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April 29, 2025
 

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TECH

Members of the Romanian Olympic women's gymnastics team check their smartphones during a training session early last month.
OLYMPICS
Aug 2, 2024
Social media trolls beware: Olympic athletes have had enough
Online abuse has become such an issue that the Japanese Olympic Committee released a statement asking fans to mind their manners on the internet.
A Samsung HBM chip
WORLD / Politics
Aug 1, 2024
U.S. weighs restrictions on China’s access to AI memory chips
The new restrictions are likely to be unveiled as soon as late August as part of a broader package that also includes sanctions against over 120 Chinese firms.
An expert panel discusses the creation of a database for all civil court rulings, on Monday in Tokyo.
JAPAN
Jul 30, 2024
Japan expert panel calls for database of all civil court rulings
The ministry plans to submit a related bill during next year's ordinary session of parliament, with a view to launching the database in fiscal 2026.
Technicians assemble a component of the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the CERN nuclear research facility in Cessy, France, in March 2007. International cooperation in science is essential for solving global challenges and maintaining innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2024
Geopolitics threatens science and societal progress
In this world, the prospect of greater controls or reduced international cooperation can only be damaging.
Samsung has won the long-awaited approval from artificial-intelligence giant Nvidia for a version of its high-bandwidth HBM3 memory chips.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 30, 2024
Samsung begins closing gap in making AI memory chips for Nvidia
The advances that include winning approval from artificial-intelligence giant Nvidia come after months of stumbles for Samsung.
Joining the revolution brought by the era-defining release of ChatGPT requires a supply of cash that only tech behemoths like Microsoft can provide.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 29, 2024
AI startups swap independence for Big Tech's deep pockets
In the past few months promising companies have seen founders and key executives quietly exit the stage to join the world's dominant tech companies.
The United Nations headquarters building is pictured though a window with the U.N. logo in the foreground in New York in 2014.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 29, 2024
U.N. cybercrime treaty faces new scrutiny
After seven negotiating sessions to date, criticism of the text has increased.
A study shows that autocracies and weak democracies are more likely to import Chinese artificial intelligence facial-recognition technology, especially during times of domestic unrest. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 28, 2024
China is exporting its AI surveillance state
Trade does not always foster democracy or liberalize regimes. Instead, China’s greater integration with the developing world may do precisely the opposite.
The Bonham Strand Trade Centre, a location housing shell companies that ship restricted military technology to Russia, according to an analysis by The New York Times, in Hong Kong on June 14
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 27, 2024
The illicit flow of technology to Russia goes through this Hong Kong address
Defying sanctions, Moscow has obtained nearly $4 billion in restricted chips since the war began in Ukraine.
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 27, 2024
TikTok’s survival is at stake in all-out fight against U.S. ban
TikTok has deployed Washington power brokers and $1,500-an-hour attorneys to fend off a new law barring the app unless ByteDance divests.
Ryo Ogawa (right), chief executive officer of Timee, and Tomoaki Yagi, chief financial officer, strike the trading bell during the company's listing ceremony at the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 26, 2024
Shares of job app firm Timee jump in Japan stock trading debut
The stock surged to as high as ¥1,855 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Growth market.
Beijing's push to integrate core socialist values into its chatbots highlights a significant challenge in China's bid to compete with the U.S. in AI development.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 26, 2024
What's wrong about ‘Chat XiPT’ is bigger than China
The difficulty of creating AI models infused with specific values will likely hurt China’s efforts to create chatbots as sophisticated as those in the U.S.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida inspects a new plant of Rapidus under construction in Chitose, Hokkaido, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 25, 2024
Kishida vows new law for next-gen chip production
Japan has decided to provide up to ¥920 billion to Tokyo-based company Rapidus, which aims to start mass production of chips in 2027.
While Japan’s media may influence global perceptions of robots as friendly and lovable, the near-future robots will likely not match the capabilities or roles depicted in TV show's like "Sunny."
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 25, 2024
Japan isn't the 'robotopia' Apple TV's 'Sunny' portrays
