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September 20, 2025
 

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AI

SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund is considering cutting as much as 20% of its staff.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 19, 2025
SoftBank's Vision Fund mulls 20% job cuts after Son’s pivot to AI
The unit, which employed about 282 people as of the end of March, may shed more than 50 roles, a person familiar with the matter said.
ChatGPT owner OpenAI says it "actively works to identify and disrupt scam-related misuse of ChatGPT.”
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 19, 2025
ChatGPT was used ‘to help scammers do their thing’ at Asia fraud compound
Scammers used the artificial intelligence tool to craft convincing messages designed to trick people into parting with their money.
Chinese tech stocks have surged in past weeks, driven by a perception that the nation’s industry leaders are making steady progress in developing homegrown AI and chips.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2025
Huawei unveils AI chip road map to challenge Nvidia’s lead
Chinese tech stocks have surged in past weeks, driven by a perception that the nation’s industry leaders are making steady progress in developing homegrown AI and chips.
China's cyberspace regulator told companies this week to stop testing a Nvidia chip that can be repurposed for artificial intelligence applications.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 18, 2025
China tells companies to stop buying Nvidia’s repurposed AI chip
The move marks Beijing’s latest step to wean the country off Nvidia hardware and boost domestic alternatives.
AI systems will never be true friends, companions or agents — they are data-driven tools that can help us but must never replace real human connection or moral judgment.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 17, 2025
Artificial intelligence is not your friend
But despite the industry’s bold claims, today’s data-based systems lack the capacity for moral reasoning required to guide real-world decision-making.
Shinji Ishimaru, leader of The Path to Rebirth party, holds a news conference in August in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
New Japanese political party to install AI leader
Shinji Ishimaru, who launched the Path to Rebirth party in January, quit following a disastrous showing in recent elections.
Artificial intelligence avatar Una will appear at the U.N. pavilion at Osaka Expo later this month as part of initiatives to combat climate change.
JAPAN
Sep 16, 2025
Japan-backed AI avatar to promote climate action at expo
The anime-inspired female character, Una, was developed as part of climate initiatives supported by the Japanese government.
North Korean hackers used ChatGPT to craft a fake draft of a South Korean military identification card to create a realistic-looking image meant to make a phishing attempt seem more credible, a South Korean cybersecurity firm found.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Sep 15, 2025
North Korean hackers used ChatGPT to help forge deepfake ID
The document was used in a phishing attack on a target in South Korea, according to cybersecurity researchers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba (center) speaks at the first meeting of the government's headquarters for promoting the use of artificial intelligence and strengthening related risk management, on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 12, 2025
Japan starts discussing basic plan for AI use and development
The Japanese government hopes to finalize the basic plan by the end of this year with the aim of creating the best environment in the world for such efforts.
David Ha, the head of AI tech company Sakana AI, points at his laptop during an interview at the company's office in Tokyo on Aug. 28.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 10, 2025
Top Japan startup Sakana AI touts nature-inspired tech
Sakana aims to merge existing and new systems, large and small, to develop what it calls "collective intelligence."
Google has said that its AI Mode will soon be available in Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese globally.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 9, 2025
Google’s AI Mode to offer Japanese language support
Along with Japanese, Google said it will also gradually be offered in Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Brazilian Portuguese globally starting Tuesday.
Elon Musk takes part in a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on May 30. Musk continues to dominate Tesla’s narrative, linking the company’s future to his vision of AI, robotics and autonomous technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 7, 2025
Tesla is offering Musk a trillion-dollar ransom
Elon Musk continues to dominate Tesla’s narrative, linking the company’s future to his vision of AI, robotics and autonomous technology.
AI can amplify the long-known ability to implant false memories, with new MIT and University of California, Irvine, research showing that chatbots, misleading summaries and altered images or videos can distort what people recall.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2025
AI doesn’t just lie — it can make you believe it
Memory manipulation, notes Pat Pataranutaporn, a researcher with the MIT Media Lab, is a very different process from fooling people with deep-fakes.
