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July 05, 2026
 

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TECH

Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama
BUSINESS
Apr 22, 2026
Japan finance minister to discuss Mythos threat with banks
Satsuki Katayama plans to meet officials from the country’s biggest financial institutions to discuss Anthropic’s latest AI model as early as this week.
A logo of Meta AI outside Meta House on the opening day of the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2025
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 22, 2026
Meta to capture U.S. employee mouse movements and keystrokes to train AI
The new tracking software will run on work-related apps and websites and will also take occasional snapshots of the content on employees’ screens, according to an internal memo.
Investigators search a rental office in Tokyo's Minato Ward on Monday in connection with a body abandonment case.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 21, 2026
Police search Tokyo rental office over abandonment of body
The suspect, Katsuya Mizuguchi, who was arrested on Friday on suspicion of abandoning a body, virtually lived in the rental office, sources said.
A Sanrio store in Tokyo's Asakusa district. Sanrio is launching a new gaming brand, with some 10 titles to be released over the next three years.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 21, 2026
Sanrio launches gaming brand, tapping fast-growing global market
Sanrio’s push into gaming reflects a broader trend among Japanese intellectual property owners to diversify revenue by extending popular franchises into interactive entertainment.
Attendees at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China, take pictures of various service robots on display.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 21, 2026
China flashes new tech swagger to world markets convulsed by war
The world’s factory floor is increasingly getting retrofitted for a new era of artificial intelligence and robotics, churning out technological innovation the world craves.
Batteries on display at the Canton Fair in Guangzhou, China, on April 15
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 20, 2026
Cheap batteries are taking over the world’s power grids
If fuel disruptions persist, the pivot to batteries could gain further momentum.
A robot and its engineers take part in the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon in Beijing on Sunday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 20, 2026
Humanoid robots race past humans in Beijing half-marathon, showing rapid advances
Developers showed off the fast-improving robots and their autonomous navigation skills, highlighting the sector’s rapid technical advances.
The office of the IT firm run by Katsuya Mizuguchi in Minato Ward, Tokyo
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 19, 2026
Arrested IT firm head may have wiped up blood in office
The bloodstains were not apparent at first glance and were discovered through a detailed on-site probe by police, investigative sources said.
Katsuya Mizuguchi, the 49-year-old president of Linux Japan, is taken to Azabu Police Station in Tokyo's Minato Ward after being arrested Friday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 18, 2026
Tokyo IT firm chief arrested for allegedly abandoning body
The suspect, Katsuya Mizuguchi, 49, has denied the allegations against him.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei. The White House said a meeting Friday with Amodei was "productive and constructive” as the U.S. seeks wider access to Anthropic’s powerful new Mythos artificial intelligence model.
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 18, 2026
Anthropic and Trump officials meet to discuss Mythos access
The White House said opportunities for collaboration and for addressing the challenges from artificial intelligence were discussed.
Shoji Terayama, co-CEO of ACSL, at the company’s headquarters last month
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 17, 2026
Japanese drone maker notes tailwind as demand jumps and China frozen out of U.S.
Escalating geopolitical tensions might present opportunities for Japanese companies in a market long dominated by China’s DJI. 
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Ryosei Akazawa holds a news conference after a Cabinet meeting at the Diet building on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 17, 2026
Sony to receive up to ¥60 billion in state subsidies for image sensor plant
The state aid is intended to help ensure a stable supply of semiconductors, designated as a specified important item under the economic security promotion law.
The Justice Ministry setting up a study panel regarding the misuse of generative artificial intelligence comes amid a sharp rise in such cases and concerns legislation in Japan has not kept up with the rapid advancement of AI.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 17, 2026
Government to launch study panel for generative-AI misuse
With a meeting scheduled for late April, the group will examine civil liability for the unauthorized use of people’s likenesses and voices.
A boom in generative artificial intelligence has sent data center demand skyrocketing, with dozens of projects springing up across the United States.
WORLD / Society
Apr 17, 2026
New Jersey city spurns data center as defiance spreads
The success of grassroots resistance in New Brunswick has made activists nationwide curious about how the city managed to kill plans for the power-hungry facility.
An experiment by a small city in Aichi Prefecture suggests that smartphone restrictions targeting only children are less effective than those targeting the entire family, as children’s screen habits closely mirror their parents.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Apr 17, 2026
The parent problem: When smartphone rules end at the school gate
Children who exceeded two hours of daily screen time tended to have parents with similarly high usage. The relationship held across age groups.
Human intelligence can become more valuable if AI is used to complement it, such as with Malaysia's rubber industry, where the government invested in research to make rubber producers more productive.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 16, 2026
Rubber’s history could be a window into AI’s future
To this day, for example, aircraft tires are mostly made from natural rubber because synthetics can’t handle the stress of landing a 747.
A shift is occurring in the translation industry both in Japan and across the globe, where using artificial intelligence in place of humans is increasingly becoming standard practice.
JAPAN / Society / FOCUS
Apr 16, 2026
As AI advances, translators forced to adapt to industry changes
Translators are having to grapple with lower pay and higher expectations, all while the future of the industry itself is in doubt.
The rise of artificial intelligence highlights how the resume, once meant to standardize hiring, has become easily fabricated, undermining its usefulness and underscoring the need for more effective ways to evaluate job candidates.
COMMENTARY
Apr 14, 2026
AI is hastening the resume’s demise. Good riddance.
The resume may have been created with good intentions but it has never performed the job it was supposed to do. It’s time to let it go.
Elon Musk attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January. Musk’s Grokipedia exemplifies how privately controlled AI chatbots are placed to shape public opinion through opaque algorithms without transparency or oversight.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 14, 2026
Who’s whispering in your chatbot’s ear?
Chatbots do not simply curate existing information; they generate and frame it.
A BYD Atto 2 EV in the showroom in the Mayfair district of London
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 13, 2026
China’s clean tech firms signal windfall from Gulf energy shock
Rising oil and natural gas prices, plus a renewed emphasis on energy security, are boosting demand for batteries and electric vehicles.
‘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 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.
Japan’s princesses face life-altering legal revisions
Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito, said in a 2022 news conference upon coming of age that she hopes to “spend a long time together” with her parents.
Japanese police arrest nine over Sierra Leone-based special fraud
Japanese police have arrested nine individuals for their alleged involvement in a special fraud case using Sierra Leone as a base.
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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