Fuji Television plans to use generative AI in all its live-action dramas from October 2027

Fuji Television plans to use generative AI in all of its live-action drama productions from October next year, the Nikkei reports, according to the Seoul Economic Daily. It would be the first Japanese terrestrial broadcaster to adopt AI across all of its dramas.

The broadcaster, a unit of Fuji Media Holdings, plans to use tools including Google's Nano Banana. It set up a dedicated team in September and has been receiving technical training from an AI video production company. Its current drama "Emergency Room 24 Hours" already uses AI for scenes of blood spurting during surgery, cutting the time needed by 70% to 80% compared with visual effects, and for an aerial shot of an explosion site that would otherwise have needed a helicopter.

Fuji Television expects AI to lower production costs as advertising revenue declines; spending on programme production at Japan's five commercial broadcasters in the year to March 2026 was 12% lower than nine years earlier. It has adopted a policy of not training AI on actors' faces.