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August 29, 2025
 

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APPS

The ByteDance logo at the company's office building in Shanghai in 2023. The company plans to offer to buy back current employees shares at a price 5.5% higher than it offered in a previous repurchase program about six months ago.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 28, 2025
TikTok owner ByteDance sets valuation at over $330 billion in planned buyback
The latest buyback at a higher valuation will come as ByteDance consolidates its position as the world's largest social media company by revenue.
Elon Musk (left) in Los Angeles in 2024 and Open AI CEO Sam Altman in Seoul in February. Elon Musk's companies xAI and X filed a sweeping U.S. antitrust lawsuit on Monday against Apple and OpenAI, alleging the tech giants formed an illegal partnership to stifle competition in artificial intelligence and smartphone markets.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 26, 2025
Musk sues Apple and OpenAI, saying they hurt AI competition
Musk is alleging the tech giants formed an illegal partnership to inhibit rivalry and innovation in artificial intelligence and smartphone markets.
Andrew Bosworth, Meta’s chief technology officer; Bob McGrew, an adviser at Thinking Machines Lab and OpenAI’s former chief research officer; Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technology officer; and Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer at a military ceremony in Arlington, Va., in June 2025. The four current and former executives were pronounced lieutenant colonels in a new unit, Detachment 201, which will advise the Army on new technologies for potential combat.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 11, 2025
Silicon Valley is in its ‘hard tech’ era
Instead of the tap-to-pay apps of a decade ago like Clinkle and Bump, young companies are now making unmanned aerial drones stocked with AI-guided Barracuda cruise missiles.
Shintaro Matsue (right), head of the International Furikake Association, holds an enlarged package of <i>furikake</i> in Jakarta on July 9.
JAPAN
Aug 5, 2025
'Furikake' app to help manage children's health in Indonesian
After downloading an app featured on furikake product packaging, children input data like their height and weight, then do academic drills, with the reward being manga.
A new law set to take effect in December to promote competition in the smartphone app market bans Google and Apple from excluding other companies' app stores from phones that use their operating systems.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 30, 2025
Japan releases guidelines for IT giants regarding smartphone apps
The guidelines prohibit companies like Google and Apple from using data obtained through their operating systems to develop products with competitive advantages.
A high school student uses social media applications in November 2024.
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2025
EU states to test age-check app to limit children's access to online services
The European Commission has unveiled a prototype of the app that Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain will customize and launch within several months.
Grok, a chatbot made by xAI, on Tuesday made antisemitic comments on billionaire owner Elon Musk's social media platform, X.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 10, 2025
Europe’s clash with Musk’s xAI escalates after Grok’s rants
The chatbot on Tuesday made antisemitic comments on social media platform X.
Shingo Kato, assistant manager at Homechigiru Driving School in Ise, Mie Prefecture, rides in a training vehicle with a smartphone equipped with the school’s translation app.
JAPAN / Regional voices: Chubu
Jun 30, 2025
Translation apps help break language barriers at Chubu driving schools
Some driving schools have refused enrollment of foreign nationals with limited Japanese skills, sources have said.
Regarding news genres that respondents want to avoid, with multiple answers allowed, war and other conflicts were mentioned by 18.9%. "News that is meant to be touching or news that foments anger" was cited by 18%.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 26, 2025
Almost a fifth of people in Japan may avoid news, industry survey suggests
When asked why they avoid news, with multiple answers allowed, 60.8% of those surveyed said it makes them feel depressed and sick.
U.S. President Donald Trump is granting a third reprieve to TikTok from enforcement of a congressionally mandated ban that was supposed to take effect in January.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 18, 2025
Trump to extend TikTok sale deadline for third time, White House says
The U.S. president will extend the June 19 deadline for 90 days.
Japan will be the newest addition to the list of countries where TikTok Shop is available, which already includes the U.S. and the Philippines.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 17, 2025
TikTok Shop to launch e-commerce service in Japan as soon as this month
The service, already available in several other countries, allows users to purchase promoted products directly from the social media app.
A woman weeps as she holds a poster of TikTok star Sana Yousaf during a protest to condemn violence against women, after Yousaf was killed for rejecting a man's proposal in Islamabad.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jun 16, 2025