While markets clearly reflect the belief that the United States is ahead in the AI arms race, early leadership does not mean victory — especially when it comes to innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2025
Who’s winning the U.S.-China artificial intelligence race?
The winner will most likely be the country that provides greater support for basic research, in which case China is better positioned for the long haul.
A research team led by the University of Tokyo’s Miyuki Harada has developed artificial intelligence models that can help deliver personalized infertility treatments by predicting the number and quality of eggs that a woman has.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 3, 2025
Japan team develops AI models to help deliver personalized infertility treatment
The group study led by a University of Tokyo researcher found their models to be more accurate than the standard method of assessing ovarian function.
Tech and social media giant Meta has enticed artificial intelligence talent from other companies, including Apple, with staggering pay increases.
BUSINESS / Tech
Sep 3, 2025
Apple’s lead AI researcher for robotics heads to Meta as part of latest exits
The Apple Foundation Models team, which the company launched last year as part of its bid to catch up in AI, has lost roughly 10 members in recent weeks.
Powdered rare earth elements collected from the seabed in October 2013, at the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 2, 2025
Japan to launch think tank for policy advice on economic security
There are concerns the government lacks a comprehensive approach to economic security, which includes critical minerals, semiconductors and artificial intelligence.
China is reshaping its AI strategy by backing domestic chipmakers and pushing startups to raise funds through stock markets, with the goal of reducing reliance on Nvidia and creating self-sufficient supply chains.
COMMENTARY
Aug 28, 2025
China gets closer to finding its own Nvidia
Cambricon has become a stock market darling, precisely because investors recognize China has a good chance to take market share in inference chips.
Anthropic, an AI startup founded in 2021, is one of the world’s most valuable private companies and competes with OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI as well as Google and Microsoft.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 28, 2025
Anthropic says attacker used AI tool in widespread hacks
The campaign demonstrated a "concerning evolution in AI-assisted cybercrime” in which a single user can operate like an entire cybercriminal team.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, in Kyiv on Tuesday
WORLD / Politics
Aug 28, 2025
Ukraine sees 'priceless' digital battlefield data trove as key to West's support
Since Russia launched its 2022 invasion, Ukraine has collected reams of meticulously logged battlefield statistics.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo
Bank of Japan to start unloading ETFs in surprise move that rattles market
BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda said it would take a century for the bank to sell all its ETFs at the pace proposed.
Over 90% of low-income families in Japan struggling to feed children
Save the Children Japan domestic program chief Sonoko Kawakami speaks at a news conference in Tokyo in July. A survey conducted by the group in June has found that over 90% of low-income households with children face food insecurity.
JAL to punish president and 36 others over pilot drinking scandal
Japan Airlines Managing Executive Officer Yukio Nakagawa (center) and others apologize after one of the airline's pilots was found to have been drinking alcohol, during a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 4.
After seven decades, is it finally time for the LDP to split up?
Signage atop the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo. Japan’s ruling party faces a tough decision over its future as it searches for a new leader to replace outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, reverse its waning popularity and reassure investors
Behold the glory of Japan’s fruit boxes
Otherwise common sights in Japan's supermarkets, the country's fruit and veggie boxes can hide surprising symbols of local pride.
World Athletics stars relish Tokyo atmosphere after COVID-hit Olympics
Organizers of the World Athletics Championships said over 500,000 tickets had been sold and that they are expecting to end the event in front of large crowds this weekend.
Japan’s front-line researchers see bright path ahead for dementia treatment
A scientist looks at scans of grains at the Memory Centre at the Department of Readaptation and Geriatrics of the University Hospital (HUG) in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 6, 2023.
Still plenty to fight for, says Japan’s team leader at worlds
Race walker Hayato Katsuki earned bronze for Japan on the opening day of the World Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Wealthy foreign nationals picking up ultimate souvenir — a condo in Tokyo
A high-end property in the fashionable Daikanyama district in Tokyo

Podcast

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

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 6th annual Sustainable Japan Award.

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