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Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 19, 2022

China's underground market for chips draws desperate automakers

A massive gray market for chips has exploded in China, populated with hundreds of middlemen where the cost of acquiring just one item can run as high as 500 times its original price.
PODCAST / deep dive
Oct 19, 2022

Japan reopens its borders. Are tourists ready to return?

Masks? Vaccinations? Yen? You're ready to come to Japan! News chief Kanako Takahara and reporter Will Fee join the podcast this week to discuss whether the country's grand reopening will help its beleaguered tourism sector.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 18, 2022

Sanctioned Myanmar tycoons find shelter in Singapore, but for how long?

Most Asian countries, including Singapore, don't support the sanctions on Myanmar. Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said they would only hurt the country's people.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 15, 2022

Brain cells in dish learn to play video game

Neuroscientists have shown that lab-grown brain cells can learn to play the classic video game Pong, and could be capable of 'intelligent and sentient behavior.'
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 14, 2022

Aoyama Gakuin students rally for second SDGs week

Aoyama Gakuin, a comprehensive educational institution in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, held its second Aoyama Gakuin Global Week from Sept. 23 to Oct. 1. AGGW is an annual event highlighting activities and projects associated with the United Nations sustainable development goals that take place on campus....
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 3, 2022

Sales data stolen from sushi chain rival shared within Kappa Create

The Hama-Sushi trade secrets in question are believed to have included data on the company's procurement costs and suppliers.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Oct 3, 2022

Video of the Beatles during 1966 Japan visit disclosed

The release came after a disclosure request filed with the MPD eight years ago by a nonprofit organization working to promote information disclosure.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 29, 2022

Watchdog recommends punishment for SMBC Nikko over alleged manipulation

The measures typically entail temporary business suspensions or orders to improve internal controls, among other things.
Mainland Chinese student Zhou Hongxu arrives for a court hearing on suspicion that he attempted to develop a spy network for China in Taiwan in March 2018.
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 5, 2023

Spies bring their China warnings in from the cold

The spy chiefs say Western nations need to safeguard technology innovation, particularly in areas like artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
A worker rides a scooter past an unfinished bridge near the center of the Qianhai new district in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Nov 16, 2023

China's not-so-special economic zone embodies a harsh new reality

Qianhai is struggling to stand out among 2,500 other special zones across China.
Yoshiko Koide, a professor at Nagoya College, and 12 female students delved deep into otaku culture to create “Otaku Dictionary Daigenkai,” a dictionary of terms from all walks of fandom.
LIFE / Language
Nov 20, 2023

Test your otaku vocabulary, from 'oshi' to 'bacon lettuce'

“Otaku Dictionary Daigenkai” has gathered the language of fandom, from idols to games and anime.
Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, arrives for a bipartisan Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum for all U.S. senators hosted by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the U.S. Capitol in Washington in September.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Nov 18, 2023

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's ouster followed debate with board

The CEO's firing came after disagreements with his board — in particular Ilya Sutskever, an OpenAI co-founder and the company’s chief scientist.
Sam Altman, then CEO of OpenAI, at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco in March
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 19, 2023

OpenAI board pressed by some investors to reinstate Sam Altman

Altman is open to returning. In one scenario under consideration, members of the current OpenAI board would step down as soon as this weekend.
Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig
WORLD / Politics
Nov 21, 2023

Canadian claims he was used by Ottawa for gathering intel in China

Beijing's 2018 to 2021 detentions of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig had plunged bilateral relations into a deep freeze.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s factory currently under construction in Kikuyo, Kumamoto Prefecture
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 21, 2023

TSMC eyes third Japan chip plant with cutting-edge 3 nanometer tech

Another plant in Japan, this one making advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) chips, would potentially turn Japan into a major global chipmaking hub.
Hidenori Izaki, one-time winner of the World Barista Championship, brings coffee to new heights at Cokuun.
LIFE / Food & Drink
Nov 26, 2023

