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June 06, 2026
 

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Kantaro Komiya
Digital minister Hisashi Matsumoto
JAPAN
Jun 5, 2026
Japan could end up an ¡¯AI colony¡¯ if it falls behind, digital minister warns
91²Ö¿â push to keep pace with the global AI race reflects a broader anxiety among governments worldwide, fearful of becoming ever more dependent ?on foreign technology.
A model of lunar lander "Resilience," operated by ispace, is displayed at a venue where ispace employees monitored the company's attempt to land on the moon, in Tokyo, on June 6.
JAPAN
Mar 27, 2026
Japan¡¯s Ispace delays NASA-sponsored moon landing to 2030
The announcement highlights a murky outlook for the venture, as the U.S. revamps missions with commercial and international partners to send ?astronauts to the moon before China.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings¡¯ Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant stands along the seaside in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.
JAPAN
Dec 22, 2025
Tepco prepares to restart world¡¯s biggest nuclear plant, 15 years after Fukushima
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, located about 220 kilometers northwest of Tokyo, was among 54 reactors closed after the 2011 earthquake and ?tsunami crippled the Fukushima No. 1 plant.
The Firefly Aerospace mission operations center in Leander, Texas
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 18, 2025
Firefly Aerospace eyes Japan rocket launches for Asia market
The plan could make Japan the first launch site in Asia for Firefly, the Texas-based rival to Elon Musk's SpaceX.
BUSINESS
Jul 13, 2025
Taiwanese rocket fails to achieve Japan¡¯s first foreign launch
The rocket lifted off at 11:40 a.m., but within a minute its trajectory turned wobbly and it went into free fall.
Innovative Space Carrier CEO Kojiro Hatada poses with a model of the planned spaceplane ASCA 3 at JFE Engineering¡¯s factory in Yokohama on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 28, 2025
Japanese reusable rocket startup ISC eyes U.S. test launch in December
Innovative Space Carrier said its ASCA 1.0 reusable launcher will conduct a 100-meter flight and landing test.
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency President Hiroshi Yamakawa speaks at a press briefing in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 17, 2025
Japan remains committed to moon missions as Trump cuts NASA budget, JAXA chief says
U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed a $6 billion cut to NASA's budget could upend the Artemis program to return people to the moon.
Tokyo-based satellite maker Axelspace's initial public offering is expected to be approved by the Tokyo Stock Exchange later this month, people with knowledge of the matter said.
BUSINESS / Companies
May 8, 2025
Axelspace is latest Japan space startup to seek IPO, sources say
If successful, it would be the fifth such listing of a Japanese spacecraft venture over the last two years.
While car production helped transform Germany, Italy and France after World War II, its influence in East Asia has been even more profound.
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Mar 28, 2025
U.S. auto tariffs take aim at pillar of East Asian economies
Automakers form the nucleus of vast networks of group companies that impact almost every facet of working life in Japan and South Korea.
Eddie Kato, president and managing director of Astroscale Japan, at the company's office in Tokyo in February
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 21, 2025
Japan¡¯s space debris firm Astroscale to tie up with Indian companies
India has opened the country's space sector to private players beyond the state-owned Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada says the company believes joint lunar missions between United States and Japan will remain on course after the leaders of the two countries met last week.
BUSINESS
Feb 13, 2025
Ispace upbeat as Trump keeps Artemis lunar missions with Japan
Launched last month, Ispace's Resilience lander will approach the moon in about three months for the company's second lunar touchdown.
A Panasonic Energy factory in the city of Kinokawa, Wakayama prefecture
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2025
Panasonic Energy says cutting China supply for U.S. business a ¡¯No.1 objective¡¯
Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to raise tariffs on imported Chinese goods has forced companies around the world to reassess their manufacturing processes.
Makino Milling Machine's headquarters in Tokyo on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 27, 2024
Japan¡¯s Nidec takes aim at Makino Milling with $1.6 billion unsolicited bid
Nidec said Makino's board had not agreed to the ?11,000 per share offer, a 42% premium to Thursday's closing share price, as it had not proposed the bid before announcing it.
A United Nations panel on space traffic coordination in late October said that urgent action was necessary to track and manage objects in low Earth orbit because of the rapid increase in satellites and space junk.
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 17, 2024
Japan and India startups to study using lasers to tackle space debris
91²Ö¿â Orbital Lasers is building a system that will use laser energy to stop the rotation of space junk by vaporizing small parts of its surface.
