2024 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 135-140
There is a movement among local governments to use chatbots on their websites for information provision and consultation services related to administrative services. By providing chatbot functionality, it becomes possible to provide interactive responses, making it possible to provide appropriate information and consultation to citizens who make inquiries when simply providing information on the website is insufficient. Regarding the increasing use of chatbots on municipal websites, according to Honda (2023) ``Current status and challenges of chatbot usage on Japanese city websites'', at the city level, 261 out of 792 organizations have introduced it. At the village level, 11 out of 183 organizations have already introduced chatbots, as revealed by Honda (2024), "Current status and challenges of chatbot usage on Japanese village websites." These two studies show that there is a big difference in the implementation status between cities and villages. This study focuses on Japanese towns, which were not the subject of those two studies, and discusses the current status and issues of chatbot usage on Japanese town websites.