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October 24, 2025
 

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AI

Meta hired Ruoming Pang, who ran Apple’s AI models team, with a pay package in the hundreds of millions over a several-year period, according to sources.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025
Meta poached Apple’s Pang with pay package of over $200 million
Apple didn’t try to match Meta's offer to engineer Ruoming Pang as it far exceeded pay at the company for leaders other than CEO Tim Cook.
A Phoenix quantum computer made by Atom Computing, in Berkeley, California. Japan is advancing in quantum research but lags in commercialization. To compete globally, it must shift from a research-focused approach to one driven by industry, investment and real-world applications.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jul 9, 2025
Japan needs to take the quantum-technology leap
Policymakers must focus on specific sectors, test new ideas through public-private partnerships and present practical examples.
Vast improvements in AI-generated video is shaking the foundations of the creative industry.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 8, 2025
AI video becomes more convincing, rattling creative industry
To measure the progress of AI video, you need only look at Will Smith eating spaghetti.
BRICS leaders including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (front row left), Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (second left), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center), Chinese Premier Li Qiang (second right) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov join hands during a group photo at the bloc's summit in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
WORLD / Politics / ANALYSIS
Jul 8, 2025
BRICS fills soft-power vacuum as Trump-led U.S. retreats
The 10-nation BRICS grouping of major emerging economies has stepped up its efforts on issues such as AI, health care and climate change.
Samsung, South Korea’s largest company, reported preliminary operating profit of 4.6 trillion won ($3.3 billion) in the June quarter, a roughly 56% drop from a year ago.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 8, 2025
Samsung profit halves amid delays to certification for advanced AI chips
The company has yet to secure certification from Nvidia for its most advanced product, creating an unusually long lead time for rivals in the highly lucrative space.
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been recruiting top artificial intelligence engineers for the company’s new superintelligence division.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 8, 2025
Apple loses top AI models executive to Meta’s hiring spree
The departure of Ruoming Pang marks another setback in the iPhone maker’s struggling efforts in the emerging space.
One of Aigen's solar-powered autonomous AI Element robots demonstrates how it can hammer down on specified targets at Bowles Farm in Los Banos, California, on June 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 6, 2025
AI robots fill in for weed killers and farm hands
Weeds are becoming immune to herbicides, but a shortage of laborers often leaves chemicals as the only viable option.
Waseda University is one of 14 institutions in eight countries found to have used hidden prompts in research papers.
JAPAN
Jul 4, 2025
Hidden AI prompts in academic papers spark concern about research integrity
The discovery raises serious concerns about the integrity of the research in the papers and highlights flaws in academic publishing.
The rise of China’s DeepSeek-R1, a low-cost, high-performance open-source AI model, has challenged the belief that only nations with vast computational resources can lead in artificial intelligence, signaling a shift in global AI power dynamics.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jul 3, 2025
A ‘Sputnik’ moment in the global AI race
Much remains uncertain about DeepSeek’s LLM and its capabilities should not be overestimated — but its release nevertheless has sparked intense discussion.
Recent preprint research suggests students who use ChatGPT to write essays engage in less critical thinking, with different areas of their brains connecting less often.
WORLD / Society
Jul 3, 2025
'Writing is thinking': Brain study prompts debate on ChatGPT use in education
The recent preprint research suggests students who use ChatGPT to write essays engage in less critical thinking, with different areas of their brains connecting less often.
Softbank Corp. is offering $1 billion of dollar bonds in the unit’s first U.S. high-grade deal.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 1, 2025
SoftBank unit set to raise $1 billion from its first dollar bond
SoftBank Corp.’s five- and 10-year notes are set to respectively price 0.9 and 1.10 percentage points above Treasuries.
This digital visualization shows the small modular nuclear reactor being developed by Rolls-Royce SMR, which is set to be the first in the U.K. A widely cited IEA report says global data center electricity demand will more than double by 2030 to 945 TWh — more than Japan’s current total usage.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 1, 2025
Data centers and small reactors could change Asia’s nuclear dynamic
An estimated 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day and storing and processing all that information creates virtual volcanoes.
Apple Intelligence would rely more heavily on outside technology under a plan being considered by the company.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 1, 2025
