Tag - tech

 
 

TECH

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.
U.S. pressure to slow Beijing’s advances in making semiconductors led the Netherlands to ban exports to China of ASML’s second-most advanced category of machinery at the start of the year. But ASML continues to service machines that were bought before the restrictions were in place.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 18, 2024
ASML falls as outlook clouded by risk of U.S. export curbs
ASML shares plunged 11% in Amsterdam on Wednesday to €870.90 ($952), wiping out €42.7 billion of market value — its biggest decline since March 2020.
Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple and Nvidia supplier, closed 2.4% lower on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Jul 17, 2024
Trump says Taiwan should pay for defense, sending TSMC stock down
The U.S. is Taiwan's key international supporter and arms supplier, although there is no formal defense agreement between them.
Passenger aircraft operated by All Nippon Airways at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. ANA has developed an autonomous driving vehicle to tow cargo containers.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2024
Tokyo airport trials driverless cargo vehicle
The trial, the first of its kind at a Japanese airport, is part of government-backed efforts to innovate the air transport industry.
Nikon President Muneaki Tokunari in Tokyo on Wednesday
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2024
Nikon fields ‘remarkable’ demand for older chip tools in China
Nikon is making a strong marketing push in China with its new argon-fluoride lithography machines, released earlier this year.
The potential of AI in fighting climate change is immense. It can accelerate progress by redesigning industrial processes, optimizing transport systems, maximizing energy efficiency and significantly reducing emissions.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 16, 2024
Embracing the AI-energy-climate nexus
AI's potential to fight climate change is immense. It can accelerate progress by redesigning industrial processes, maximizing energy efficiency and reducing emissions.
Yuki Kusumi, CEO of Panasonic Holdings, during an interview in Tokyo last week
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 16, 2024
Panasonic managers need ‘sense of crisis’ over low profitability, says CEO
The comments are unusually harsh in Japan, and especially at Panasonic, where the notion of lifetime employment was embraced for years.
ASML's headquarters and factory in Veldhoven, Netherlands
WORLD
Jul 16, 2024
ASML-backed university is caught in the middle of U.S.-China chip war
The Netherlands is facing increasing pressure from Washington to stem Beijing’s chip-making efforts.
The production plant of GCL Technology in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, China, on July 2
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 16, 2024
Xi Jinping’s great economic rewiring is cushioning China’s slowdown
Tech advances and a resulting export boom have helped to keep economic growth within reach of its targeted pace of around 5%.
Storage tanks at the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project controlled by oil companies Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies in Norway. The Norwegian government is funding 80% of the initial investment for the state-of-the-art facility.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 14, 2024
A giant carbon dump gives glimpse into net-zero future
As the cost of renewables declines at pace with fossil fuel use, the need for carbon, capture and storage tech will diminish, making cost reductions a challenge.
Sharp is soliciting applicants for an early retirement program at Sakai Display Products.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 13, 2024
Japan's Sharp to shed 500 jobs at Osaka plant via early retirement
The plant, run by wholly owned subsidiary Sakai Display Products, is set to discontinue production of large liquid crystal panels for television sets.
When Microsoft took a non-voting, observer position on OpenAI's board in November, it triggered unease among antitrust watchdogs in the European Union, Britain and the United States over how much control it exerts over the artificial intelligence startup.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 11, 2024
Microsoft ditches OpenAI board observer seat to avert antitrust scrutiny
The move comes amid concerns among British and U.S. antitrust watchdogs over Microsoft's influence over OpenAI and the latter's independence.
Electronic waste — also known as e-waste — from computers in a junk shop in Metro Manila, Philippines
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 11, 2024
U.N. warns digital economy drive is damaging the environment
The U.N. agency called for sustainable strategies to counter the growing environmental toll digitalization creates, particularly in developing countries.
BUSINESS
Jul 10, 2024
Tokyo residents seek to block building of massive data center
Residents of Akishima are concerned the center will threaten wildlife and cause pollution among other issues.
Japan's excessive dependence on certain countries for chip imports is a risk to supply networks, government white paper has warned.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jul 9, 2024
Government white paper flags Japan's risks of import dependencies
The paper stressed the importance of import source diversification, to prevent excessive dependence that poses a risk to supply networks.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?