Japan’s government and ruling camp started discussions Wednesday to reduce corporate tax for companies that make investments in Internet of Things-related technologies, as part of tax system reform for fiscal 2018.

The proposed tax break is aimed at helping companies with labor shortages improve their productivity through the IoT use.

Subject to the corporate tax cut would be investments in not only sensors, servers and software necessary to achieve Internet connection but robot machine tools and artificial intelligence, informed sources said.

The sources also said that companies can receive the tax break only on investments in IoT-related facilities and equipment with sufficient safety measures, because the risk of cyberattacks on connected devices is growing.

Furthermore, beneficiary firms would be required to submit numerical targets for productivity improvement, they said.