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July 01, 2026
 

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AI

Orix is among those in the next round of bidding for Macquarie Capital’s majority stake in a Dutch hyperscale data center.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2025
Macquarie’s Dutch data center stake attracts Igneo and Orix
Infrastructure has emerged as a key theme for investors seeking to profit from the AI boom, setting off an arms race among the world’s largest alternative asset managers.
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during an event in Tokyo on Dec. 1.
BUSINESS
Dec 13, 2025
SoftBank billionaire Son trims share pledges after AI rally
Son trimmed his committed shares by 19.4 million to around 154.2 million, according to a filing earlier this month.
Cardinal Stephen Chow, the bishop of Hong Kong, speaks during Mass in Hong Kong in November 2023. During the opening Mass a three-day event to draft guidelines for the clergy’s use of artificial intelligence in the region Asia, he described AI as a "gift from God."
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 12, 2025
Calling AI ‘a gift from God,’ Catholic bishops draft usage guidelines for Asia
Catholic bishops and priests from across Asia drafted pastoral guidelines for AI usage among the churches in the region.
OpenAI has announced changes to make ChatGPT better at recognizing and responding to different ways that people may express mental distress.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 12, 2025
OpenAI and Microsoft sued over murder-suicide blamed on ChatGPT
The case is the first to blame OpenAI for a homicide.
SoftBank Group Chairman Masayoshi Son speaks in Tokyo earlier this month. Sources have said the group is considering acquiring data-center operator Switch. The move would give it outright ownership of a large portfolio of the facilities at a time when demand for their computing power is growing rapidly.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 12, 2025
SoftBank may acquire Switch data-center group deal in AI infrastructure bid
The Japanese company has also been in advanced talks on a potential purchase of one of Switch’s main private equity backers, according to recent reports.
Nvidia head Jensen Huang speaks in Washington in October. The CEO said earlier this year that when its Blackwell chip was released, nobody wanted the previous generation anymore.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 11, 2025
AI’s $400 billion problem: Are chips getting old too fast?
With chipmakers releasing new, more powerful processors faster than before, estimates regarding how fast these chips become obsolete may be overly optimistic.
Nissan Motor CEO Ivan Espinosa (left) Wayve Technologies CEO Alex Kendall shake hands at a signing ceremony for a collaboration agreement between the two companies in Tokyo on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 10, 2025
Nissan to deploy tech from AI self-driving startup Wayve
While fully driverless cars remain some way off, the two companies said that their tie-up would help develop systems in real-world conditions.
Keio University President Kohei Ito (left) and OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon sign a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday in Tokyo.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 10, 2025
Keio and OpenAI sign MOU on integration of AI into university
The maker of ChatGPT will work closely with the Japanese institution on a range of projects.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo's Chuo Ward. Unlike conventional keyword-based search tools, the AI service for searching through disclosure materials allows for prompts such as "companies whose dividend predictions rose at least 20%."
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 10, 2025
Japan exchange launches AI-powered disclosure search service
With around 150,000 disclosure documents filed each year, the service is aimed at improving investor convenience by enhancing search functions.
Until now, Tokyo police had identified suspicious posts on social media platforms by manually searching for them using keywords.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 10, 2025
Police in Tokyo use AI to spot shady job offers on social media
Thanks to the AI tool, Tokyo police can write about 150 warning replies per day — compared to some 25 before its introduction — to messages considered to be offering shady jobs.
A coal-fired power plant in Shanghai. China’s on track for another year of record mine output.
ENVIRONMENT / Energy
Dec 10, 2025
Energy demand boom keeps Asia tethered to coal
Concerns over energy security and costs are trumping the climate agenda in the region’s high-growth, high-polluting economies.
Jensen Huang, president and chief executive of Nvidia, delivers a keynote address during the Nvidia GTC conference in Washington on Oct. 28.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 9, 2025
U.S. to allow Nvidia H200 chip shipments to China, Trump says
The U.S. government will collect a 25% fee on such sales, an approach the U.S. president says will apply to other AI chipmakers.
Chimpanzees show genuine reasoning and metacognition — the ability to weigh evidence, update beliefs and judge what they do or don’t know — while current AI systems do not.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2025
AI thinks it’s smart. Chimps may beg to differ.
Many people believe that animals with higher intelligence deserve to be treated more humanely, or at least not used for food.
Artificial intelligence holds promise for preserving endangered languages, but without meaningful community involvement, speakers of indigenous and regional dialects risk further marginalization as their languages vanish from the digital world.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2025
Can AI save dying languages?
A report from Stanford’s Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence earlier this year found that most major large-language models, or LLMs, underperform in non-English.
Though China remains a one-party state that disappears dissidents and censors ideas, it has vaulted past Japan, Germany and France to become the world’s 10th-most innovative economy.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2025
How China achieved innovation without freedom
Smart authoritarianism is not about maximizing growth; it is about balancing economic objectives with the imperative of regime survival.
The Casio Mini, the world’s first personal calculator, is seen at the Toshio Kashio Memorial Museum of Invention in Tokyo on Nov. 25.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 8, 2025
Number’s up: Calculators hold out against AI
The humble pocket calculator may not be able to keep up with the mathematical capabilities of new technology, but it will never hallucinate.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the Future Investment Initiative Institute Priority Asia conference in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 7, 2025
SoftBank in talks to buy data-center investor DigitalBridge
The Japanese conglomerate is negotiating a potential deal to buy the firm as it seeks to take advantage of an AI-driven boom in digital infrastructure.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi delivers a policy speech during a Lower House plenary session on Oct. 24.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 7, 2025
Japan aims to raise public AI use to 80%
The draft emphasizes the need to boost AI usage with a view to developing Japan’s own AI technologies.
People cast their early ballots at a polling station in Lansing, Michigan, in November 2024.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 6, 2025
AI chatbots can sway voters’ political views, studies say
The most common tactic used by chatbots to persuade was “being polite and providing evidence.”
The European Commission on Friday imposed a €120 million penalty on Elon Musk's X for breaching European Union online content rules.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 6, 2025
Europe continues Big Tech crackdown with X fine in defiance of Trump
Europe is forging ahead with its crackdown on Big Tech, levying fines on Alphabet's Google and Elon Musk's X and opening new investigations, asserting its sovereign right to enforce its laws in defiance of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Uruguay federation reportedly cancels charter flight after World Cup exit
Uruguay's Jose Maria Gimenez reacts after the team's loss against Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on Friday.
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.
India’s gig workers pay the price for exposure to New Delhi’s hazardous air
Rohit Kushwaha waits for a customer as he delivers his last parcel of the day, in New Delhi in January. His work as a delivery driver has helped pay the family’s bills, but has had a significant impact on his health.
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.
Yen hits 40-year low against the dollar, breaking ¥162 level
Japan's currency broke ¥162 to the dollar on Tuesday in Tokyo.
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.
A French ship with close ties to Japan combines arts and sciences on the high seas
Romain Troublé, the executive director of Tara Ocean Foundation, speaks to visitors aboard the Tara during a rare port call in Tokyo in April.
In Kyushu’s far south, Senti.U sparks a culinary destination
Chef Yasuhiko Uchida was born in Saga Prefecture but has made his home in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture, since 2012.

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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