Katsuhiro Harada launched VS Studio under SNK. Shinji Mikami's Unbound was absorbed by Korea's SHIFT UP. Daisuke Taka burned through his savings to go solo. As Japan's most celebrated game creators strike out on their own, the capital keeping them afloat is overwhelmingly Saudi and Korean. Here's why Japan's own giants can't fund their stars, and why foreign money can.
Free-space optics sends data on beams of light without cable. The idea dates back to Bell's 1880 photophone. Here is why a 140-year niche technology is now moving toward disaster recovery and remote connectivity, from Taara to Japan's NEC and NICT.
On May 27, Fujitsu announced partnerships with two US AI labs at once, Anthropic and OpenAI. We unpack what this dual strategy means versus NEC's single bet, the Forward Deployed Engineer model, and how Japanese IT giants differ from Microsoft-OpenAI and SoftBank.
China's Chery and Japan's Autobacs are among five companies behind EMTA, a new kei-class EV brand planned for 2027. Why Japan's open market looks nothing like the US or EU.
JAL, JALUX and ispace have unveiled ARGO PROJECT, the first lunar transport service run by an airline. A box called Möbius Ark will carry cultural items to the Moon on ispace's Mission 3 in 2028. Here is why a 75-year-old airline is moving into space logistics.
Electronics giant Panasonic hosted a Tokyo adoption event where 193 rescue dogs and cats met would-be families. A look at why a tech company backs animal welfare, and the company-NPO-newspaper model behind it.
Japan's Business-Value-Based Financing Promotion Act took effect on May 25, 2026, creating an enterprise value charge that lets companies pledge their whole business, including intangibles and future cash flow. We compare it with US venture debt and Korean and Singaporean IP finance, and ask whether banks have the skills to use it.
Asahi Kasei has developed a photosensitive polyimide film for advanced semiconductor packaging—turning a liquid material into a laminated film, the same playbook behind ABF. We explain what it means for AI chiplet packaging, how it stacks up against US and Korean rivals, and why Japan keeps winning the materials game.
Kyoto Institute of Technology and JST have demonstrated a spinor condensate at room temperature, a quantum state once confined to cryogenic cold. Here is what it means for light-based quantum devices and Japan's distinct path versus Google and USTC.
Takara Tomy's Licca-chan is back in the US after 40-plus years. We unpack why it lost to Barbie as LISA in 1980, why the rival is now Labubu's kidult collectible market, and whether the anime-led comeback can work.
Warabi mochi is a Japanese sweet famous for its jiggly, melt-in-your-mouth texture. We dig into its surprising origin (it is not made from rice), its thousand-year history, the rise of matcha warabi mochi, and why it keeps going viral on TikTok.
