{"id":49178,"date":"2026-06-29T04:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/49178\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T04:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T04:47:10","slug":"japans-new-ai-police-chief-takes-on-us2-billion-scam-epidemic-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/49178\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s new AI police chief takes on US$2 billion scam epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

She has a young woman\u2019s voice, a friendly face and a police chief\u2019s badge. Her name is \u201cAIko\u201d and she may be Japan<\/a>\u2019s most unconventional weapon in a war against fraud that cost the country a record US$2 billion last year.AIko \u2013 a blend of the abbreviation for artificial intelligence<\/a> and \u201cko\u201d, the Japanese feminine name suffix \u2013 made her public debut in late May on Osaka Prefectural Police\u2019s YouTube<\/a> channel, warning viewers about the tactics used by scammers<\/a> posing as police officers, investment-promoting celebrities and romantic partners.<\/p>\n

She delivers her warnings in plain, direct language aimed squarely at an audience that traditional crime prevention campaigns have struggled to reach, according to Kyodo News.<\/p>\n

AI\u5b50\u7f72\u9577\u306e\u9632\u72af\u6559\u5ba4\uff01\u52d5\u753b\u3067\u5b66\u3076\u8a50\u6b3a\u5bfe\u7b56<\/p>\n

\u201cNo police officers show their IDs and arrest warrants online,\u201d AIko says in a video titled \u201cChief AIko\u2019s Crime Prevention class\u201d, walking viewers through real examples of scam exchanges between fraudsters and their victims.<\/p>\n

AIko was created by Toshinori Hirano, a visiting professor at the Kagawa University Cyber Security Centre who had previously advised Osaka police before developing the avatar. He told Kyodo he hoped to \u201cheighten crime prevention awareness by utilising technology\u201d.<\/p>\n

The move also reflects a recognition that fraud is no longer a problem confined to the elderly: in Osaka alone, under-65s made up close to half of all victims last year, according to preliminary police data cited by Kyodo \u2013 a finding that has pushed authorities to target younger audiences through platforms they already use.<\/p>\n

\"JapaneseJapanese police officers stand guard in Tokyo on June 21 as football fans gather after the national team\u2019s victory in a World Cup match. Photo: ReutersUS$2 billion epidemic<\/p>\n

AIko\u2019s launch comes as Japan grapples with a fraud epidemic that cost victims of social media-based investment fraud and other confidence scams more than a record US$2 billion last year, NHK reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She has a young woman\u2019s voice, a friendly face and a police chief\u2019s badge. Her name is \u201cAIko\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[33582,15990,33584,33585,8,33580,33578,592,18396,261,33,33579,33583,2792,5108,33581],"class_list":["post-49178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-aiko","tag-cambodia","tag-digital-minister-hisashi-matsumoto","tag-gennai","tag-japan","tag-japan-times","tag-kagawa-university-cyber-security-centre","tag-kyodo-news","tag-myanmar","tag-nhk","tag-nihon","tag-ohama-takeshi","tag-osaka-prefectural-police","tag-prime-minister-sanae-takaichi","tag-southeast-asia","tag-toshinori-hirano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}