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Macro photograph of a black Hynix DRAM chip package soldered to a blue circuit board

Business 6 min A South Korean Law Could Block SK Hynix's Planned Memory Plant in Japan Miyagi wants the plant and Tokyo is offering subsidies to get it. The approval that decides the question is a... DA Daniel Koh 1 Sep

Jakarta at night, with traffic light trails along a main road and towers behind

Finance 6 min SBI Buys Access to 20 Million Indonesian Investors. Do They Want Yen? Indonesians earn, spend and save in rupiah, and hold dollars when they hold a stablecoin at all. The question... DA Daniel Koh 31 Aug

Steel framework and insulated pipework on the exterior of an industrial process plant

Science 6 min Fukushima Holds 880 Tons of Debris. Crews Have Removed Under a Gram. Two trial retrievals have brought out 0.887 grams against 880 tons of fuel debris. The grams are not the proje... NA Nadia Rahim 31 Aug

A city bus crossing an illuminated Tokyo intersection at night

AI & ML 6 min Japan's Banks Waited Eleven Weeks for a Capability Anyone Can Download A US directive covered foreign nationals, so Anthropic switched the models off for everyone, including America... MA Maya Lin 31 Aug

Tokyo waterfront towers lit up at night, reflected in the water below.

Finance 7 min SoftBank Is Refinancing Its OpenAI Bet for the Fourth Time A $40bn bridge, a $10-20bn bond sale, a record ¥1tn retail issue and a $10bn margin loan against the stake its... SA Sarah Chew 27 Aug

A ceramic processor package with a gold lid and rows of gold contact pins, on a white background.

Business 7 min Japan's Extra $944m for Rapidus Is a Budget Request, Not a Cheque The money is sought in METI's fiscal 2027 budget, and its purpose is to raise the company's capital so banks w... SA Sarah Chew 25 Aug

A spacecraft with solar arrays extended, photographed in orbit above a desert coastline — illustrative of an orbiting satellite; this is not MICHIBIKI No. 7.

Science 7 min Japan Launched Its Seventh Navigation Satellite. It Is Flying Six. MICHIBIKI No. 7 reached orbit on Tuesday morning, completing the launch manifest for a seven-satellite design.... NA Nadia Rahim 11 Aug

An empty meeting room with laptops and papers left on the table — illustrating the corporate division NEC has staffed entirely with AI agents.

AI & ML 7 min NEC Gave a Department Seventeen AI Employees and No Human Ones NEC has made a formal corporate division staffed entirely by AI agents, with a division head, a board, manager... MA Maya Lin 11 Aug

An industrial robot arm on a factory line — illustrating the physical-AI market these image sensors are being built for.

Business 7 min Sony and TSMC Are Reported to Be Spending ¥1 Trillion on Sensors. The Reason Is Robots. A reported ¥1 trillion joint venture in Kumamoto, 60% Sony and 40% TSMC, producing next-generation image senso... EV Eva Chin 11 Aug

Detail view of retail sales chart and pencils on desk, showcasing data analysis.

Cybersecurity 5 min Japan Logged 19,417 Data-Breach Reports in FY2025 — What the Second-Highest Total on Record Does and Doesn't Tell You Japan's privacy regulator recorded 19,417 breach notifications in FY2025, the second-highest on record but dow... CY Cyber Team 20 Jul

Night view of a KFC restaurant in Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan.

Cybersecurity 5 min A Cyberattack on One Cold-Chain Operator Emptied KFC Japan's Shelves — the Cost of a Single Logistics Chokepoint Nichirei, Japan's largest cold-chain logistics operator, was hit by a cyberattack on 13 July. Containing it me... CY Cyber Team 20 Jul