is my honest impression after having witnessed all the technological changes up to now.

In an era where "minimum quality" is rising, what will become priceless?

I feel that the introduction of AI has raised the bar for the "minimum quality" of all tasks. In the world of design, the level of output that AI produces in just a few minutes is improving year by year, and honestly, there are more and more instances where I think, "I could do this much myself." AI can check text proofreading with greater accuracy, and its speed is overwhelming.

A clear example is the consulting field. When AI emerged, it was said that consultants' jobs would disappear. In reality, the industry itself hasn't vanished. However, the money previously paid for "information packaging"—gathering industry information, narrowing down issues, and compiling them into slides with quantitative evidence—has definitely decreased. This is because we now live in an era where clients can obtain the information they want, in the format they want.

Things that anyone can do no longer command a price. This applies to design, consulting, and even branding support work like ours. That's precisely why I believe the value of unique expressions that break conventions and the sensitivity to read intangible "atmospheres" will only increase.

Will you remain a subcontractor, or will you take the lead in the experiment?

In response to this question, there is something we are actually trying. Up until now, the role of the Japanese subsidiary has been more of an assistant role.LH&creatives Inc., a subsidiary in the Philippines.We deliberately redefined it as a "Lab." We'll first experiment with rich, digital-art-like expressions in the Philippines, and then re-import the results back to Japan. It's the opposite of what we've done before.

To be honest, I also wanted the Japanese staff to feel a little sense of urgency. It's too late to act only when there's demand. We need to increase our options before we're asked. And this experiment is also an opportunity for the members in the Philippines. I later discovered that many of their reasons for changing jobs were "I want to challenge myself with new technologies."

Will we remain dependent on overseas platforms and AI, or will we take the initiative to conduct our own experiments and hold the upper hand? This difference, like the structure of sovereignty struggles between nations, will surely widen little by little, but steadily.

To those who can take on this as their own business, not as "sheep"

One phrase that has been commonly used within the company for a long time is,No sheep neededThere is a saying, "Sheep are people who don't move unless they are told to, and who don't proactively seek out information." The "proactive" attitude of waiting for instructions and listening to the next instruction, and the "initiative" attitude of leaning forward and making suggestions oneself, may seem similar, but they are completely different.

The ability to form hypotheses like "maybe it's like this" in situations where there are no right answers, to work diligently and try again and again. We call this "Entrepreneurial spiritWe call it that. It's not that we want you to start your own business, but rather, it's about whether you can take on the work in front of you not as a task given to you by someone else, but as your own "business." Especially in this era of digital colonization, we want to expand our repertoire together with people who can think about the meaning of our existence as their own responsibility.

In this era, it's possible to unknowingly entrust national sovereignty, corporate sovereignty, and even the sovereignty of individual careers to someone else. That's why we want to continue experimenting and learning together with people who don't fear change, but instead seek to find their own value within change.