Takao Doi, a former astronaut and professor at Kyoto University, holds an engineering model of LignoSat wooden satellite during an interview at the university on Oct. 25.
JAPAN
Nov 5, 2024
World¡¯s first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads to space
The palm-sized satellite is tasked to demonstrate the cosmic potential of the renewable material as humans explore living in space.
The H3 rocket, built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, lifts off from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture on Feb. 17.
BUSINESS
Sep 18, 2024
Mitsubishi to provide H3 rockets for France¡¯s Eutelsat from 2027
The deal is a major overseas win for 91²Ö¿â ?220 billion ($1.55 billion) state-backed H3 rocket project.
Ispace CEO Takeshi Hakamada speaks during a news conference in Tokyo in April 2023, after the firm's first attempt to land on the moon failed.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 12, 2024
Ispace aims for December launch of second moon landing mission
The Hakuto-R Mission 2 spacecraft will be delivered by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida and attempt a lunar touchdown after four to five months of spaceflight.
The Kestrel I Suborbital Launch Vehicle, operated by AtSpace, sister company of Taiwanese rocket startup TiSpace, at an AtSpace facility in Queensland, Australia, on Tuesday
BUSINESS / Companies / ANALYSIS
Jul 25, 2024
Taiwanese rocket startup may bolster Japan¡¯s space hub ambitions
A planned launch has faced regulatory hurdles and delays amid questions over whether Japan should embrace overseas business as it works to grow its space industry.
The Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), is seen in this handout image taken by LEV-2 on the moon, released on Jan. 25.
JAPAN
Feb 26, 2024
Japan¡¯s SLIM moon probe unexpectedly survives lunar night
The lander touched down on the lunar surface last month, making Japan the fifth country to put a probe on the moon.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Feb 13, 2024
Japan delays H3 rocket¡¯s second launch due to bad weather
The new launch date will be announced later, but weather conditions at the launch site, Tanegashima Space Center, appear to set recover late Friday.
¡®AI simply can¡¯t replicate it¡¯: Japan embraces zine trend
A staff member taking a printed newspaper out of the machine at the Kyoto Shimbun factory in Kumiyama, Kyoto Prefecture.
Kyoto police search for missing American tourist
James "Weston" Higginbotham was last seen in Kyoto on May 29.
Japan should prepare for an intense typhoon season this year, experts say
Elevated water levels are seen along the Tama River in Kawasaki's Tama Ward as Tropical Storm Jangmi brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Kanto region Wednesday.
Japan likely sold Treasurys to fund yen intervention
Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Atsushi Mimura speaks to reporters in Tokyo on May 1 following reports of Japan's possible intervention in the currency market.
Man sues hospital after wife gives birth using someone else¡¯s sperm
The Kyoto District Court in the city of Kyoto heard a complaint Wednesday from a man who says his estranged wife presented someone else's sperm as his and was able to undergo successful fertility treatment using it without his awareness.
How Japan created its naphtha supply bottleneck
Japan received 93% of its oil via the Strait of Hormuz prior to the Feb. 28 start of the Iran war.
¡®Fujiko¡¯ transforms a mother¡¯s resilience into festival gold
¡°Fujiko¡± stars Yuki Katayama (left) as a scrappy single mother who fights for her autonomy in 1970s and ¡¯80s Japan.
Japan should prepare for an intense typhoon season this year, experts say
Elevated water levels are seen along the Tama River in Kawasaki's Tama Ward as Tropical Storm Jangmi brought heavy rain and strong winds to the Kanto region Wednesday.
The LDP wants another coalition partner. Will it happen?
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People (DPP), delivers a question during a House of Representatives plenary session on May 25. Making the DPP a coalition member would make it easier for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (above left) to drive forward her legislative agenda.
Japan¡¯s Cannes moment signals a new global push
Tao Okamoto (left) and Virginie Efira (right) shared the Cannes Film Festival¡¯s best actress honor for their roles in Ryusuke Hamaguchi¡¯s ¡°All of a Sudden,¡± a coproduction between Japan, France, Belgium and Germany.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Community programs and tracking systems are expanding across Japan as local governments search for ways to prevent dementia-related disappearances.
He told his wife he was ¡®coming home.¡¯ Then he disappeared.
By Alex K.T. Martin

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