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May 21, 2026
 

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Catherine Thorbecke
Tokyo, once ahead in tech before being overtaken by Silicon Valley, is now trying to reinvent itself as a global startup hub by leveraging its stability, AI potential and government-backed support for entrepreneurs.
COMMENTARY / Japan
May 4, 2026
Silicon Valley made AI powerful. Tokyo wants to make it work
Japan is full of contradictions on AI. People here are the least fearful in the world of the technology, perhaps because a shrinking population and labor shortages.
DeepSeek¡¯s R1 breakthrough helped trigger a frenetic year in AI, but Alibaba¡¯s move toward proprietary models is now raising concerns that China¡¯s open-source shift may be slowing.
COMMENTARY / World
May 1, 2026
Why Beijing can¡¯t quit ¡®open¡¯ AI
The shift away from open source may be driven by the need for companies to make money, but it's unlikely to happen all at once.
In Japan, where AI companion robots are being introduced in nursing homes to cope with a growing caregiver shortage, their use underscores both the urgency of the global aging crisis and the danger of placing too much reliance in technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 30, 2026
AI is coming for our aging parents, ready or not
Japan, long a leader in industrial automation, has been trying to make eldercare robots happen for a long time.
Participants line up to install OpenClaw, an open-source AI agent, outside the Baidu offices in Beijing on March 17.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 8, 2026
There¡¯s method to China¡¯s OpenClaw madness
It arrived at exactly the right moment for China's AI sector. After months of brutal price wars, it gave model builders a reason to charge more for tokens.
AI-generated video is now good enough to monetize, with China¡¯s Kuaishou showing how focused, paid tools can scale globally while amplifying deepfake and copyright risks.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2026
Chinese AI videos used to look fake. Now they look like money.
In China, AI video is doing something else that once looked unlikely: making money.
The DEEPX booth at the 2025 Korea Tech Festival in Seoul in December. South Korea has enacted a comprehensive national law called the AI Basic Act to build public trust in AI technology.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 1, 2026
A breakthrough law won¡¯t kill Korea¡¯s AI revolution
The rest of the world will be watching closely. The nation has also become a live demo of how quickly the technology can spread throughout the real economy.
A viral check-in app that alerts contacts if users fail to confirm they are alive has exposed rising loneliness, demographic anxiety and unmet eldercare needs, showing the next breakout tech hit may come from confronting social isolation.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 25, 2026
Forget DeepSeek, dying alone is China¡¯s latest tech obsession
The interface is almost aggressively plain. Users, largely people living alone, tap to confirm they are still alive.
Commuters pass a billboard advertising AI employees at a London Underground station. As artificial intelligence spreads, many people are asking whether it will take their jobs.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 7, 2026
Six unresolved AI questions heading into 2026
We were promised tools to cure disease and solve climate change, but 2025 mostly delivered AI slop and a spammier internet.
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.
The Rapidus semiconductor foundry construction site in Chitose, Hokkaido Prefecture, in December 2023. The state-backed company is attempting a high-risk, high-cost leap into making the world¡¯s most advanced chips to revive the nation's tech industry.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 4, 2025
What TSMC and Shakespeare can teach Japan¡¯s Rapidus
If Rapidus pulls it off, though, this moonshot could rewrite the history of Japan¡¯s tech industry.
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.
Japan must act quickly to protect anime creators through stronger labor rights, transparency and fair compensation as AI threatens to exploit the industry¡¯s creative work.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Nov 18, 2025
Will artificial intelligence turn Japan¡¯s ¡®irreplaceable treasures¡¯ into slop?
AI¡¯s threat gives Japan a second chance to do right by the workers propping up the $21 billion industry.
Australia¡¯s plan to ban under-16s from using social media, including YouTube, has reignited debate over how best to protect kids online.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 14, 2025
Banning teens from YouTube won¡¯t keep them safe
Part of the reason YouTube¡¯s inclusion has struck such a nerve is because it¡¯s impossible to overstate how intertwined it has become with pop culture.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing faces serious threats from attempted trade secret theft and U.S. tariff uncertainty, but its technological dominance and strategic importance keep Taiwan¡¯s ¡°silicon shield¡± intact ¡ª for now.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 8, 2025
Espionage and tariffs can¡¯t tarnish TSMC¡¯s crown
It¡¯s been a long week for the world¡¯s largest chipmaker. But it¡¯s still selling the shovels during an AI gold rush.
