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July 03, 2026
 

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AI

SoftBank Group's efforts to secure at least $6 billion through a margin loan backed by its OpenAI stake have stalled after the company lowered its fundraising target.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 10, 2026
SoftBank’s attempt to get $6 billion OpenAI margin loan stalls
The development comes just weeks after the Japanese conglomerate cut its initial target from $10 billion.
A stock index board in the Lujiazui financial district of Shanghai. The oil shock and the AI boom have revived inflationary pressures among factories in the world’s second-biggest economy.
BUSINESS / Economy
Jun 10, 2026
China’s inflation split widens as AI and war stir up factory prices
Years of weak demand and excessive supply have contributed to bruising competition among Chinese industrial firms that’s keeping a lid on consumer prices.
Gantry cranes stand near stacked shipping containers at Yangshan Port outside Shanghai on May 7.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 9, 2026
China rides AI wave as exports surge past forecast
A surge in global AI investment has helped the world’s top manufacturer offset the export hit many had expected from the Middle East turmoil.
Former Yomiuri Giants manager Shinnosuke Abe was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of assaulting his eldest daughter, though it is believed the police attached a recommendation for leniency.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 9, 2026
Former Giants manager Abe referred to prosecutors over alleged assault
The Metropolitan Police Department is believed to have attached a recommendation for leniency to the papers they sent to prosecutors.
Fujikura CEO Naoki Okada says the company is fielding orders from almost all U.S. hyperscalers for fiber-optic cables.
BUSINESS
Jun 9, 2026
Fujikura is raising prices on data center cables to beat outlook
The company, whose disappointing forecast triggered a selloff of Japanese tech stocks last month, is fielding orders from almost all U.S. hyperscalers for fiber-optic cables.
Visitors attend Google's I/O 2026 developer conference in Mountain View, California, on May 19. The event primarily focused on the next generation of artificial intelligence and developer tools.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 9, 2026
Google’s AI shift is causing a collective freak-out
The new dark art of search engine optimization is known as GEO (generative is now the first word) and it paradoxically has a more human flavor than the era of backlinks.
OpenAI, founded in San Francisco in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, burst into the mainstream with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. It has since restructured as a for-profit corporation.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 9, 2026
OpenAI makes move to go public one week after rival Anthropic
The company says it has “not decided on timing yet” for any potential debut.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung
ASIA PACIFIC
Jun 8, 2026
South Korea names first female prime minister in decades to lead AI push
Lee Jae Myung hopes the former Naver CEO will help better use the nation’s tech expertise for future growth and ensure its benefits spread more widely through the economy.
Moonshot AI, the Beijing-based developer behind the Kimi chatbot, is emerging as one of the best-funded Chinese artificial intelligence research labs.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 8, 2026
China’s Moonshot AI seeks $30 billion value in new funding talks
This is the third round of financing in six months for the Beijing-based company, which is emerging as one of the best-funded Chinese AI research labs.
A trading room at Hana Bank in Seoul in April
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 8, 2026
South Korea’s AI impact sparks pressure across government bond market
The nation’s government bonds have lost 7.5% this year in local-currency terms, the worst performance among 44 markets.
A robotic arm manipulates SK Hynix wafers at a summit in Seoul on Nov. 3. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae Won projected strong demand for artificial intelligence and downplayed concerns about a spending bubble.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 7, 2026
A trillion-dollar question for memory chipmakers
We are only in the second year of the AI boom, making it too early to know if it will outlast past cycles.
Mega-IPO candidates including SpaceX are expected to face a long road to entry to the S&P 500 Index, after the company that makes the rules rejected a proposal that included relaxing the requirement that they be profitable.
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Jun 7, 2026
SpaceX and other mega IPOs may wait years to join the S&P 500
S&P Dow Jones Indices’ index committee declined to remove a rule that companies generate positive net income for the past year.
