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August 31, 2025
 

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DATA CENTERS

SoftBank is scouting a number of potential data center sites to serve as a flagship for Stargate, weighing their access to water, power and telecom networks.
BUSINESS
Aug 18, 2025
Foxconn to operate SoftBank’s Stargate AI server site in Ohio
SoftBank will supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies will make AI data center-related equipment.
A new Facebook data center is under construction in Eagle Mountain, Utah, in May 2019. Manufacturers and builders are reaping windfalls from the AI-driven data center surge.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 18, 2025
The AI building boom is bound to bust
For now, the boom has room to run. The introduction of artificial intelligence into the workplace and society will match the rollout of electricity and the internet.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been frustrated by the quality of his company's past AI efforts, so has been investing heavily in the energy, computing power and talent needed to compete in the fast-moving AI race.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 15, 2025
Meta to spend billions building gigawatt-size data centers for AI
Frustrated by the quality of Meta’s past AI efforts, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been investing heavily in energy, computing power and talent to compete in the fast-moving AI race.
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.
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.
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.
Microsoft is set to use energy from new reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
ENVIRONMENT
Apr 10, 2025
AI surge to double data center electricity demand by 2030, report says
AI can also unlock opportunities to produce and consume electricity more efficiently, the International Energy Agency said in its first report on the technology's implications.
Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Bangkok in August 2023. Thaksin has vowed cheaper power in Thailand to allow the country to emerge as a data center hub.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 15, 2025
Thaksin vows cheaper power to turn Thailand into data center hub
Thailand aims to slash electricity costs by more than 25% by next year to emerge as a hub for data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
A sign featuring the logo of Germany's Federal Ministry For Economic Affairs And Climate Action, at the construction site of the Northvolt Drei EV battery gigafactory in Heide, Germany, on Oct. 15, 2024
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 12, 2025
If Europe builds the gigafactories, will an AI industry come?
The hope is that local firms like France's Mistral will use the factories to create AI models that operate in line with EU safety rules.
Construction for a new Microsoft data center in East Wenatchee, Washington, in November 2024.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 10, 2025
What DeepSeek? Big Tech keeps its AI building boom alive.
After DeepSeek’s breakthrough rattled markets, U.S. tech giants doubled down on massive data center investments to stay ahead in AI.
Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, speaks at a White House event with President Donald Trump, left; Softbank chief executive Masayoshi Son, third from left; and Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle, at the White House on Jan. 21.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 9, 2025
How Sam Altman sidestepped Elon Musk to win over Donald Trump
After helping President Trump get elected, Elon Musk was poised to dominate the nation’s AI policies. But someone got there before him.
Panasonic will restructure low-growth businesses and make changes to its employment structure, according to a recently released statement.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 5, 2025
Panasonic shares jump most in 11 years on restructuring plans
The Osaka-based company will restructure low-growth businesses and make changes to its employment structure.
Bosses at artificial intelligence companies are concerned about finding enough electricity to keep servers running at data centers.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 31, 2025
AI’s electricity demand means new tech is coming to grids
Startups have an opportunity to develop and deploy grid-enhancing technologies, including pumping more power through cables.
A street in Chitose, Hokkaido. Annual power demand for Hokkaido is expected to increase by 1.2% on average into fiscal 2034, according to a report from the Organization for Cross-Regional Coordination of Transmission Operators.
BUSINESS
Jan 22, 2025
Japan sees data center-driven power boom in Hokkaido
Annual power demand for Hokkaido is expected to increase by 1.2% on average into fiscal 2034, a report has said.
Japan aims for nuclear power to make up 20% of its energy mix by 2040. However, the restart of the country's reactors is complicated by issues such as local opposition, as is the case for the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 10, 2025
Robust new nuclear target for Japan is shrouded in uncertainty
A new plan envisions nuclear power making up 20% of Japan's energy mix by 2040. But hurdles to reactor restarts and rising electricity demand cast a shadow on such ambitions.
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.
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.
Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear power plant's No.1 reactor (right) in Fukui Prefecture, which surpassed 50 years of operation in November. On the left is the No. 2 reactor.
JAPAN
Dec 9, 2024
Renewables eyed as biggest source of Japan's energy mix in fiscal 2040
The government is also expected to aim for a 20% share for nuclear energy as part of efforts toward decarbonization.
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.
Emissions rise from the Royal Dutch Shell Plc Norco Refinery in Norco, Louisiana, on June 12, 2020.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Nov 27, 2024
How AI and cloud computing may delay the transition to clean energy
The pace of clean-energy deployments is moving too slowly to keep up with the new technology's demands.
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.
Top Japan trade negotiator canceled U.S. trip over rice, report says
Ryosei Akazawa
Most Japanese teens struggling with school find end of summer ‘painful’
Some 93.1% of Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life said they felt like they “wanted to disappear from the world" at the end of summer vacation ahead of the start of a new term, according to a recent survey released by Yokohama-based nonprofit Daisan Kazoku.
Most Trump tariffs are not legal, U.S. appeals court rules
Workers hang a large poster of U.S. President Donald Trump on the facade of the Department of Labor headquarters building in Washington on Wednesday.
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 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.
YouTube Music Weekend is where Japan’s internet-born performers go global
Headlining the second day of YouTube Music Weekend is Vocaloid artist Kikuo, who, with 1.46 million YouTube subscribers, is one of the most popular artists in the genre.
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.
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.

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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