One of the reasons we still see relatively few robots doing the menial jobs is that human labor is cheap.
Entrepreneurs who participated in the Beyond Japan Zero to X program last year share their experiences in the United States during a meeting in May in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 23, 2024
Japanese startups advised to internationalize to get some global mojo
Occupying the No. 1 spot in the Japanese market affords many comforts, but global dominance is unlikely to be one of them.
Artificial intelligence is transforming various business sectors and the economy. But concerns about humanoid robots replacing all jobs are unfounded, as human dexterity will remain essential for the foreseeable future.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2024
AI is making robots smarter. They’ll need boundaries.
Where AI meets the physical world — and creates the potential for conflicts — is in manufacturing and logistics.
Starbucks mobile app shows an error message on Friday. A botched software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike crashed countless Microsoft Windows computer systems globally.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 23, 2024
CrowdStrike meltdown and the price of real security
Catastrophic system failure isn’t part of the equation — until it happens. Which will be occurring with increasing frequency in our deeply interconnected world.
The U.S. and its allies have accused China of supporting Russia's war in Ukraine, in part by exporting parts and equipment needed by Moscow's weapons makers, including semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 22, 2024
Illicit chip flows to Russia seen slowing in China
Both mainland China and Hong Kong are seen by the U.S. government as key global nodes for Russia to source materials for its military.
Goki Kusunoki, CEO and co-founder of Samansa, with the company's Loverse app in Tokyo on May 10. The app allows interaction only with generative artificial intelligence.
BUSINESS
Jul 21, 2024
Tiny Japanese startup is bringing AI dating to the masses
Loverse is the latest in a long line of digital solutions to Japan’s loneliness crisis.
Passengers wait at the international airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday after airlines grounded flights due to a worldwide tech outage caused by an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon sensor software, which crashed Microsoft Windows systems. 
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 21, 2024
CrowdStrike’s global outage doesn’t have to be a recurring nightmare
This time the scale is unprecedented. That should spur Microsoft and other IT firms to do more than simply administer a band-aid.
China seizes disputed reef near key Philippine military outpost
China Coast Guard officers unfurl a national flag on Sandy Cay reef, near the Philippine-held Thitu Island, in disputed waters of the South China Sea this month in this screen shot taken from Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Japan to resist Trump efforts to form trade bloc against China
As Japan gears up for the trade talks, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is also seeking to cushion the blow that the U.S. tariffs may have on the domestic economy.
As many as nine dead after driver plows into Vancouver festival crowd
An ambulance is parked at the site of the Lapu Lapu day festival, where a vehicle drove into a crowd killing several people in Vancouver on Saturday.
Arunima Mazumdar: ‘Japanese literature has a niche but deeply engaged readership in India’
Arunima Mazumdar, a New Delhi-based communications professional, began sharing her love of Japanese literature online in 2022. The platform has grown into a robust community known as Dokusha Book Club.
Japan struggles with gray zone of AI deepfakes exploiting children
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.
Expo '25 gives the world a masterclass in mascots
2025 Osaka Expo mascot Myaku-Myaku dances on the stage during the event's official opening ceremony on April 12.
Japan struggles with gray zone of AI deepfakes exploiting children
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.
‘Wildcat Dome’ challenges Japan's historical narratives
On the surface, "Wildcat Dome" tells a personal story of damaged children — now adults — bound together by tragedy. Underneath, there’s a constant undercurrent of political consequence, invisible and pervasive like radioactive particles.
Reclaiming Sanya, one meal at a time
Magokoro Yoshihira (center) is the managing director of Yui Associates, which operates the neighborhood fixtures of Sanya Cafe and Juyoh Hotel. Yusuke Takahashi (left) met Yoshihira during a difficult period in his life and now works as the cafe’s chef. Nancy Anne (right) has worked for over 10 years at Juyoh Hotel and enjoys the multicultural environment.
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.

Podcast

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

Longform

A small shrine perched atop rocks braves the waves hitting the shoreline during a storm in Shimoda, Shizuoka Prefecture. The area is under threat of a possible 31-meter-high tsunami if an earthquake strikes the nearby Nankai Trough.
If the 'Big One' hits, this city could face a 31-meter-high tsunami
By Alex K.T. Martin

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