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July 03, 2026
 

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AI

Brain-computer interface scientist and National People's Congress delegate Yao Dezhong during an interview in Beijing on Saturday
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 8, 2026
China could see widespread use of brain-computer tech in 3-5 years, expert says
Recent high-profile trials have enabled paralyzed patients and amputees to regain partial mobility and operate robotic hands or intelligent wheelchairs.
Japan's Digital Agency said it will start in May a large-scale test of its generative artificial intelligence platform for administrative tasks.
JAPAN
Mar 7, 2026
Digital agency to begin testing AI use for administrative tasks in May
The agency aims to ascertain the effects of generative AI utilization and sort out issues related to its use for work style and task process reforms.
SoftBank Group is seeking up to $40 billion in loans to help finance its investment in U.S. tech firm OpenAI, people familiar with the matter said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2026
SoftBank seeks record loan of up to $40 billion for OpenAI stake
The bridge loan would be its largest-ever borrowing denominated solely in dollars.
A punting boat passes the King's College Chapel at the University of Cambridge, England, where John Maynard Keynes studied. He predicted that advances like AI could one day free people from material necessity, leaving humanity to face the “permanent problem” of how to live well.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 6, 2026
AI is proving a 100-year-old prediction true
Keynes’ work on the problem of leisure has not been treated with the same reverence as his work on solving the problem of the great depression.
Anthropic’s clash with the Pentagon is drawing fresh attention to the role of artificial intelligence in mass surveillance.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 6, 2026
Pentagon feud with Anthropic shines light on AI’s role in mass surveillance
The tactic can allow the government to collect valuable intelligence about foreign adversaries, terrorists and criminals, while critics say it can be abused.
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon, on Wednesday.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 5, 2026
Apparent use of AI in Iran war raises daunting questions, expert says
An expert on artificial intelligence and robotics said it was likely the U.S. and Israel had used AI to identify targets in Iran, raising a host of moral and legal questions.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the AI Impact Summit, in New Delhi on Feb. 19
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 5, 2026
Big Tech group backs Anthropic in fight with Pentagon over AI safeguards
The Pentagon has been in a monthslong dispute with AI developer Anthropic over how the military can use its technology on the battlefield.
The Kospi fell as much as 6.1% Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 4, 2026
South Korea’s AI-fueled stock euphoria unravels on Iran war risk
Down another 6.7% following a 7.2% drop in the previous session, the high-flying Kospi Index entered a technical correction in just three sessions.
A graffiti-covered wall on the facade of the torched Parliament building in Kathmandu in September 2025. Slick AI-generated disinformation has flooded election campaigns in Nepal, which votes on March 5 in the first polls since deadly protests triggered by a brief ban on social media overthrew the government.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Mar 4, 2026
AI disinformation turns Nepal polls into ‘digital battleground’
Parties across the political divide are tapping social media to push their agendas and woo voters.
This former GM and Foxconn factory in Lordstown, Ohio, seen here in October, is set to be converted by SoftBank for data center equipment manufacturing.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 3, 2026
SoftBank’s Ohio power plant delivers an AI sticker shock
The underlying message is that the old model of just building giant power plants to meet whatever new peak demand forecast we dream up is unsustainable.
Claude shows how powerful but costly frontier AI can be, illustrating why companies like Anthropic may be undermined by their own expensive innovation.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 3, 2026
AI leaders may spend billions only to lose the market
Each unit of intelligence gets cheaper — but overall, intelligence has never cost more.
Toyota Motor's new e-Palette electric vehicle, designed for self-driving, is unveiled during an event in Tokyo in January.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 2, 2026
Toyota and Docomo among firms tapping self-driving to ease local transport woes
Amid a nationwide shortage of drivers, broad adoption of autonomous driving will rest on establishing strong safety measures and cutting costs.
Giorgia Meloni during the interview at the Palazzo Chigi. She is clear-eyed about the transformative period into which the global economy has been plunged by disruptive new technologies.
WORLD / Politics
Mar 2, 2026
The evolution of Giorgia Meloni: Her plan for Italy and fears of AI
If she is going to clinch reelection next year, Giorgia Meloni knows she needs to maintain a good economic track record regardless of the cross-currents from AI or the White House.
As Japan accelerates AI adoption, policymakers and corporations frame the technology as essential to offsetting a projected labor shortfall of 11 million workers by 2040.
JAPAN / Society / Longform
Mar 2, 2026
Japan is betting big on AI. Few workers have used it.
Surveys show strong public confidence, despite shallow workplace adoption and unresolved cultural concerns.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, in May 2024.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 1, 2026
OpenAI gives Pentagon AI model access after Anthropic dustup
OpenAI declined to comment on whether the firm’s services for the department would replace work previously done by Anthropic.
U.S. artificial intelligence developer OpenAI said Friday that it has secured $110 billion in new investment, including $30 billion from Japanese technology investor SoftBank Group.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 28, 2026
OpenAI to get $110 billion investment from SoftBank and others
The investment will be used to boost its AI infrastructure amid intensifying competition over AI development.
The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he is directing the government to stop work with Anthropic and the Pentagon said it will declare the startup a supply-chain risk.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 28, 2026
Trump directs U.S. agencies to toss Anthropic’s AI as Pentagon calls startup a supply risk
The deals a major blow to the artificial intelligence lab after a showdown about technology guardrails.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and members of his delegation watch robots perform at a showroom of Unitree Robotics products in Hangzhou, eastern China, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Feb 28, 2026
Xi’s AI ambitions collide with China’s fragile employment market
China can’t afford to hobble itself in the race with Washington for AI capabilities and it also needs to ensure job creation to prevent social unrest.
The OECD's deputy director of economic policy and research says an AI productivity surge, were it to increase employment, would lower debt across OECD countries, from the U.S. to Germany and Japan, by 10 percentage points from the roughly 150% of output the organization expects in 2036.
BUSINESS / Tech / ANALYSIS
Feb 28, 2026
AI boom will be no free pass for debt-laden major economies
An AI productivity boom may help buy major economies more time to clean up their strained public finances, but it won’t do the heavy lifting.
Japanese banks, including Mizuho Financial Group, are trying to boost productivity by adopting artificial intelligence while trying to ease concerns that the technology will take away jobs.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 27, 2026
Mizuho plans to replace 5,000 clerical jobs with AI in 10 years
Japan’s third-largest lender insists the move is “not a headcount reduction.”
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.
Why is the yen so weak and what can Japan do about it?
Japan spent ¥11.7 trillion ($73 billion) between late April and late May to prop up the weak yen.
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

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI
Digital marketer Netyear zeros in on generative AI

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