Asia-Pacific

As Korea moves toward its goal of commercializing Level 4 autonomous driving by 2027, the central constraint may not be technological readiness but whether the government reforms the mobility market in advance. Without regulatory changes, Korea risks deploying advanced autonomous vehicles within a closed, taxi-centered system.

The Virtual Brunei Initiative shows how small nations can use immersive technology to build digital skills, promote cultural exchange, and drive economic growth through coordinated public-private partnerships.

Japan should revise its draft AI IP code to remove technically infeasible disclosure mandates and instead adopt workable, pro-innovation transparency standards aligned with international efforts like the Hiroshima AI Process to preserve U.S. alignment and avoid deterring AI investment.

Fifty-four members of Congress told Korea’s ambassador earlier this week: Stop targeting American tech companies—or risk the U.S.-Korea alliance itself.

As Korea’s labor debate moves into digital policy, unions risk harming workers in the next generation of industries by prioritizing protections for existing jobs over preparing workers for technological transition.

Korea is trying to unlock high quality data for AI competitiveness, but its push for strict domestic data storage risks isolating developers from the global infrastructure and partnerships modern AI depends on. A more effective approach would protect sensitive data through targeted safeguards rather than blunt geographic restrictions that ultimately undermine innovation and market competition.

Seventy percent of young Koreans hold university degrees. Only 14 percent of jobs are in large firms. The most immediate concern is not jobs disappearing due to AI, but that there are too few high-quality jobs in the first place.

While the Hyundai Motor case now sits at the center of Korea’s AI jobs debate, the evidence suggests that the nation’s more immediate constraints are weak productivity growth and uneven labor-market adjustment—not large-scale technological displacement. How Korea responds will shape its competitiveness in a high-cost, aging manufacturing economy under intensifying global competition.

After South Korea reduced its tax credit for automation in 2018 from 7 percent to 3 percent for large firms, South Korean industries, on average, reduced robot installations by 28 percent compared with their Japanese counterparts.

The Trump administration’s tariff pressure reflects a transactional shift in U.S. trade policy, linking reciprocity to investment execution, regulatory predictability, and geopolitical alignment. Korea can adapt to this new playbook or absorb the economic consequences.