Apple weighs using Anthropic or OpenAI to power Siri in major reversal
A switch to Anthropic’s Claude or OpenAI’s ChatGPT models for Siri would be an acknowledgment that Apple is struggling to compete in generative AI.
Taiwan, under constant threat from AI-powered disinformation by authoritarian regimes, has emerged as a global leader in digital democratic defense.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 30, 2025
Taiwan provides a model for digital defense of democracy
As the U.S. and others struggle to confront AI-driven disinformation, Taiwan’s resilience has become its latest key export.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg's controlling interest in the tech titan frees him to have the company invest heavily in artificial intelligence efforts.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 30, 2025
Meta spending big on AI talent but will it pay off?
OpenAI boss Sam Altman recently lamented that Meta has offered $100 million bonuses to engineers who jump to Zuckerberg's ship, where hefty salaries await.
Racks of servers being tested at the new Amazon Web Services facility in New Carlisle, Indiana, on June 3
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 30, 2025
AI data-center boom could destroy Big Tech's net-zero plans
The tech sector faces a "climate strategy crisis" as its data centers demand ever more electricity and water to power growing fields, such as artificial intelligence.
Recent incidents by the world's most advanced artificial intelligence models of lying, scheming and even threatening their creators highlight a sobering reality: more than two years after ChatGPT shook the world, AI researchers still don't fully understand how their own creations work.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2025
AI is learning to lie, scheme and threaten its creators
More than two years after ChatGPT shook the world, AI researchers still don't fully understand how their own creations work.
"We have access to cutting-edge wafers, and our ability to provide cutting-edge process technology will become overwhelmingly faster than Chinese makers,” said Tokyo Electron CEO Toshiki Kawai.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2025
Tokyo Electron shrugs off fears of Chinese rivals catching up
Technology at the company is advancing faster than its Chinese rivals’ due in part to close collaboration with contract chipmakers.
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during the company's annual general meeting in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2025
Masayoshi Son hints at succession plan while chasing AI ambition
Son said he plans to hold SoftBank’s reins another 10 years, but added he has several candidates for its next chief in mind.
Pat Gelsinger (left), former Intel CEO and general partner at Playground Global, and Peter Barrett, co-founder and general partner of Playground, in Tokyo on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2025
Former Intel CEO Gelsinger has some advice for Japan's Rapidus
He encourages the chipmaker to distinguish itself in some way from TSMC.
For three key Cabinet posts, Takaichi turns to an eclectic trio
Shinjiro Koizumi — son of a former prime minister and rival to the current one — was appointed defense chief after falling short in his bid for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency earlier this month.
Rare female yakuza walks path to redemption in Japan
Retired yakuza Mako Nishimura sorts fallen leaves during a clean-up activity at the Gifu Gokoku shrine in Gifu Prefecture on Sept. 28.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.
The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
New ‘immigration minister’ post signals Takaichi Cabinet’s priorities
Kimi Onoda, economic security minister and minister for harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals, arrives at the prime minister's office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Japan's first female PM promised more women in her Cabinet. She picked two.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi poses with members of the newly formed Cabinet on Tuesday night.
AI-optimized cybercrime increasingly targeting Japan
A recent cyberattack on brewer Asahi Group Holdings resulted in the company suspending shipments.
K-pop idol Chanyeol does J-pop his own way on ‘Hibi’
South Korean singer Chanyeol made his Japanese-language solo debut with the EP “Hibi,” which features six tracks inspired by his love of Japanese music.
In pictures: The day Japan’s glass ceiling finally cracked
Takaichi, surrounded by LDP influencers
London exhibition perhaps sumo's most successful trip abroad
With the recent sumo jaunt to London being essentially a goodwill exercise, <i>rikishi</i> were far more outgoing and relaxed than normal.
Nakatsu keeps its cool as gentrification looms
Shunsuke Takahashi, owner of the cafe Hood by Vargas, says the Osaka neighborhood of Nakatsu feels brighter and calmer with the influx of new businesses.

Podcast

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

Longform

The byzantine process for converting a foreign driver’s license into a Japanese one entails mountains of paperwork and significant stamina — unless you're a lucky license holder from a country or region where these requirements are waived.
Driving in Japan isn’t hard. Getting the license is.
By Thu-Huong Ha and Mike Fu

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo
Foreign wrestlers have a long history in sumo

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