Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group will replace work equivalent to 5,000 administrative roles over the next decade through artificial intelligence to lift productivity and profitability, affecting roughly a third of its 15,000 clerical staff in its home country, the bank said on Friday.

The group said affected employees would not be laid off but redeployed to sales and other customer-facing functions. “We are planning to enhance our earnings capabilities by shifting human resources to our focus areas by fully utilising AI,” the company said in a statement, adding that “it is not a headcount reduction”.

According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, which first reported the plan, the bank expects AI models to reduce sharply the burden of document checks and data entry at administrative centres handling account openings, remittances and customer information. A senior executive at the group told the newspaper that “much of the human labor for administrative tasks will become unnecessary”.

The lender plans to invest up to ¥100bn, about $640m, over the three years to fiscal 2028 to develop and implement AI systems. In April, the “Administrative Group” overseeing clerical staff at its banking, trust and securities units will be renamed the “Process Design Group”, a change the company said reflects its push for AI-led operational reform.

The bank said employees currently engaged in back-office work would be reassigned to roles requiring human interaction, including sales of Nippon Individual Savings Accounts and investment trusts, as well as corporate sales and analytical support. It added that reskilling programmes would be provided to support the transition.

The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Mizuho aims to cut administrative headcount by up to one-third through redeployment, natural attrition and reduced hiring. The group has already reduced such roles by about 10,000 over the past decade through digitalisation efforts to fiscal 2025.

Japanese lenders are stepping up investment in automation while seeking to limit redundancies in a tight labour market. In October, chief executive Masahiro Kihara said he did not believe “humans will lose their value” and that staff could pursue more value-added work.

---