A Magic Bot Z1 by Magiclab is displayed at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference at the Shanghai World Expo and Convention Center on Tuesday.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 30, 2025
China¡¯s AI strategy relies on frenzy and frenemies
China¡¯s current AI frenzy represents the best and worst of classic capitalism: The competition propels innovation at a rapid clip, but not all of the companies will survive.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and his OpenAI counterpart, Sam Altman, attend an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo in early February. The SoftBank founder is now proposing his most ambitious venture yet ¡ª a $1 trillion AI and robotics hub in Arizona.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 24, 2025
The magical thinking of Masa Son
The race to lead the world in AI-enabled robots is still in the early stages, but many signs point to China coming out on top.
A Japanese AI researcher says that instead of fearing superintelligent machines, the world should focus on building a symbiotic relationship with them ¡ª a shift in perspective that could reshape the global AI safety debate.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 19, 2025
Make the robot your colleague, not overlord
An argument is emerging for an AI future less like "The Terminator" and more like "Astro Boy."
Apple¡¯s delayed AI rollout in China, hindered by regulatory hurdles and declining local popularity, may still succeed through a partnership with Alibaba.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 11, 2025
Can Apple salvage the AI iPhone in China?
Despite earlier reports that Apple Intelligence could launch in the country in May, the lack of a fresh announcement isn¡¯t a total shock.
After falling behind despite helping pioneer the technology, Japan has the foundation to lead in artificial intelligence ¡ª if it seizes the moment.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Mar 25, 2025
Japan urgently needs an AI vibe shift
Citizens¡¯ embrace of AI also remains surprisingly low. Just 9% of consumers say they have used generative AI.
DeepSeek's impressive AI breakthroughs have sparked global attention but face mounting U.S. scrutiny, with potential bans unlikely to stop its open-source technology from spreading worldwide.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 5, 2025
DeepSeek¡¯s breakthroughs are too big for the U.S. to ban
The national security concerns behind the U.S. push to ban TikTok are even more pronounced when it comes to generative AI.
Female death row inmate sues Japan government over 24/7 surveillance
Tokyo Detention House guidelines dictate that CCTV surveillance can be used when detainees are at risk of suicide or self-harm, or when there is concern they may try to escape.
Almost half of foreign residents have experienced discrimination: government survey
Japan¡¯s foreign resident population rose 9.5% to a record 4.12 million at the end of 2025, topping 4 million for the first time, according to data from the Immigration Services Agency.
¡®There was no village¡¯: Japan¡¯s troubling pattern of family murder-suicides
Akiko Hashiguchi is one of the few people in Japan to publicly share her personal experience with muri shinj¨± under her own name. She has since been involved in parents¡¯ support work and advocacy around developmental disorders.
Japan arrests Americans over stunt at baby monkey Punch¡¯s zoo
Visitors gather in the rain to catch a glimpse of Punch the monkey at Ichikawa City Zoo in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, in April.
Visitors to Japan down 5.5% in April
Japan Tourism Agency chief Shigeki Murata has emphasized that the government will work on implementing "strategic promotions to attract visitors from more countries and regions."
¡®There was no village¡¯: Japan¡¯s troubling pattern of family murder-suicides
Akiko Hashiguchi is one of the few people in Japan to publicly share her personal experience with muri shinj¨± under her own name. She has since been involved in parents¡¯ support work and advocacy around developmental disorders.
Before city pop went global, there was Anri
Anri says younger overseas listeners first surprised her during a 2023 performance in Los Angeles, where most of the audience was in their 20s. Nearly five decades after her debut, songs such as ¡°Last Summer Whisper¡± and ¡°I Can¡¯t Stop the Loneliness¡± continue finding new fans.
Trump says ¡®nothing¡¯s changed¡¯ on Taiwan. But his words belie a big shift.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One en route to the U.S. following his official visit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, on Friday.
Japan¡¯s new emissions trading program: Key climate tool or paper tiger?
A production line at a Nippon Steel plate rolling mill in Kimitsu, Chiba Prefecture, in May 2025.
For all its nonsense, ¡®Mystery Arena¡¯ is weirdly entertaining
Afro-wigged host Momotaro Kabayama (Toshiaki Karasawa) presides over the eponymous game show in Yukihiko Tsutsumi¡¯s ¡°Mystery Arena.¡±

Podcast

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

Longform

Anri says younger overseas listeners first surprised her during a 2023 performance in Los Angeles, where most of the audience was in their 20s. Nearly five decades after her debut, songs such as ¡°Last Summer Whisper¡± and ¡°I Can¡¯t Stop the Loneliness¡± continue finding new fans.
Before city pop went global, there was Anri
By Patrick St. Michel

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