'This is a culture': TikTok murder highlights Pakistan's unease with women online
TikTok is wildly popular in the nation, and women have found both audience and income. But as views have surged, so have efforts to police the platform.
A registration system linking local governments with the so-called connected population — nonresidents who regularly interact with regional areas — is designed to encourage people living in urban areas to play active roles in rural communities amid their shrinking populations.
JAPAN / Politics
Jun 15, 2025
Japan considers new system to connect urban and rural populations
The system aims to help those in overpopulated cities to play more active roles in rural communities with shrinking populations.
A woman near the Kremlin in Moscow on May 19
WORLD / Politics
Jun 9, 2025
Russian intelligence says it collects WeChat data. What does that mean?
The disclosure highlights the rising level of concern about Chinese influence in Russia as the two countries deepen their relationship.
At a warehouse managed by online grocer BigBasket in central Mumbai, employees work with military-like precision to pull off deliveries in just 10 minutes.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 26, 2025
In India's congested cities, delivery apps cash in
Delivery apps have faltered elsewhere in recent years, but sales in India have soared from $100 million in 2020 to an estimated $6 billion in 2024.
Then-U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz checks his mobile phone while attending a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington on April 30.
WORLD / Politics
May 22, 2025
Hacker behind U.S communication breach stole data from across government
The discovery potentially raises the stakes of a breach that has already drawn questions about data security in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Although Japan's rate of cashless transactions remains relatively low compared with those of other countries, the share of such payments in personal consumption has surpassed 40% for the first time.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
May 21, 2025
Cashless payments top 40% of consumer spending in Japan
The country's cashless payment penetration remains low globally, with the risk of fraud and service interruptions due to natural disasters presenting hurdles to growth.
A projected 8 million deepfakes — manipulated video or audio made using artificial intelligence — will be shared worldwide in 2025, about a fifth of which will be part of romance scams, according to cyber firm McAfee.
WORLD / Society
May 19, 2025
Deep love or deepfake: Dating in the time of AI
Scammers are increasingly using deepfakes — manipulated video or audio made using artificial intelligence — to look and sound real on dating apps.
The Apple App Store app on an iPhone on June 25, 2024
BUSINESS / Tech
May 1, 2025
Apple must halt non-app store sales commissions, judge says
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided Wednesday with Fortnite maker Epic Games over its allegation that the iPhone maker failed to comply with a court order.
Tapple, one of Japan's most popular dating apps, has launched the nation's first feature to verify a user's single status via their My Number card.
JAPAN
Apr 30, 2025
Single, or not? Japanese dating app launches relationship verification system
With Tapple boasting over 20 million users, worries about dishonest relationship statuses were common.
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.
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.
Akazawa's trip to Washington for tariff talks abruptly canceled
Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's chief tariff negotiator, had been set to fly to Washington on Thursday.
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
First Lady Yoshiko Ishiba (center, in white and blue dress) hosts an event on Japanese culture with the first ladies of African leaders on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Mitsubishi’s wind-power retreat a blow to Japan's alternative-energy goals
Wind turbines in the town of Happo in Akita prefecture. Wind power is a key part of Japan's alternative energy drive.
Virtual singer Kaf's music becomes magic in 'Kamitsubaki City Under Construction'
Virtual singer Kaf got her start in 2018 by posting songs and covers to YouTube. Now, after having performed live shows at major venues including Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan, she is turning to voice acting and starring in the new anime series “Kamitsubaki City Under Construction.”
Can anime carry the memories of World War II?
Many schools in Japan show "Grave of the Fireflies" as educational material to tell the emotionally grueling story of a boy who has no means to prevent his sister from starving to death.
In pictures: Koenji Awa Odori 2025
Japan Times
Koshien’s dark summer forces reckoning for high school baseball
Koryo High School players greet their cheering section after beating Hokkaido’s Asahikawa Shiho in the first round of Summer Koshien on Aug. 7. The school withdrew three days later as a bullying scandal enveloped the team.

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

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