Tag - tech

 
Menu
Search
 
July 09, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

TECH

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.
Denso headquarters in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture.
BUSINESS
Mar 7, 2026
Rohm shares soar most since 2000 on Denso acquisition bid
Rohm shares surged 18%, the most in 26 years, after the Japanese chip parts maker said it had received an acquisition proposal from Denso.
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.
Christian Brose, president and chief strategy officer at Anduril Industries, poses next to the Anduril Fury autonomous air vehicle at the Australian International Airshow in Avalon, Australia, in March last year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 6, 2026
Anduril looking to boost defense manufacturing capacity in Japan
The defense-tech giant is offering to hire locally and expand domestic supply chains for products it might deliver to the Japanese government, its president says.
Kairos No. 3 failed after lifting off from Spaceport Kii in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, on Thursday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 5, 2026
Space One’s Kairos rocket terminated moments after launch
The decision puts another dent in the firm’s bid to be the first private Japanese company to place satellites in orbit with a domestically developed rocket.
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.
People who came to watch the launch of Space One's Kairos rocket in Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, on Wednesday
JAPAN
Mar 4, 2026
Space One cancels rocket launch after safety system activates
The Tokyo-based startup had already put off the launches scheduled for Feb. 25 and Sunday due to weather conditions.
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.
Billionaire Elon Musk during a visit to a Tesla plant near Berlin on March 13, 2024. A group of investors allege Musk publicly attacked Twitter in 2022 in a ruse to drive down its market value before his acquisition of it.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Mar 3, 2026
Musk on trial over tweets ahead of Twitter purchase
A group of investors allege that Musk publicly attacked the company in a ruse to drive down its market value and benefit himself at their expense, a charge he denies.
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.
A protester holds an image of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite armed groups attempt to move toward the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Mar 3, 2026
Prediction market bets on Iran strikes stoke insider trading and ethics scrutiny
Bets on the ouster of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei drew criticism of platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, sparking calls from U.S. lawmakers to outlaw wagers on military actions.
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.
Eams Robotics President Eiji Sotani speaks in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, in February.
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 1, 2026
Fukushima company working to realize drone logistics
Eams Robotics, based in the Fukushima city of Minamisoma, produces and sells industrial drones.
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.
Japan needs caregivers. Young Indians are answering the call.
Young people in India's northeast are increasingly studying Japanese in hopes of building new lives and careers in Japan.
Osaka trumps Tokyo as both ranked among world’s top 10 most livable cities
Osaka’s infrastructure earned higher marks than Tokyo’s in the Economist Intelligence Unit’s latest Global Liveability Index.
Japanese teen arrested for booting users off streaming service
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly creating a malicious program and canceling subscription accounts on the Bandai Channel.
Long-stalled maglev line finally gets green light from Shizuoka Prefecture
Environmental concerns relating to the construction of Central Japan Railway’s high-speed maglev line had contributed to years of delays for the project.
Violence toward ambulance crews in Tokyo higher in 2025 and rising this year
A bloodstained helmet worn by an ambulance crew member who became involved in a case of violent abuse against the crew
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.
Filmmaker explores history of discrimination against foreign nationals in Japan
Takashi Nishihara, the director of "Now and Then," in Tokyo on Wednesday. The director has spent 10 years traversing politically charged terrain while exploring youth-driven grassroots political movements that scrutinize the status quo.
Japanese nail salons are tourists’ new obsession
Tourists in Japan have always been interested in quintessentially Japanese approaches to modern culture, and, increasingly, visits to nail salons have become the new hot thing.
Okinawa’s prized seaweed under threat as oceans warm
Local harvesters gather <i>mozuku</i> during low tide at Hyakuna Beach in the city of Nanjo, Okinawa Prefecture. As the planet warms, rising ocean temperatures are placing increasing pressure on the seaweed industry.
‘Defense,’ not ‘warfare,’ stressed as pacifist Japan beefs up capabilities
Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi attends an annual training session near Mount Fuji at Higashifuji Training Field in Gotemba, Shizuoka Prefecture, on June 7.

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

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER