Japan Calls for Urgent Countermeasures After China-Linked Influence Operation Targets PM
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Japanese authorities have called for urgent countermeasures after an OpenAI report uncovered a large-scale, China-linked influence campaign that included Japan’s prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, as a target.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara described influence operations by foreign powers as “a national security threat” when asked about OpenAI’s latest report on artificial intelligence (AI) misuse at a regular briefing on Jan. 27.
These activities “threaten the very foundations of democracy, such as free elections and free press, and we have to take countermeasures urgently,” the Japanese government spokesman said.
In a Feb. 25 report, OpenAI said it banned a ChatGPT account linked to Chinese law enforcement that attempted to use its AI tools to plan a “covert influence operation” targeting Takaichi.
OpenAI researchers said the request emerged in mid-October 2025, after Takaichi publicly criticized the human rights situation in the northern Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia.
“I cannot help but feel angry that the Chinese Communist Party’s repression continues in Southern Mongolia,” Takaichi told an Oct. 9, 2025, meeting focused on the region’s human rights condition, according to a local Kyodo News report cited in the OpenAI report.
OpenAI said that the Chinese law enforcement agent’s request included crafting a multipurpose plan aimed at discrediting Takaichi at a time when she was expected to become Japan’s first female leader after winning an election to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The proposed operation involves amplifying negative online comments about Takaichi, criticizing her proposed policy on immigration, posing as foreign residents to send complaints to Japanese lawmakers, and using fake accounts to blame her for related living costs.
Other steps in the draft plan include stirring online anger over U.S. tariffs on Japan to draw public attention away from China and spreading positive content about the situation in Inner Mongolia, according to the report.
OpenAI said it declined to comply with the requests. However, the Chinese user appears to have proceeded, as it went back days later to ask ChatGPT to refine a status report on the implementation of the anti-Takaichi operation.
In late October 2025, OpenAI researchers identified accounts posting hashtags “in small quantities” portraying Takaichi as a far-right figure and raising concerns about the impact of U.S. tariffs on Japanese agriculture.
Global Influence Operation
Besides Takaichi, the China-linked account also sought to target foreign lawmakers and Chinese dissidents, OpenAI said.“The user’s activity revealed a well-resourced, meticulously-orchestrated strategy for covert IO [influence operation] against domestic and foreign adversaries, termed ‘cyber special operations,’” OpenAI stated.
Among the main requests made by the Chinese official was to edit a periodic status report on an influence campaign against Beijing’s targets at home and abroad, especially critics of the CCP. “These updates included references to the creation of a large-scale IO capability, partially powered by Chinese open-weights AI models, and staffed by hundreds of human operators,” the report stated.
OpenAI offered several examples from more than 100 strategies aimed at silencing dissidents and critics that the user fed into ChatGPT. In one case, Chinese operators impersonated U.S. immigration officials to intimidate a Chinese dissident, claiming the dissident’s comments had breached the law. In another case, the ChatGPT user cited Chinese security officials as stating their operators had forged documents from a U.S. county court in an attempt to delete a critic’s social media account.
The OpenAI report came amid heightened scrutiny of influence operations linked to the CCP.
