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July 04, 2026
 

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AI

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.
A representative from Noitom Robotics demonstraties remote robot operation at the iREX International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 5, 2025
Spotlight shines on humanoid robots at Tokyo show
The 2025 International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo is showcasing humanoid robots who can perform duties ranging from extinguishing fires to working alongside humans in an office.
SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son meets with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Friday in Seoul.
BUSINESS
Dec 5, 2025
SoftBank Group CEO meets with South Korean president
The pair discussed cooperation in the fields of AI and semiconductors, as well as infrastructure investment.
Fostering technical, digital and social skills across all working-age groups, including older workers, is essential for Asian economies to harness AI effectively.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 5, 2025
Can AI be Asia’s next growth engine?
Using new digital technologies — and, in particular, AI — Asia can invigorate productivity growth, ease labor shortages and extend people’s working lives.
The Metropolitan Police Department arrested a 17-year-old boy on Thursday for allegedly carrying out a cyberattack on the operator of the Kaikatsu Club internet cafe chain, sources said.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 4, 2025
Police arrest high school student over cyberattack on net cafe operator
The 17-year-old student from Osaka allegedly obtained about 7.25 million sets of Kaikatsu Club membership information with a program he created using ChatGPT.
Participants chat during the Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) summit in Seoul on Sep. 10, 2024. Military systems infused with artificial intelligence are enabling soldiers not only to identify anomalies or threats that might be missed but also to quickly analyze large volumes of data to support critical decision-making on the battlefield.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 4, 2025
Canadian military’s cyber chief touts AI’s advantages but warns against ‘unquestioned’ use
The head of the country’s cybercommand has said that AI can provide critical battlefield advantages, but emphasized the need to prevent misuse.
Chips at a booth in a mall of the Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China, on Oct. 30. Many Chinese smartphone makers are warning of price increases.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Dec 3, 2025
The AI frenzy is driving a new global supply chain crisis
Japanese electronics stores have begun limiting how many hard-disk drives shoppers can buy while Chinese smartphone makers are warning of price increases.
The National Assembly building in Seoul. South Korea has one of the lowest debt burdens among developed nations, but its debt-to-GDP ratio has been climbing.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2025
South Korea parliament clears 2026 budget to power AI-led growth
The $495.8 billion budget approval endorses President Lee Jae Myung’s plan to revive the economy through aggressive investment.
AI-powered photo-editing tools show immense potential for restoring and manipulating images for consumers and advertisers, but current limitations and the high risk of misuse highlight challenges for both technology and regulators.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 3, 2025
Photoshopping, not chatbots, might be AI’s killer app
Enforcement across the world wide web remains an open question and rising mistrust of digital media could trigger stricter interventions elsewhere.
Amazon's AWS is the largest seller of rented computing power and data storage.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 3, 2025
Amazon rushes out latest AI chip to take on Nvidia and Google
The chip push is a key element of Amazon’s strategy to stand out in AI.
Social media, the internet and other modern-day pressures like digital overload, complexity and declining community ties are fueling loneliness and mental strain across Western societies.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
The West is facing fearsome new ‘giants’
The old postwar “Five Giants” have been defeated, but new challenges — loneliness, addiction, distraction, lies and complexity — threaten Western societies.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group, speaks during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute Priority Asia conference in Tokyo on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 2, 2025
SoftBank’s Son ‘cried’ about Nvidia stake sale to fund AI bets
Son, addressing for the first time the surprise disclosure that SoftBank had unloaded its stake in the world’s most valuable company, also slammed talk of an AI investment bubble.
Pope Leo XIV prays at the Tomb of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy, last month. The Vatican is pushing a global conversation on how AI can uphold human dignity and serve the common good. 
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 2, 2025
The Vatican’s voice of reason on artificial intelligence
The Vatican is pushing a global conversation on how AI can uphold human dignity and serve the common good, echoing the Church’s historic responses to past technological upheavals.
‘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.
Iran war exposed, but hasn’t changed, Japan’s reliance on imported oil
Wind turbines generate energy from strong easterly winds on the Shonai Plain in Yamagata Prefecture. Despite the oil crisis caused by conflict near the Strait of Hormuz, and concerns instability in the region could continue to impact supply and the price of imports, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi does not seem to be drawing on the war as a pretext to hasten progress toward Japan's renewable goals.
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.

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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