Governments across the world may be fretting over the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation on employment, but Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday his government does not fear the technology.

Japan is struggling with a declining and aging population, and sluggish growth. Abe said AI could actually help the country to grow.

"Machines equipped with AI, or machines that are essentially robots no longer perform only narrow … functions … the machines of tomorrow will be tasked with solving … (a) multitude of challenges," Abe told an audience at the CeBIT technology trade show in Hannover, Germany, on Sunday.

"Japan has no fear of AI. Machines will snatch away jobs? Such worries are not known to Japan. Japan aims to be the very first to prove that growth is possible through innovation, even when a population declines," the prime minister said. Japan has taken a leading role in the development of robotics, with some of its biggest companies like SoftBank releasing products.