Tasting the 'Zen of coffee' at speakeasy-esque Cokuun

Drawing inspiration from fine dining and tea ceremony, Hidenori Izaki brews coffee with exceptional hospitality and speakeasy-style mystique.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen (right) celebrates with engineer Gianpiero Lambiase after winning the Qatar Grand Prix in Lusail, Qatar, on Oct. 8.
MORE SPORTS / Auto Racing
Nov 25, 2023

Gianpiero Lambiase embraces role as man in Max Verstappen’s ear

Lambiase has helped Verstappen win 53 Grand Prix titles and three Formula One drivers’ championships in their time together.
Heidrun Holzfeind documents urban and rural scenes, such as two policemen on bicycles nonchalantly rolling down a street, in her video piece "The 49th Year." The footage is presented alongside incarcerated New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata’s writings about Japan’s highly supervised society in the exhibition "News from K."
CULTURE / Art
Nov 26, 2023

'News From K' captures the oppression of landscape

Letters from prison by New Left group leader Toshihiko Kamata reveal a sense of limbo in Heidrun Holzfeind’s new work.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 25, 2023

Japan confirms season's first bird flu case in Saga

The Saga Prefectural Government has started to cull around 40,000 chickens raised at a farm in the city of Kashima.
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2023

Japan to tighten Pacific bluefin tuna catch management

Under the plan, operators will have to report the weight and number of Pacific bluefin tuna weighing at least 30 kilograms.
Hang Dara, an electrician-turned-fisherman, passes the two active coal-fired power plants in Sihanoukville’s Steung Hav district.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy / OUR PLANET
Nov 26, 2023

Cambodia's big bet on the dirtiest fossil fuel faces major delays

Large projects are facing long delays amid uncertainty over foreign funding.
Yoshiko Koide sits in a classroom at Nagoya College where she teaches a Japanese-language observation seminar.
LIFE / Language / Longform
Nov 27, 2023

How a dictionary came to spark outrage among the web’s otaku

A project to create a reference book categorizing subcultures didn't seem to cause offense until it was packaged and sold as a dictionary.
Pages from a new Otaku Dictionary catalog the lexicons of Japan’s various subcultures.
PODCAST / deep dive
Nov 30, 2023

A problematic otaku dictionary and the Japanese approach to sitting

An “Otaku Dictionary” has Japan’s subcultures upset at an attempt to define them.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks at a high-level segment at the COP28 climate conference in Dubai on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 3, 2023

U.S. lays out plan at COP28 to slash methane emissions from oil and gas

The rules, two years in the making, were announced by U.S. officials at the United Nations COP28 climate change conference in Dubai.
Big Japanese banks are now training a generation of professional front-line staff who have little experience with rising interest rates.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2023

Staff at Japan's banks scramble to adjust to rising interest rates

Many younger employees have no expertise in dealing with the vagaries of a traditional inflationary environment.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 5, 2023

Japan defense chief says concerns linger after U.S. Osprey crew remains found

Dive teams have found the remains of five more crew members from a CV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft that crashed off southwestern Japan last week.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 7, 2023

U.S. military grounds all Osprey aircraft after Japan crash

A preliminary investigation into the crash last week indicated that problems with the aircraft — not a mistake by the crew — had led to the deaths.
FACTEV shows that a Nissan Leaf electric car driven in Hokkaido will get between 106 kilometers and 212 kilometers per charge in its first year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2023

Using big data to speed up Japan’s slow electric car transition

Gaming company DeNA has developed an EV simulation tool that can assess the lifespan and cruising range per charge of battery cars over time.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng meet for talks in Beijing on Aug. 29.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 12, 2023

The Washington-Beijing tech war is just getting started

U.S. Commerce Secretary Raimondo emphasizes the need to prevent China from accessing cutting-edge technology, citing national defense concerns.
U.S. President Joe Biden greets his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 19, 2023

Thaw in U.S.-China ties driven by domestic issues

There were no breakthroughs in Biden-Xi summit. But since then, there has been a lowering of tension and a rare sense of stability in the relationship.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes