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September 01, 2025
 

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AI

A screenshot from the website for Alt's AI conference, which was canceled after the company disclosed an investigation into its sales figures.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 1, 2025
Don't send in the clones: AI event nixed as Alt accounts get reality check
An artificial intelligence conference set for May 16 that was to introduce digital clones has been canceled after the company involved was accused of accounting irregularities.
Tuna Scope assessing the quality of yellowfin tuna meat in Okinawa Prefecture in August 2022
BUSINESS / Companies
May 1, 2025
Dentsu to promote tuna-grading AI tech overseas
Dentsu hopes that countries with tuna fishing industries will adopt the technology, called Tuna Scope, which has been put into practical use in Japan only recently.
Toyota and Alphabet’s Waymo, along with Toyota’s automotive-technology division Woven, will seek to develop a new autonomous-driving platform, according to a joint statement Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 30, 2025
Toyota to partner with Alphabet’s Waymo on autonomous technology
Toyota and other major Japanese firms have poured money into artificial intelligence and autonomous driving for years, but have struggled to keep pace.
A woman takes part in an OpenNyAI field trial in Bengaluru, India, in April 2023. The AI trial was aimed at helping some of the nation’s poorest people access money from government anti-poverty programs.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2025
Will AI close or widen the development gap?
The social, economic and political effects of AI will not naturally bend toward inclusion or equity across the global economy.
The Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion was issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce a week before the end of the Biden administration. The Trump administration is now trying to alter it.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 30, 2025
Trump officials eye changes to Biden's AI chip export rule
Removing the tier system could open the door to using U.S. chips as an even more powerful negotiating tool in trade talks.
Sony is considering spinning off its semiconductor unit, sources say.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 29, 2025
Sony weighs chip spinoff that Dan Loeb called for years ago
The chip business makes industry-leading image sensors that go into cameras inside Apple and Xiaomi phones.
AI-generated content — including those made using pictures of real people, which are known as “deepfakes” — is not explicitly covered under Japan's current legal framework, nor are human-drawn illustrations that depict child abuse.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal / FOCUS
Apr 27, 2025
Japan struggles with gray zone of AI deepfakes exploiting children
AI-generated content is not explicitly covered under the country's legal framework, nor are human-drawn illustrations that depict child abuse.
The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday to promote the development of artificial intelligence technology and take steps to mitigate its risks.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 25, 2025
Japan's Lower House passes AI promotion bill
AI "will be the foundation of economic and social development and is an important technology from the viewpoint of security," the bill said.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks during a campaign rally in Laval, Quebec, Canada, on Tuesday. Carney was the subject of at least 16 books published in March and listed on Amazon, according to a review of the site on April 16.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 23, 2025
AI floods Amazon with strange political books before Canadian election
The development adds to concerns about how new technologies are affecting the information voters receive during the election campaign.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba receives a gift from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the start of their meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 22, 2025
Nvidia CEO urges LDP to build up Japan’s AI infrastructure
Japan has pledged to increase government and corporate funding in AI to over ¥50 trillion ($350 billion) in the next 10 years.
Sumitomo and SBI Holdings will invest in FPT Smart Cloud Japan, which oversees FPT’s Japan AI data center.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2025
Sumitomo and SBI Holdings to take stakes in Vietnam’s FPT AI unit
FPT is setting up a Japan AI data center, with an initial investment of $200 million.
Executives from U.K. self-driving startup Wayve and SoftBank attend an event in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 22, 2025
U.K. AI startup Wayve makes Japan debut after Nissan partnership
Earlier this month, Wayve said it was joining forces with Nissan Motor to help build the next generation of its ProPilot driver-assist system.
Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot, crosses the finish line after securing the first position during the E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing on Saturday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 22, 2025
All hail the rise of the humanoid robots
Robotics is another of the critical emerging technologies, mastery of which will be central to 21st-century economic leadership.
The Google logo at CES 2024, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas in 2024.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 22, 2025
Google could use AI to extend search monopoly, DOJ says as trial begins
The search giant argues that subjecting it to the DOJ's proposed remedies "would hold back American innovation at a critical juncture."
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang answers questions from reporters after his meeting with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS
Apr 21, 2025
Nvidia CEO lobbies Japan to generate more power to fuel AI
The two discussed how Japan is particularly well-positioned to develop AI, given its leadership in robotics and industrial manufacturing.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on April 9.
WORLD / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 19, 2025
How AI is aiding Trump's immigration crackdown
The practice is raising fears that risks to accuracy and privacy could put almost anyone in danger of getting caught up in the crackdown.
Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot, runs across the finish line while securing the first position during the E-Town Humanoid Robot Half Marathon, in Beijing on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Apr 19, 2025
In China, humanoid robots stride into the future with world's first half-marathon
The 21-kilometer event is billed as a groundbreaking effort to test the limits of bipedal robots.
A green wireframe model covers an actor's lower face during the creation of a deepfake video in in London in 2019.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 17, 2025
They sold their likeness to AI companies — and regretted it
Scores have ended up with the unpleasant surprise of seeing themselves feature in deepfakes, dubious adverts or even political propaganda.
A U.S. security report cites DeepSeek’s ties to Chinese government interests as "significant.”
WORLD / Politics
Apr 17, 2025
DeepSeek poses ‘profound’ security threat, U.S. house panel claims
The committee urged Nvidia to hand over information on sales of chips that the Chinese startup may have used to develop its breakthrough chatbot model.
A Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) logo is displayed on a wall in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Tuesday. A recent rout saw TSMC’s forward price-to-earnings ratio hit a two-year low at one point.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 16, 2025
TSMC and ASML outlooks to reveal depth of tariff pain and AI angst
Both have borne the brunt of a broader market selloff, weighed down by both U.S. tariff threats and doubts over future AI demand.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
Philippine bid to acquire used Japanese warships gains steam
Tokyo is looking to transfer Abukuma-class vessels to the Philippines as part of broader efforts to boost the defense capabilities of like-minded neighbors amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the region.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
How Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helps their animals cope with extreme heat
A polar bear at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Thursday. The Arctic animals are among the most vulnerable species to Japan's scorching summer heat and zookeepers have to take a number of precautions in order to keep them safe.
‘Mount Fuji Lawson’ becomes a symbol of Japan’s overtourism problem
A couple poses for a wedding photo in front of a Lawson in the town of Kawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, on Aug. 25.
How Tokyo's Ueno Zoo helps their animals cope with extreme heat
A polar bear at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo on Thursday. The Arctic animals are among the most vulnerable species to Japan's scorching summer heat and zookeepers have to take a number of precautions in order to keep them safe.
Japan is warming up to tattoos — just not permanent ones
Tattoos have a complex history in Japan, but new types of temporary ink are letting locals curious about body art experiment without the commitment.
Japan to launch broad review of immigration policies amid rise in foreign nationals
Foreign tourists at Narita Airport in June. A report released Friday stresses that Japan is at a turning point and that current ad-hoc measures on immigration are no longer sufficient.
Japan looks to build drone ‘shield’ in record defense budget request
A group of Ground Self-Defense Force service members discuss drone operations and capabilities at a joint static display during the Orient Shield 24 opening ceremony at the Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido in July last year.

Podcast

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

Longform

Tetsuzo Shiraishi, speaking at The Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, uses a thermos to explain how he experienced the U.S. firebombing of March 1945, when he was just 7 years old.
From ashes to high-rises: A survivor’s account of Tokyo’s postwar past
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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