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August 29, 2025
 

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TECH

Microsoft is among a group of tech giants that are pouring money into artificial intelligence in order to get ahead of the competition.
BUSINESS
Aug 2, 2025
The AI race has Big Tech spending $344 billion this year
Microsoft, Amazon.com, Meta and Alphabet are pouring money into artificial intelligence in order to get a leg up on the competition.
U.S. President Donald Trump celebrates after signing executive orders on artificial intelligence at the “Winning the AI Race” Summit in Washington on July 23.
COMMENTARY / World / Geoeconomic Briefing
Aug 1, 2025
Will Trump’s tech policies propel U.S. success against China?
As China mobilizes all its resources for an all-out contest for technological supremacy, the U.S. cannot afford economic inefficiencies and to push its closest partners away.
Tokyo Electron is seeing slower-than-expected recovery in demand from producers of logic chips.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 1, 2025
Tokyo Electron cuts outlook on canceled logic chip tool orders
The Tokyo-based company now sees operating income of ¥570 billion in the year to March, down from a previous forecast of ¥727 billion.
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.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jul 30, 2025
Australia adds YouTube to teen social media ban, tearing up exemption
The country's internet regulator cited a survey that found 37% of minors reported seeing harmful content on the site.
A Magic Bot Z1 by Magiclab is displayed at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference at the Shanghai World Expo and Convention Center on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2025
China’s AI strategy relies on frenzy and frenemies
China’s current AI frenzy represents the best and worst of classic capitalism: The competition propels innovation at a rapid clip, but not all of the companies will survive.
Workers remove copper from industrial wiring inside a recycling shop in Manila on June 26.
ENVIRONMENT / Sustainability
Jul 29, 2025
In the Philippines, informal e-waste dismantling poses health risks
Scavenging electronic waste for the nickel, aluminum and copper inside releases a toxic brew of chemicals, including lead, mercury and cadmium, into the air.
A man talks on a phone in front of an Apple Store in Shanghai. For the first time ever, Apple is closing a retail store in China.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 29, 2025
Apple to shutter a retail store in China for the first time ever
The company said it will shut one of two stores in the city of Dalian on Aug. 9, citing a changing landscape at the shopping complex where it is located.
The dashboard screen of a Toyota RAV4 compact crossover vehicle at an event in May
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Jul 28, 2025
Toyota’s internal inertia stifles digital transformation effort
Inside Toyota, a group of employees are worried about the company’s future in an era when a car’s software matters just as much as its sheet metal.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang speaks during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Saturday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 26, 2025
Chinese Premier Li Qiang takes aim at AI ‘monopoly’ as U.S. effort quickens
China will spearhead the creation of an international organization to jointly develop AI, the country’s No. 2 official said.
Intel says it "will no longer move forward" with projects in Germany and Poland as part of a push to save billions of dollars.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 25, 2025
Intel posts higher revenue after trimming workforce
The U.S. chipmaker said it "will no longer move forward" with projects in Germany and Poland as part of measures to save billions of dollars.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (center) responds to questions during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, China, on July 17. Nvidia is one of the companies at the heart of the global artificial intelligence movement.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 25, 2025
DeepSeek and Trump’s plan steer agenda at China’s premier AI forum
This year's edition of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference takes place at a critical juncture in the U.S.-Chinese tech rivalry.
An image of the simulation technology developed by Fujitsu
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 24, 2025
Fujitsu and Nagoya University develop AI-based tech to spread ride-hailing
The new technology will be offered to local governments struggling to secure means of transportation for elderly residents and business operators facing a shortage of drivers.
The Virtual Expo app lets users navigate a digital version of the 2025 Osaka Expo site by controlling avatars.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jul 24, 2025
Virtual access brings Osaka Expo to broader audience
The Japan Association for the 2025 World Expo hopes to bridge the "experience gap" for those who wish to visit but are unable to make the trip to the site.
Swarm Biotactics' cyborg cockroaches are equipped with specialized backpacks that enable real-time data collection via cameras.
WORLD
Jul 24, 2025
Spy cockroaches and AI robots: Germany plots the future of warfare
A wave of German defense startups is developing cutting-edge technology, from tank-like robots and unmanned mini-submarines to battle-ready cyborg cockroaches.
McKinsey’s 2025 Technology Trends Outlook, published Wednesday, says that the use of “sovereign AI” is a trend gaining significant global traction, including in Japan.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 23, 2025
Japan leans into homegrown AI amid rising competition
Japan is among the countries aiming to develop localized artificial intelligence models to target national priorities.
An Amazon Web Services data center in Ashburn, Virginia
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 23, 2025
AI should run on 100% renewable energy by 2030, U.N. chief says
A typical AI data center consumes as much power as 100,000 homes, according to the U.N., and the largest centers now being built will use 20 times that.
In an era of fierce technological and geopolitical competition, especially in AI, true scale combining size, efficiency and cooperation with allies has become an urgent strategic necessity the U.S. and the West must master to counter China’s growing advantages.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 22, 2025
The AI arms race with China demands scale. The West must think bigger.
The race to create scale is critical amid the sizzling geopolitical competition over leadership in new technologies.
In 2020, 38% of all households were single-person. That figure is projected to rise to 44.3% by 2050.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Jul 21, 2025
The rise of AI companionship in a lonely Japan
AI chatbots are becoming stand-ins for pets and partners — offering comfort, connection and raising new concerns.
Microsoft used Chinese engineers to work on U.S. military cloud computing systems under the supervision of U.S. "digital escorts" hired through subcontractors who have security clearances but often lacked the technical skills to assess whether the work of the Chinese engineers posed a cybersecurity threat, a media report said.
WORLD
Jul 19, 2025
Microsoft to stop using engineers in China for U.S. military tech support
The revelations also prompted U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to order a two-week review of Pentagon cloud deals.
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.
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.
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.
Is Kishida plotting a return of the king? Or would he rather stay a kingmaker?
Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida chairs a plenary session at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on Aug. 21.
Japanese prefectures break with labor ministry on minimum wage
The ministry of labor has suggested a 6% minimum wage increase, but most prefectures reporting so far are opting to go slightly higher.
Philippines quietly deepening ‘unofficial’ defense ties with Taiwan
Filipino soldiers take part in a flag-raising ceremony on Mavulis Island during a visit by the Philippines' Armed Forces chief of staff, in Batanes, the Philippines, in June 2023. Batanes, a group of idyllic islands at the country’s northernmost tip, sits about 160 kilometers from Taiwan.
Are 'coolcations' the answer for Japan's heat-weary tourists?
Hikers on a trail in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. As extreme heat continues to grip Japan, a tectonic shift may be underway in the nation’s summer tourism scene as more people gravitate toward cooler destinations.

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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