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July 03, 2026
 

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TECH

An employee inspects integrated circuit boards at a factory in Suzhou, China. The U.S. has declined to impose additional tariffs on chip imports despite accusing China of engaging in unfair trade practices in the semiconductor sector.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 24, 2025
U.S. holds off on new Chinese chip tariffs amid Trump-Xi truce
The U.S. government has floated the possibility of future ones.
An official from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology explains the agency's plan to conduct a test to excavate the deep seabed off Minamitorishima and collect deep-sea mud, in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 24, 2025
Japan to test deep-sea extraction of rare-earth mud
The test is set to be the first of its kind in the world, reaching depths of about 6,000 meters, according to JAMSTEC.
As AI gains autonomy, its potential for unpredictable actions and the pursuit of self-preservation poses serious risks to human life, democracy and global security.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2025
AI agents threaten free societies
That is precisely why AI agents pose risks to democracy. Systems that are trained to reason and act without human interference cannot always be trusted to adhere to human commands.
Electrical infrastructure for servers at Meta’s data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Data centers can use as much electricity as a small city, straining local power grids.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2025
The Pentagon and AI giants have a weakness. Both need China’s batteries, badly.
Long a problem for industries such as auto manufacturing, Chinese battery dominance is now being seen as a national security threat.
A research group led by Kyoto University has developed a Christian bot to help broaden access to Christianity in Japan.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Dec 24, 2025
After developing a Buddhist bot, Kyoto University develops Christian bot
Initially, its use will be limited to “believers under clergy guidance or by the general public within church settings.”
Japan hopes the upcoming visit of United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will "deepen friendly and cooperative relations in a broad range of areas," Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara said on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 23, 2025
UAE president to visit Japan for the first time in 36 years
The United Arab Emirates leader will meet with Emperor Naruhito and attend a state banquet at the Imperial Palace, and he is to hold talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
While China has made rapid advances in artificial intelligence, its structural constraints remain significant.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 23, 2025
Why China can’t win the AI-led industrial revolution
No industrial revolution has ever emerged outside advanced democratic capitalism, and that is no accident.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (center) attending a Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 23, 2025
Japanese government adopts first basic plan on AI
The plan stipulates that Japan will “create reliable AI” while balancing technological innovation and risk management, with an aim to offer the best environment for AI development.
Ting Cai, head of Rakuten Group’s artificial intelligence team, has the task of creating AI systems that would augment the company’s many businesses at a minimal cost.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 23, 2025
Rakuten AI boss diverges from Big Tech in prioritizing low cost
The Tokyo-based company is expanding its AI team under the stewardship of a Google veteran and building models with a focus on cost efficiency.
A worker installs battery packs into an electric vehicle chassis at the vehicle assembly lines of Geely Automobile's Zeekr Factory in Ningbo, China, in March. Chinese firms are on track for a 75% jump this year in global shipments of lithium-ion battery cells for energy storage, according to one estimate.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Dec 22, 2025
China’s power reforms and global data center buildout usher in battery boom
Chinese firms have exported more than $65 billion worth of storage and electric-vehicle batteries this year, cementing their dominance in the sector.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo in February.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 20, 2025
SoftBank races to fulfill $22.5 billion funding pledge to OpenAI by year-end
The “all-in” bet on OpenAI is among the biggest yet by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, as he seeks to improve his firm’s position in the race for artificial intelligence.
Documented evidence shows schools that implement smartphone-free policies see measurable improvements in academic performance and student well-being, even within a single semester.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 19, 2025
It’s time for Japan to ban smartphones in schools
Excessive screen time creates addiction comparable to substance abuse, but it is more nefarious in that it impacts people in unseen ways, unlike tobacco or alcohol.
TikTok said it signed binding agreements to create a U.S. joint venture majority-owned by American investors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 19, 2025
TikTok says it signed agreements for new U.S. joint venture
CEO Shou Chew said deals with Oracle, Silver Lake and MGX have been signed, with a closing date of Jan. 22, 2026.
The Rapidus booth at the Semicon Japan exhibition in Tokyo on Wednesday. The exhibition is scheduled to continue through Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 18, 2025
Rapidus announces new artificial intelligence design tools
The chipmaker, which already uses artificial intelligence in certain aspects of its business, expects its integration to enable it to cut design time and cost.
Honda will suspend output in Japan on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6, a spokesperson said Thursday, highlighting the lingering fallout of the global chip shortage.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 18, 2025
Honda to halt production at plants in Japan and China due to chip shortage
The Japanese carmaker has been hit hard after China blocked Nexperia — owned by Chinese company Wingtech Technology — from exporting products made at its local plants.
Generative AI models are trained on publicly accessible creative content yet offer little to the artists, musicians, coders and others who produce it.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 18, 2025
AI thrives on unpaid creative labor
Generative AI models are trained on publicly accessible creative content yet offer little to the artists, musicians, coders and others who produce it.
The National Police Agency plans to warn against the obscene use of AI at delinquency-prevention lectures at schools and other events.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 18, 2025
Over half of deepfakes of underage victims made by schoolmates, Japanese police say
The National Police Agency for the first time has released information on minors who became victims of sexual deepfakes, or obscene fake images created using generative AI.
Resonac Holdings Chief Executive Officer Hidehito Takahashi
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 17, 2025
Chip-sector linchpin Resonac seeks to tap China’s AI ambitions
Tokyo-based Resonac, which supplies crucial chemicals used to make cutting-edge chips, has bolstered production capacity in China.
Recruit Holdings and Indeed.com CEO Hisayuki Idekoba
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 17, 2025
AI-assisted hiring will drive Indeed’s growth, Recruit CEO says
The job-search portal’s head said the business is using AI to help companies optimize their talent-acquisition approach.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman in San Francisco in June
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 16, 2025
Despite soaring valuation, uncertainty clouds the outlook for OpenAI
“Big Short” investor Michael Burry has likened OpenAI to Netscape, which ruled the browser market in the 1990s only to lose to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Why is the yen so weak and what can Japan do about it?
Japan spent ¥11.7 trillion ($73 billion) between late April and late May to prop up the weak yen.
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

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