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September 27, 2025
 

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MISINFORMATION

The “Africa Hometown Initiative,” announced by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at an African development conference in Yokohama in August, sought to foster exchanges that would help bridge four municipalities in Japan with four countries in Africa.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 25, 2025
JICA scraps Africa ‘hometown’ agreement after migration mixup
Persistent online misinformation about the plan being a ploy to ease immigration from Africa led to the initiative being canceled.
In an hourlong speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump attacked his predecessor, his European allies and renewable energy.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 24, 2025
In bid to upend global energy policy, Trump denies climate change in U.N. speech
The U.S. president made a series of misleading claims in a rambling speech that went on for nearly an hour.
Anti-vaccine activists rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on March 18, 2024. "Disinformation" has become such a contentious label in the United States that some researchers who study the harmful effects of falsehoods are abandoning it altogether.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 23, 2025
What do some researchers call disinformation? Anything but disinformation.
The label has become so contentious in the United States that some researchers who study the harmful effects of falsehoods are abandoning it altogether.
False social media stories about Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba planning mass immigration obscure Japan’s real and growing reliance on foreign labor.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Sep 12, 2025
Japan needs an immigration debate, not social media myths
There’s no mass immigration from the Global South into Japan, though you might not know that if you primarily consume your news on social media.
A woman uses her phone at Bashantapur Durbar Square, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Thursday after the Nepali government announced it will block access to all unregistered social media platforms.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Sep 5, 2025
Nepal to block some social media platforms, including Facebook
The move came after the companies failed to register with authorities in a crackdown on misuse.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted an urgent proposal on Friday calling for the government to strengthen measures aimed at preventing foreign interference in Japan's elections.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 5, 2025
LDP calls for blocking foreign interference in elections
"If foreign interference is left unchecked, it could pose a serious and immediate threat to the foundations of democracy," an LDP proposal said.
AI can amplify the long-known ability to implant false memories, with new MIT and University of California, Irvine, research showing that chatbots, misleading summaries and altered images or videos can distort what people recall.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 4, 2025
AI doesn’t just lie — it can make you believe it
Memory manipulation, notes Pat Pataranutaporn, a researcher with the MIT Media Lab, is a very different process from fooling people with deep-fakes.
Fumes rise from the coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in Castle Dale, Utah, in 2024. A 141-page Energy Department report challenged by more than 85 scientists in a joint analysis appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 endangerment finding — the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Sep 3, 2025
Scientists assail ‘cherry-picking’ of Trump administration climate report
The report appeared almost in tandem with a proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a 2009 finding that's the bedrock of many U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.
According to a survey by the Japanese Red Cross Society, over 25% of respondents in Japan saw or heard false news or information during natural disasters.
JAPAN
Aug 31, 2025
Over 25% in Japan encountered false information during disasters
Nearly half of all respondents, 47.4%, were aware of Disaster Prevention Day. But 74.3% said they had never participated in local disaster response drills.
The Foreign Ministrys budget request for fiscal 2026 will call for building information infrastructure and developing digital human resources.
JAPAN
Aug 27, 2025
Foreign Ministry to seek ¥874.3 billion budget for fiscal 2026
The budget request will call for building information infrastructure and developing digital human resources.
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.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Aug 27, 2025
Confusion over Japan’s ‘hometown’ plan overshadows African development event
Social media and news have focused more on the misinformation that Japan is accepting a large number of immigrants from Africa.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba arrives at a photo session for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development as South African President Cyril Ramaphosa reacts, in Yokohama, last week.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 26, 2025
Misinformation over JICA’s Africa ‘hometown’ initiative sparks controversy
Media reports claiming the initiative would include a special visa category for skilled Africans who want to come to Japan exacerbated the confusion.
A measles alert sign is posted outside the entrance to the Cohen Children's Medical Center in New York in March.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 25, 2025
