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July 04, 2026
 

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TECH

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.
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.”
Rapidus is building a massive plant in Chitose, Hokkaido, for the manufacture of advanced semiconductors.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 27, 2026
Japan’s Rapidus receives another ¥267.6 billion in funding
The government now controls 11.5% of the chipmaker, and that figure reaches up to 40% if nonvoting shares are converted.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei speaks at an AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on Feb. 19. The dispute between the U.S. Department of Defense and Anthropic highlights a widening conflict over military AI use and government power over private firms.
EDITORIALS
Feb 27, 2026
Pentagon’s fight with Anthropic is anything but intelligent
On Thursday, Anthropic rejected the Pentagon’s demands that it agree to grant unrestricted use of its technology by the military by Friday, according to reports.
The number of elementary school children in Japan who became victims of sex crimes and other offenses through social media rose by about 20% from 2024 to 2025.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 27, 2026
Elementary schoolers targeted for crime via social media hits 10-year high
As the age of victims is believed to be decreasing, the National Police Agency plans to monitor social media posts and issue warnings.
A satellite image shows large drones at Qionghai Boao International Airport on Hainan Island, China, on Sep. 3, 2025.
ASIA PACIFIC
Feb 26, 2026
How China is masking drone flights in potential Taiwan rehearsal
Military attaches and security analysts scrutinizing the operations say the flights represent a step-change in China’s gray-zone tactics in the contested South China Sea.
A government report shows that high school students spend an average of 6 hours and 44 minutes online per day.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2026
Nearly half of Japanese high school students use AI, report shows
The child agency survey found that students are spending more time online, with some experiencing disruptions in their sleep schedules or studies.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2026
Several local government websites become inaccessible
Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told a news conference Wednesday that the central government and others are gathering information to identify the cause of the problem.
The White House is pictured behind a fence in Washington on April 25, 2021.
WORLD / Politics
Feb 26, 2026
U.S. orders diplomats to fight data sovereignty initiatives
The dominance of U.S. AI companies — many of which use personal data to power their models — spotlights EU concerns around privacy and surveillance.
Workers install a fence around a makeshift memorial for the victims of a deadly mass shooting in the town of Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, on Feb. 12.
BUSINESS
Feb 26, 2026
OpenAI’s ban of Canada school shooting suspect’s account raises scrutiny of other online activity
The shooting in Tumbler Ridge is the latest tragedy in which critics have argued that interactions with chatbots may have forewarned of violence.
Japan's fair trade commission has conducted an on-site inspection of Microsoft's Japanese subsidiary over a suspected violation of antitrust law, a source has said.
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 25, 2026
Microsoft Japan probed over alleged antitrust violation
The source confirmed that Microsoft Japan in Tokyo is being probed over allegations it is unfairly preventing clients from using cloud platforms developed by its competitors.
Famed Meiji-era novelist Natsume Soseki’s belief that true expression transcends literal wording supports the argument that AI handling translation frees people to create rather than convert language.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 25, 2026
Sorry Soseki, I wish we had AI translation aeons ago
It should come as little surprise then that one of the jobs at risk of complete replacement by AI is that of translators.
A job fair held in the city of Chiba in March last year
BUSINESS
Feb 25, 2026
40% in Japan use AI in their job search, survey finds
Job-seekers used the technology to revise resumes or search for job postings, the survey found.
A Samsung Electronics Co. 32GB DDR5 128GB RDIMM, high-capacity DDR5 DRAM module, arranged in Seoul on April 4, 2024.
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 25, 2026
Memory boom drives South Korean stocks’ breakthrough past 6,000 level
South Korea’s equity benchmark has crossed a new milestone just a month after surpassing the once-unthinkable 5,000 mark.
‘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

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