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April 25, 2025
 

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AI

"Agent" technology goes further than chatbots, not just performing parlor tricks and spitting out plausible responses to queries but actually doing the kinds of repetitive tasks that today are handled by millions of humans.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 14, 2024
Big Tech's new AI obsession: 'Agents' that do your work for you
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls agents "the next giant breakthrough," while Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff says the shift "is really the rise of digital labor.”
Cables connect to servers at a data center. The rapid global adoption of AI has triggered a boom in demand for the energy-hungry data centers on which the technology depends, putting power grids to the test.
JAPAN
Dec 12, 2024
Fossil fuels initially needed for AI boom, Tepco adviser says
While electricity demand has been trending downward in Japan, experts have suggested that the decline could be reversed as the nation builds more data centers.
Nvidia will end the year with about 4,000 people in China, up from just about 3,000 at the start of 2024, people familiar with its operations said.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 12, 2024
Nvidia steps up hiring in China to focus on AI-driven cars
The tech giant will end 2024 with about 4,000 employees in China, after starting the year with around 3,000.
Fewer and fewer people are using the administrative consultation system, which will mark its 70th anniversary next year.
JAPAN / Society
Dec 12, 2024
Japan aims to raise awareness of administrative consultation services
Fewer people are using the administrative consultation system, which will mark its 70th anniversary next year.
Sharp revealed in June that it had started talks on building an artificial intelligence data center with KDDI and system integrator Datasection. On Monday, Sharp said the project will proceed without Datasection.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 10, 2024
KDDI to build AI data center on Sharp's LCD plant site
Construction of the data center in the city of Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, will commence by March, with KDDI aiming to begin operations in fiscal 2025.
A smartphone with a displayed Nvidia logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 10, 2024
Nvidia hit with China probe in global tech war escalation
The move against Nvidia is Beijing’s latest riposte to escalating U.S. technology curbs.
Ant and Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 9, 2024
Jack Ma pushes AI drive in rare speech since Ant crackdown
The co-founder of Ant and affiliate Alibaba showed up to talk about the next 20 years of the fintech company and the opportunities brought on by artificial intelligence.
David Sacks during an event in San Francisco in 2016. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday that Sacks would take on the role of "White House A.I. & Crypto Czar."
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Dec 7, 2024
Trump's crypto team takes shape but questions remain over who will drive policy
Some analysts said the creation of a crypto czar, a new role, sowed ambiguity over who would drive policy and flagged the potential for clashes.
A low pressure storm system known as a "bomb cyclone" moves off the coast of the U.S. Pacific Northwest and western Canada in a composite satellite image on Nov. 20.
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 7, 2024
Google introduces AI agent that aces 15-day weather forecasts
They report that their new model can, among other things, outperform the world’s best forecasts meant to track deadly storms and save lives.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced in a statement on Thursday that David Sacks will be the "White House A.I. & Crypto Czar."
WORLD
Dec 6, 2024
Trump appoints former PayPal exec David Sacks as AI and crypto czar
Sacks is considered a member of the "PayPal Mafia" of former workers and executives at the digital finance firm that includes prominent Trump supporters.
The Cultural Affairs Agency in the city of Kyoto
JAPAN
Dec 4, 2024
Japan to use AI to tackle online manga and anime piracy
The Cultural Affairs Agency's plan will have AI scour the web for sites pirating manga books and anime, using an image and text detection system.
Facebook parent company Meta is asking developers to submit proposals to deliver 1 to 4 gigawatts of nuclear energy, starting in the early 2030s.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 4, 2024
Meta seeks new nuclear reactors to run U.S. data centers
The Facebook parent is asking developers to submit proposals to deliver 1 to 4 gigawatts of reactor capacity, starting in the early 2030s.
ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode is able to seamlessly go back-and-forth between languages with live, human-sounding responses and minimal errors.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 4, 2024
ChatGPT is now a creepy cultural chameleon
This uncanny tool that can speak 50 languages with human-like candor has the potential to forever change how people around the world interact with AI.
Generative artificial intelligence search technology is proving valuable for searching corporate databases.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2024
Japanese firms begin adopting generative AI for information searches
AI technology is proving valuable for searching corporate databases and providing concise, natural-sounding answers.
The goal of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, building on years of evolving trade restrictions, is to slow China’s domestic development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2024
U.S. tightens curbs on China’s access to AI memory and chip tools
The new measures included exemptions for key allies such as Japan and the Netherlands.
The advent of “relationship bots” will change the world’s oldest profession, but the need for human connection will persist.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 1, 2024
AI will transform sex work but not intimacy
There is already at least one relationship bot called Replika and more will surely follow. And they will only get better.
Sharp's plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, that has ceased production of large liquid crystal display panels for television, a symbolic end to the company's signature business.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 1, 2024
Sharp marks end of era with halt to large LCD panel production
Now owned by a Taiwanese investor, Sharp has also scaled back production of small and medium-sized LCD panels used in smartphones and personal computers.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives to deliver a policy address during a Lower House session in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 29, 2024
Japan earmarks extra ¥1.5 trillion for chips and AI this year
Japan is fighting to keep up in a global spending spree on cutting-edge tech led by China and the U.S.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group took a 15% stake in WealthNavi earlier this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 29, 2024
MUFG considering bid for Japanese robo-adviser WealthNavi
MUFG took a 15% stake in WealthNavi earlier this year
A statue of Konosuke Matsushita in the grounds of the Konosuke Matsushita Museum in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2024
‘God of management’ comes back to life as an AI model
Panasonic icon Konosuke Matsushita is one of the most respected by the Japanese business community.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Japan must correct Trump’s false data for trade talks, says Kono
Former Foreign Minister Taro Kono
Japan wants to 'separate' tariff and security issues. That may be tough.
Japan’s chief tariff negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, poses with a "Make America Great Again" cap at the White House in Washington on April 16.
Social media helps fuel growing 'sex tourism' in Japan
People walk down a street in the red-light entertainment area of Kabukicho in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo on March 31.
Japan set to fine cyclists on the spot for rule violations from 2026
Under new rules, those who use smartphones while riding a bicycle would be subject to the maximum fine of ¥12,000.
Amid uncertain tariffs, is now the time to buy a new iPhone?
An Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward in September. Prices for the newest iPhone models start at around ¥100,000 ($700) in Japan.
Built in a flash, Osaka Expo pavilions wrestle with sustainability
Kengo Kuma & Associates oversaw the construction of the Malaysia pavilion, which is encased in interwoven rows of bamboo that appear to ripple.
Japan weighs using U.S. rice imports as tariff negotiation tool with Trump
A restaurant owner pours California-grown Calrose rice into a rice cooker at his restaurant in Tokyo
Is Japan’s parliament ready to welcome more youth to its ranks?
Lower House lawmaker Kai Odake in his Tokyo office on Wednesday
Crow meat, goat tartare: Mauvaise Herbe raises its game
Crow meat, shaped into a ball and attached to a foot of the bird, is one of the peculiar offerings of game at Mauvaise Herbe.

Podcast

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

Longform

Visitors walk past Sou Fujimoto's Grand Ring, which has been recognized as the largest wooden structure in the world.
Can a World Expo still matter? Japan is about to find out.
By Tomoko Otake

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones
Tsukuba massif granite, one of the world’s few heritage stones

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