Fuji TV will use generative AI in every live-action drama from October 2027
Japan's Fuji TV says all its live-action dramas will use generative AI from October 2027, from fake blood to helicopter-free aerial shots, to cut time and cost.
Japanese TV is about to look a little different behind the scenes. Fuji Television, one of the country's major commercial broadcasters, plans to use generative AI in all of its live-action dramas starting in October 2027.
It would be the first Japanese broadcaster to go this far.
What happened?
Fuji TV will use tools such as Google's video generator Nano Banana across its drama production. The company set up a dedicated team in September and received training from an AI video production company.
It is already testing the approach on Kyumei Byoto 24-ji (a hospital drama currently on air). In a surgery scene, the spurting blood was made with AI. In another, an aerial shot of an explosion site was generated instead of filmed from a helicopter.
Previously, a scene like that meant shooting real liquid or hiring visual-effects (VFX) artists. According to Fuji TV, using AI cut the time needed by 70 to 80 percent compared with VFX.
Why now?
Money, mostly. Japan's terrestrial broadcasters are losing viewers to mobile devices, and advertising income is shrinking with them. In the last fiscal year (April 2025 to March 2026), programme production budgets at the five major commercial networks were 12 percent lower than nine years earlier.
Other networks have already dipped a toe in. TBS used AI for its hit drama VIVANT, and Nippon TV did the same for Tokyo Mikoninja. Fuji TV is the first to make it standard for every live-action drama, so others may follow.
What about actors?
Fuji TV says it will not train AI on actors' faces. That echoes Netflix, which said in July that generative AI had been used in about 300 of its titles, mostly for editing and processing. Netflix also published guidelines that ban entering personal data and using actors' likeness or voices without permission.
What's next?
The full rollout starts in October 2027. Until then, expect more AI-made shots in the dramas already on air. Viewers will be the judge of whether they notice the difference.
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