Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has created a new certification system allowing US-made cars to be registered without additional safety testing. Born from the July 2025 US-Japan trade deal, this move addresses longstanding claims of non-tariff barriers. Here's how Japan is reacting.
Trump's auto tariffs have shaken Japan's major automakers to the core. Mazda posts its first loss in 5 years, Honda's car division sees record losses. A deep dive into their earnings, the tariff damage in dollars, and early signs of recovery.
Japan's government launches public solicitation for regulatory barriers to AI adoption. From AI-assisted cancer screening to AI contract drafting concerns, discover how Japan is tackling regulation reform in healthcare and legal fields.
Japan once built 40% of the world's ships and now builds 8%. The government's Shipbuilding Revival Roadmap puts about 1 trillion yen ($6.5 billion) of public and private money behind doubling annual capacity to 18 million gross tons by 2035. Imabari's takeover of JMU, the signed frigate contract with Australia, and US-Japan cooperation, alongside the labor and scale problems that could stall all of it.
Japan's first nuclear-powered ship "Mutsu," launched in 1969, was plagued by a radiation leak incident and fierce public opposition. Yet engineers cut the hull apart, removed the reactor, and spent roughly $1.3 billion (in today's value) transforming it into "Mirai" — one of the world's largest ocean research vessels. Over 28 years, Mirai sailed 2.3 million km (58 trips around Earth), pioneered Arctic research, and even surveyed Fukushima's nuclear contamination. Retired in December 2025, its story of dramatic reinvention now passes the torch to the icebreaking successor "Mirai II."
The Bank of Japan has officially begun selling its massive ETF holdings worth ¥37 trillion ($240B) at book value. With annual sales of just ¥330 billion, this unprecedented unwinding could take over 112 years. Here's what it means for global markets and Japan's financial future.
Both the US and Japan are undergoing historic shifts in digital asset regulation in 2026. From Trump's GENIUS Act and Bitcoin Strategic Reserve to Takaichi's 20% flat tax and financial instruments law reform, explore how the world's two largest crypto-friendly economies are reshaping the future of digital finance.
Fujitsu successfully piloted its LLM "Takane" with a Japanese central government agency, automatically classifying and summarizing approximately 120,000 characters of public comment data in about 10 minutes. The company aims to launch a comprehensive generative AI service for policy formulation and legislation by FY2026.
Japan's Air Self-Defense Force scrambles over 700 times annually at $38,000 per hour. With China's drones increasing and F-15s aging, can the UK-Italy-Japan GCAP sixth-gen fighter solve the crisis? An in-depth look at Japan's air defense challenges.
In January 2026, the yen surged to the 155 level after reports that Japanese and US authorities conducted coordinated "rate checks," signaling potential currency intervention. We explain what this means for the Japanese economy amid election-driven fiscal policy debates.
Japan's 2025 trade deficit halved to ¥2.65 trillion, down 52.9% year-on-year. Record exports of ¥110.4 trillion were driven by electronic components and semiconductors shipped to Asia and the EU. Trump tariffs caused US-bound exports to fall for the first time in five years.