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April 01, 2025
 

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TECH

A worker at a Kongo factory in Kashima, Kumamoto Prefecture, carefully processes an aluminum plate using a forming press.
BUSINESS / Companies / Regional Voices: Kyushu
Jan 28, 2025
Companies in Kyushu struggle to enter TSMC’s supply chain
One report shows that firms in the region make up less than 10% of Japanese companies doing business with TSMC or its unit in Japan.
Engineers with Chinese startup DeepSeek built a competitive AI model despite U.S. attempts to curtail China’s tech development, raising questions about the effectiveness of Washington’s trade curbs.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 28, 2025
DeepSeek’s AI model tests limits of U.S. restrictions on Nvidia chips
Powerful AI software from the Chinese startup indicates its engineers built a competitive model despite U.S. attempts to curtail Beijing's tech development with trade curbs.
Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant last week that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 28, 2025
DeepSeek sparks global AI selloff, with Nvidia losing around $593 billion
Chinese startup DeepSeek launched a free AI assistant that it says uses less data at a fraction of the cost of incumbent services.
China's DeepSeek carries far-reaching implications for the global tech industry and supply chain.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 27, 2025
Why is the AI world freaking out over China's DeepSeek?
DeepSeek has far-reaching implications for the global tech industry, upending the widespread belief that the future of AI will require ever-increasing amounts of power.
Fujitsu and the National Institute of Informatics have launched a full-scale industry-academia collaboration to curb the spread of disinformation, including deepfakes created through generative artificial intelligence.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Jan 27, 2025
Japan launches industry and academia tie-up to combat online disinformation
Nine companies and academic institutions aim to put an integrated system for combating false information into use by March 2026.
Google's logo is seen outside the Google Bay View facility in Mountain View, California, on Aug. 13.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 27, 2025
Google pushes global agenda to educate workers and lawmakers about AI
A key priority, one executive said, comes in building out educational programs to train the workforce on AI.
Spotify signage on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 2
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 27, 2025
Universal and Spotify ink multiyear deal
A joint statement said the two firms "will collaborate closely to advance the next era of streaming innovation."
The U.S. head office of TikTok in Culver City, California
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 26, 2025
White House in talks to have Oracle and U.S. investors take over TikTok
Under the deal, ByteDance would retain a stake in the company, but data collection and software updates would be overseen by Oracle.
Advertisements on Threads will come from a "handful of brands” and appear only in the U.S. and Japan to start, according to a post Friday from Instagram boss Adam Mosseri, who called the move a "test.”
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 25, 2025
Meta’s Threads to show ads for the first time in U.S. and Japan
It’s not clear what the revenue potential for Threads will be long term, but the service will benefit from Meta’s existing pool of advertisers.
Mark Zuckerberg’s push to loosen moderation policies at Meta puts the company on a collision course with regulations in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 24, 2025
Zuckerberg's newfound libertarianism is worrying Brazil
Meta's loosened moderation policy puts it on a collision course with regulations in Latin America’s largest economy.
"We will demand more than in the previous year to fulfill our role as a leading industry in Japan," Masashi Jinbo, head of the union, said in a news conference in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 23, 2025
Japan's electronics unions to seek ¥17,000 pay hike
"We will demand more than in the previous year to fulfill our role as a leading industry in Japan," union group head Masashi Jinbo told a news conference.
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.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on Stargate, as Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman look on in the Roosevelt room at the White House.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 22, 2025
SoftBank to help fund and lead Trump-backed Stargate AI project, a $500 billion venture
The president said it will be the largest AI infrastructure ever built and that it will help counter technology threats from China and other countries.
Staff members of the Kyoto-based company Mitsufuji stand near a small-scale model of a prototype hangar tent for electromagnetic shielding and wearable gadgets at the Vietnam Defense Expo 2024 in Hanoi on Dec. 19.
JAPAN
Jan 22, 2025
Japan hunts for dual-use goods makers to aid military expansion
Cultivating a homegrown defense industry was a key plank of Japan's ¥43 trillion military build-up strategy launched in 2022.
Ayumu Hirano competes at the X Games Oslo in 2016.
MORE SPORTS / Snowboarding
Jan 22, 2025
Was that a 900 or 1080 on the halfpipe? X Games can now ask AI.
During the snowboard SuperPipe competitions, video cameras will capture the moves of each athlete, and AI will provide an unofficial score for the routine.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
BUSINESS
Jan 20, 2025
Meta's move to halt fact-checking program in U.S. prompts concern
Instead of using trusted media organizations to fact-check, Meta plans to use "community notes" to check content.
A message welcoming users back and thanking U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is displayed on the TikTok app on a smartphone Sunday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 20, 2025
TikTok restoring U.S. service after Trump says he will stall ban
Trump said he would "extend the period of time before the law's prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security."
After months of legal tussles, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a law that would ban TikTok in the name of national security.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 19, 2025
TikTok shuts down U.S. access as Trump seeks app's reinstatement
Only months after overwhelmingly backing the law, lawmakers are now fretting about the ban, with all eyes on whether Trump can swoop in and find a way to save the app.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated. The ban is set to take effect just one day before his inauguration, and while it has been reported that President Joe Biden won’t enforce the ban on day one, the decision on what to do long-term will become Trump’s problem almost immediately.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 18, 2025
TikTok’s fate rests on Trump after U.S. Supreme Court upholds law
U.S. President -elect Donald Trump’s potential role in any plan to save TikTok remains both intriguing and complicated.
Most of the grant funding for U.S. President Joe Biden's ambitious Chips and Science Act has been awarded, and the initiative has spurred more than $400 billion in planned company investments. But much of the job remains unfinished — and broader upheaval in the chip industry will only add to the challenges.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 18, 2025
Biden’s chips team hands off $52 billion program to a skeptical Trump
Before the election, Donald Trump described the Chips Act as "so bad” and suggested tariffs would be a better solution.
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.

Podcast

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

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone. 
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
By Johan Brooks

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