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July 04, 2026
 

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AI

The DEEPX booth at the 2025 Korea Tech Festival in Seoul on Dec. 4
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 22, 2026
South Korea launches landmark laws to regulate artificial intelligence
Seoul hopes its new AI Basic Act will position the country as a leader ‍in the field, taking effect in South Korea sooner than a comparable ‍effort in Europe.
A Mos Food Services employee places an order via a microphone at an artificial intelligence drive-thru facility, which was unveiled to members of the media in Yoshikawa City, Saitama Prefecture, on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 21, 2026
Mos Food unveils AI system for drive-thru orders
In the hamburger industry, the use of mobile and touchscreen ordering systems is spreading, but the adoption of AI has been slow.
Cartoonist Mitsuru Yaku (center) and other executives of Freelance League of Japan announces their survey to reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Society
Jan 21, 2026
One in 10 Japanese creatives see income fall due to generative AI
Survey respondents cited being asked to accept shorter deadlines and lower fees, or losing commissions altogether.
Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia, speaks at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 6.
BUSINESS
Jan 21, 2026
Nvidia’s Huang plans to visit China as he works to reopen market
The U.S. is loosening export restrictions on AI processors, but on the Chinese side, government officials are deciding how many of the chips to let in.
OpenAI and others firms are launching AI tools in health care, but their success may depend on transparency about reliability and accuracy, an issue that has already caused Google to fail in the sector.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 20, 2026
ChatGPT’s AI health care push has a fatal flaw
Health advice is where generative artificial intelligence has some of its most exciting potential.
Visitors try out Naver Cloud’s AI at South Korea’s Independent AI Foundation Model competition in Seoul, on Dec. 30. Naver Cloud was later eliminated from the competition.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 20, 2026
South Korea kicks off ‘AI Squid Game’ in bid to compete with U.S. and China
The event, designed to identify the leaders in the country’s bid to become an AI powerhouse, is ruthless, like the Netflix show.
Japan's content industry — which includes anime, manga and video games — is a major export the country. Such exports were valued at ¥6 trillion ($38 billion) in 2024.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jan 19, 2026
AI-driven pirated manga is booming. Can AI also help curb it?
While artificial intelligence is driving the spread of pirated manga online, Japanese government officials are hoping AI can also help rein it in.
A Micron Technology DDR5 DRAM memory module
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 19, 2026
Micron says AI-driven memory crunch is ‘unprecedented’
The Nvidia supplier said the shortage has accelerated and reiterated that the crunch would last beyond 2026 due to the surge in demand.
The Nasdaq MarketSite during Aktis Oncology's initial public offering (IPO) in New York on Jan. 9.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 19, 2026
‘No reasons to own’: Software stocks sink on fear of new AI tool
The new year was supposed to bring opportunities for beaten-down software stocks. Instead, the group is off to its worst start in years.
Mickey Mikitani, chief executive officer of Rakuten Group, speaks at the company's AI Optimism business conference in Yokohama in July. Japan’s optimism about artificial intelligence, driven by collaboration, supportive policies and regulatory openness contrasts with global pessimism.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jan 19, 2026
Will Japan become the world’s next leader in AI?
Japan believes AI will help the country overcome acute labor shortages, improve people’s daily lives and recover global tech leadership.
Elon Musk is seeking between $79 billion and $134 billion in damages over his claims that OpenAI defrauded him by abandoning its nonprofit roots and partnering with Microsoft.
BUSINESS
Jan 18, 2026
Musk seeks up to $134 billion damages from OpenAI and Microsoft
Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018, launched his own artificial intelligence company in 2023 and began legal proceedings in 2024.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil and gas executives and senior U.S. officials in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 18, 2026
Trump is pushing gas to power AI boom, but building plants could take years
Building the kind of power plants that the Trump administration prefers has become extremely difficult.
The Cabinet Office has asked X to improve safeguards and curb the output of sexually altered images by Grok, Economic Security Minister Kimi Onoda said.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 16, 2026
Musk’s Grok AI faces scrutiny from Japan over sexualized images
The Cabinet Office has asked the social media platform to improve safeguards and curb the output of sexually altered images by Grok, Economic Security Minister Kimi Onoda said.
Elon Musk in June 2023
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 16, 2026
OpenAI and Microsoft lose last chance to avoid trial with Elon Musk
A federal judge rejected requests by OpenAI and Microsoft to dismiss claims by Musk and ordered the case to proceed to a jury trial set for April.
Japanese internal affairs minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (center) poses for a photo with ministers from ASEAN member states in Hanoi on Thursday.
JAPAN
Jan 16, 2026
Japan and ASEAN agree to cooperate on AI development
Japan and ASEAN aim to join hands at a time when the United States and China are boosting their presence in the artificial intelligence sector.
A poster featuring an image of billionaire Elon Musk, calling for users of his X social media platform to delete their accounts due to the artificial intelligence chatbot Grok's image-creation feature, is seen at a bus stop in London on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 14, 2026
How AI ‘deepfakes’ became Elon Musk’s latest scandal
Musk’s Grok chatbot had been generating sexualized images of women, children and minors on social media platform X in response to user requests.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration will allow Nvidia to export its second most powerful AI chips to China after the company was previously barred from doing so.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 14, 2026
U.S. gives green light to Nvidia H200 chip exports to China
Under a new rule, Nvidia can export but will need to certify that there are enough chips in the U.S., while Chinese customers must demonstrate “sufficient security procedures.”
The chat window for chatbot Grok on a laptop
WORLD
Jan 13, 2026
U.K.’s Starmer escalates threats against X, calling Grok ‘shameful’
The prime minister vowed to enforce a law that bans the sexualization of people’s images without consent.
Some tech titans like Elon Musk envision an AI-driven future of “socialism from above,” where machines generate abundance while the means of production remain in the hands of a wealthy few.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 12, 2026
Artificial intelligence, robots and Silicon Valley’s top-down socialism
The architects of AI are open about the fact that they are creating systems whose success in generating material abundance could also obliterate large swaths of the labor market.
Malaysia’s tech regulator said on Sunday that the country suspended access to Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok over AI-generated pornographic content.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jan 11, 2026
Malaysia suspends access to Musk’s Grok AI
On Saturday Indonesia became the first country to deny all access to the tool, which has been restricted to paying subscribers elsewhere.
‘My dream is broken’: Japan visa rules push out foreign residents
A man orders from a kebab shop in the Okubo district in Tokyo.
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.
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. 
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
Japan plans to sharply raise fees for residence permits from October
Foreign tourists walk on the path leading to the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in May.
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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