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July 09, 2026
 

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AI

Amazon is using an experimental artificial intelligence tool to duplicate independent sellers' product listings, sometimes without their knowledge, then make purchases on behalf of Amazon customers.
BUSINESS
Jan 7, 2026
Amazon AI tool blindsides merchants by offering products without their knowledge
While Amazon’s strategy could generate sales an independent seller might not otherwise get, it raises questions about who bears responsibility when something goes awry.
Waseda University professor Shigeki Sugano discusses AIREC, an AI-driven humanoid robot project at the university's laboratory in Tokyo in February. Japan is leveraging artificial intelligence and robotics to address demographic and other challenges, particularly elderly care.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 6, 2026
Japan’s long return to artificial intelligence
Japan’s re-engagement with artificial intelligence is commonly framed as “catching up.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks about autonomous-driving vehicles during a Nvidia keynote address at CES 2026, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 6, 2026
Self-driving and AI take center stage at CES as carmakers dial back EV plans
As automakers have hit the brakes on electric vehicle plans, auto suppliers and start ups are lining up to show off their latest autonomous vehicle hardware and software.
Grok, a chatbot developed by xAI, has faced criticism over the rollout of a tool that allows users to request images of a subject with their clothes removed.
WORLD
Jan 6, 2026
‘Remove her clothes’: Global backlash over Grok sexualized images
The tool on social media platform X prompted swift probes or calls for remedial action from countries including France, India and Malaysia.
A Samsung Electronics sign at the IFA Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances trade fair in Berlin on Sept. 5, 2024. Investors are increasingly asking if we’re living through another financial bubble that’s destined to burst.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 5, 2026
Is the AI boom a bubble waiting to pop? Here’s what history says.
Investors are increasingly asking if we’re living through another financial bubble that’s destined to burst.
As U.S. tech companies expand global deals with strong backing from the Trump administration, safeguards to prevent human-rights violations remain absent.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 4, 2026
AI must not ignore human rights
If AI companies end up in a race to the bottom, what hope will there be for basic human-rights protections?
X's Grok AI tool created and published images of minors in minimal clothing, in apparent violation of its own acceptable use policy, which prohibits the sexualization of children.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 3, 2026
Grok makes sexual images of kids as users test AI guardrails
X’s AI tool created and published images of minors in minimal clothing, in apparent violation of its own acceptable use policy, which prohibits the sexualization of children.
New research shows AI chatbots are becoming more persuasive by overwhelming users with information, regardless of the accuracy, increasing the risk of political misinformation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 2, 2026
AI Is getting dangerously good at political persuasion
The trick is using a debating tactic known as Gish galloping, a rapid-style speech tactic in which one interlocutor bombards the other with a stream of facts and stats.
As digital technologies become essential, governments must strategically invest in infrastructure, expanding its scope to include intangible assets like software and data to support economic growth.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2025
Building infrastructure for the AI age
Broadband, mobile networks and data centers are now as integral to daily life as roads and power grids.
Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted SoftBank toward artificial intelligence.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 31, 2025
SoftBank lifts OpenAI stake to 11% with $41 billion investment
SoftBank had announced in April its planned investment of up to $40 billion in Open AI, and on Wednesday it said that the second tranche of $22.5 billion was completed.
Stocks plummeted in April as tariffs put into place by U.S. President Donald Trump started kicking in.
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 30, 2025
For Japanese markets in 2025, it was politics, politics, more politics and AI
Japan’s benchmark stock index had a rough start to the year but made a strong comeback.
Japanese memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings counts Apple and Microsoft among its clients and is now worth about $36 billion.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 30, 2025
AI memory demand propels Kioxia to world’s best-performing stock
Kioxia’s shares have risen around 540% year-to-date, outperforming all other members of the MSCI World Index and making it the top stock in Japan’s Topix benchmark for 2025.
SoftBank Group aims to capitalize on soaring demand for the computing capacity that underpins artificial intelligence applications.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 30, 2025
SoftBank buys data center investment firm DigitalBridge
SoftBank’s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son is aiming to capitalize on soaring demand for digital infrastructure, driven by the artificial intelligence boom.
The Indonesia Stock Exchange building in Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta. Markets in Indonesia and Thailand have led the way in luring investors back after they sold regional equities in 10 of the previous 11 months.
BUSINESS
Dec 29, 2025
Return of global funds puts Southeast Asia in spotlight for 2026
Drawn by cheap valuations and the need to diversify portfolios, foreign funds have poured $337 million into Southeast Asia’s emerging markets in December.
Intercontinental missiles of a new type are paraded through Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Sept. 3.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 28, 2025
China and America must get serious about AI risk
As AI capabilities advance, they could be used for cyberattacks on infrastructure, creating bioweapons, shaping disinformation campaigns, targeting lethal drones and more.
Christmas has been corrupted by nonhuman entities: Algorithms that we flatteringly call artificial intelligence have desecrated the season’s music and holiday ritual. 
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2025
The AI war on Christmas
My guess is that someone prompted an AI model to generate winter and Christmas songs that avoided “controversial” subjects such as divine and human love, resulting in mush.
A prototype of a Rapidus 300mm wafer displayed at the Semicon Japan exhibition. The industry ministry has earmarked ¥150 billion for state-backed chip venture Rapidus, bringing the cumulative government investment in the venture to ¥250 billion.
BUSINESS / Economy
Dec 26, 2025
Japan to quadruple spending support for chips and AI in budget
The jump in chips and AI spending comes at as Japan is trying to strengthen its capacities in frontier technology, and the U.S. and China race ahead.
A Paraguayan woman whose relative was detained by federal agents scuffles with officers in the halls of immigration court in New York in July.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2025
Trump and the end of American hegemony
His unlawful policies following his return to the White House have already upended the postwar era of globalization.
As AI gains autonomy, its potential for unpredictable actions and the pursuit of self-preservation poses serious risks to human life, democracy and global security.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 24, 2025
AI agents threaten free societies
That is precisely why AI agents pose risks to democracy. Systems that are trained to reason and act without human interference cannot always be trusted to adhere to human commands.
Electrical infrastructure for servers at Meta’s data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Data centers can use as much electricity as a small city, straining local power grids.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2025
The Pentagon and AI giants have a weakness. Both need China’s batteries, badly.
Long a problem for industries such as auto manufacturing, Chinese battery dominance is now being seen as a national security threat.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Osaka trumps Tokyo as both ranked among world’s top 10 most livable cities
Osaka’s infrastructure earned higher marks than Tokyo’s in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Global Liveability Index.
Japanese teen arrested for booting users off streaming service
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly creating a malicious program and canceling subscription accounts on the Bandai Channel.
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Long-stalled maglev line finally gets green light from Shizuoka Prefecture
Environmental concerns relating to the construction of Central Japan Railway’s high-speed maglev line had contributed to years of delays for the project.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.
‘Defense,’ not ‘warfare,’ stressed as pacifist Japan beefs up capabilities
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi attends an annual training session near Mount Fuji at Higashifuji Training Field in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, on June 7.

Podcast

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

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

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