Companies are adopting AI tools at a rapid rate, but the technology’s impact on productivity and efficiency is uneven and muddled, according to a new study.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jun 6, 2026
AI saves time but most companies waste the gain, study shows
The findings belie the premise that companies will automatically boost productivity through AI.
Digital minister Hisashi Matsumoto
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2026
Japan could end up an ‘AI colony’ if it falls behind, digital minister warns
Japan’s push to keep pace with the global AI race reflects a broader anxiety among governments worldwide, fearful of becoming ever more dependent ​on foreign technology.
Japan and the United States have unveiled a five-year, $1 billion plan to advance AI-driven scientific research, with Japan becoming the first partner in the U.S. Genesis Mission project.
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2026
Japan and U.S. to collaborate on AI-driven scientific development
The move is part of a U.S. national project called Genesis Mission, and Japan is the first country to cooperate.
South Korea's labor minister said companies like Samsung that outperform profit targets should consider sharing excess gains with suppliers, subcontractors and their workers.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2026
South Korea minister calls on tech firms to share excess AI profits with suppliers and staff
The government, businesses and unions should discuss how to share “excess profits” and narrow the gap between conglomerates and smaller suppliers, Kim Young-hoon said.
Samsung Electronics workers chant slogans during a rally ahead of a planned strike outside the company's semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, on April 23.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 5, 2026
Do Japan’s chip workers need a Samsung-style strike?
Even as Tokyo firms prepare to award customary summer bonuses, there will be nothing on the scale that South Korean companies are offering.
As AI companies compete to build chatbots that resonate with consumers, health has emerged as one of the most closely watched business opportunities.
BUSINESS
Jun 5, 2026
Meta AI chief sees opportunity in models giving health advice
Meta's Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said the company’s future artificial intelligence models will differentiate themselves from competitors through their consumer health capabilities.
The Nagoya District Court sentenced Shota Suito, a former elementary school teacher, to three years and six months in prison in Japan’s first case involving possession of AI-generated child sexual deepfakes.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 5, 2026
Nagoya court recognizes AI-created explicit images as child pornography
The sentence marked the first case in Japan in which the law has been applied to the possession of AI-generated sexual deepfakes.
TSMC is racing to expand at a time customers from Nvidia to Broadcom are vying for access to its cutting-edge facilities.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 4, 2026
TSMC warns chip supply won’t meet AI-fueled demand for years
Comments by CEO C.C. Wei suggest production capacity remains a key bottleneck in the buildout of global computing infrastructure.
Japan triples departure tax in push to combat overtourism
Tourists in Yanaka Ginza, Tokyo, on Wednesday. Japan tripled its International Tourist Tax (departure tax) to ¥3,000 from ¥1,000 on Wednesday for all travelers leaving Japan, regardless of nationality.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
More facilities in Japan placing sanitary bins in men’s restrooms
A sanitary bin with an awareness sticker placed in a men's restroom in the Nagasaki Municipal Government building
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.
Japanese-language education is at a turning point
The country is gradually transforming Japanese-language education from a volunteer-driven system into a professional, government-supported network to better serve its growing foreign population. 
Six of the best: rikishi of note in each sumo division
Kazuma (right) faces off against future <i>yokozuna</i> Onosato during the All Japan Amateur Sumo Championships at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo in December 2020.
Some startups see opportunity in an aging Japan
Yasmin Baba, CTO of Amilis, wins the Grand Prize at the Pitch2Tokyo Grand Final on Feb. 19.
Japan’s fertility system offers few safe paths for same-sex couples
A Tokyo Pride parade participant holds a sign that says "we want to be a married couple, not a couple."
Life inside Japan’s largest prison for women
Western-style rooms spanning the size of four tatami mats with hardwood floors, a toilet and soft mattresses on bed frames are designated for foreign nationals and those with health conditions at Tochigi Prison.
Inside Japan’s rigid adoption system, a British family finds a way
James Benstead, his wife, Jesse, and their three children. Their adopted son is in the rear stroller.

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

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