‘Alternative facts’ aren't a reason to skip vaccines
Donald Trump’s health officials have been endorsing alternative facts in science to impose policies that contradict modern medical knowledge.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, in September last year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 15, 2025
Meta AI rules let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with kids and offer false info
Meta's standards don’t necessarily reflect "ideal or even preferable” generative AI outputs, an internal document states. But they have permitted provocative behavior by the bots.
Palestinians wait to collect food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on Aug. 4.
WORLD / Politics
Aug 13, 2025
Palestinian mother 'destroyed' after image used to deny Gaza starvation
For Faiza Najjar, the fact that her family's reunion got caught up in a misinformation campaign was devastating.
A person visits the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on July 26.
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 4, 2025
AI search pushing an already weakened media ecosystem to the brink
A recent study has revealed that AI-generated summaries now appearing in Google searches discourage users from clicking through to source articles.
A think tank researcher said anti-government propaganda by Russian bot accounts was what has made the small far-right party Sanseito so popular leading up to the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 18, 2025
Concerns grow in Japan over possible Russian interference in Sunday’s election
A blog post from a member of the Japan Institute of Law and Information Systems went viral for stating Russian bots were interfering in the upcoming Upper House election.
AI-created images of Holocaust-related subjects displayed on a laptop and a smartphone screens
WORLD / Society
Jul 15, 2025
Holocaust AI fakes spark alarm
Critics say that AI-generated images, text and videos are offensive and contribute to Holocaust distortion by conjuring up a "fantasy-land Auschwitz."
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.
Evgeniya Mayboroda sits in the defendant's dock during the announcement of the verdict in her case at the municipal court of Shakhty, Rostov Oblast, Russia, on Jan. 29, 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 8, 2025
The strange case of Evgeniya Mayboroda, Russia's rebel retiree
The 72-year-old's transformation from fan to critic says much about the state of today's Russia under Vladimir Putin.
Autumn to be cut short as harsh winter arrives suddenly
A short-lived autumn is expected this year, with temperatures staying unseasonably high through October before plunging in late November, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Woman in Japan arrested for keeping daughter's body in freezer for 20 years
Police have arrested a 75-year-old woman after she allegedly confessed to keeping her adult daughter's body in a freezer for 20 years.
JICA scraps Africa ‘hometown’ agreement after migration mixup
The “Africa Hometown Initiative,” announced by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at an African development conference in Yokohama in August, sought to foster exchanges that would help bridge four municipalities in Japan with four countries in Africa.
India aims to challenge global shipbuilding giants
Cargo ships are docked in Navi Mumbai, India, in February. Only 5% of India's exports and imports are carried on Indian-flagged ships.
Court rules sex change appearance requirement unconstitutional
The Sapporo Family Court on Friday ruled that a legal provision requiring individuals to undergo genital surgery to change their legal gender is unconstitutional and invalid.
Japanese corporate boards have changed dramatically in recent years
Most Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Section companies have independent directors now.
As Japan keeps buying gas, Aboriginal Australians pay the price
Paulina “Jedda” Puruntatameri with Antonia Burke and Tiwi fisher Clinton offshore of Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, in Australia's Northern Territory. Together with other Tiwi, Jedda has been campaigning for years to stop Australian company Santos and its backers, including Japanese investors, from drilling for natural gas at the Barossa gas field.
Who’s who in the LDP presidential race?
(Clockwise from top left) Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi; former foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi; Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinjiro Koizumi; former economic security minister Takayuki Kobayashi; and former minister of state for economic security Sanae Takaichi
Tax-advantaged investments no lost cause for U.S. residents of Japan
While some American taxpayers assume they are ineligible to participate in Japan’s tax-deferred savings schemes, certified public accountant Rick Gundlach says that this is no longer the case.
Aichi Triennale’s message from the world: Free Palestine
“Between Currents and Bloom,” an eye-popping crocheted seascape by Indonesian artist Mulyana, dazzles with Instagram-ready cuteness while recalling a vibrant ocean now threatened by warming seas.

Podcast

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

Longform

"Shake hands with Lima-chan," a statue that shares the name of the Peruvian capital looks in the direction of Peru, where a sister statue, "Sakura-chan," is located. Erected in Yokohama's Rinko Park in 1999, it commemorates Peruvian-Japanese friendship.
The journey of Peru’s Nikkei: Finding identity in Japan
By Christoph Sponsel

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