Small Companies, Expensive Money and AI That Moves Machines
How do changing prices and interest rates reach a small company’s price tag, a factory’s investment decision and a region’s next venture? From manufacturing AI to fermentation, tourism and public design, today’s edition reads Japan’s economy from the ground up.
Four to Read First
Economy, rates, factory AI and regional tourism
Market Desk
July 13 Tokyo midday report
Tokyo Midday Report
A pre-afternoon check on the Nikkei, TOPIX, yen, government bonds and company news.
Read the market report →Four From Yesterday
July 13 carryovers
All 15 Stories Today
Economy, regional business, manufacturing, food, culture and tourism
Small Japanese Companies Face a New Price-Rise Squeeze
Fuel, food, shipping and material costs leave smaller firms choosing between higher prices and vanishing margins.
Japan’s 30-Year-High Bond Yields Reach Mortgages and Business Loans
Bond-market turmoil is reaching mortgages, corporate borrowing, public finance and small-company survival calculations.
Japan’s Factories Prepare for AI Agents That Can Act in the Physical World
Manufacturers are testing AI that coordinates machines and robots, raising hard questions about safety, IP and responsibility.
Can AI Revive Regional Companies in Saga?
Saga asks whether AI can ease labor shortages and give regional firms capabilities once reserved for large corporations.
A 32-Year-Old President Takes Charge of Big Holiday
A leadership change at the travel company illuminates succession, holding-company reform and digital transformation.
A Tiny Gifu Brewery Launches Three Beers with a Regional Revival Ambition
Three small-batch beers carry a larger plan built on crowdfunding, local identity and new reasons to visit Nakatsugawa.
Japanese Excavator Attachments Become Working Capsule Toys
Taguchi’s demolition attachments become movable 1:32 toys, joining industrial pride with Japan’s miniature-machine culture.
The Electric Bamboo Steamer Betting on Japan’s Hands-Off Cooking Boom
A countertop appliance combines traditional steaming with convenience, safety and the realities of compact urban kitchens.
An Ishikawa Cooperative Invents a “Sixth Soy Sauce”
Ono Murasaki GF6 combines fermentation research, regional recovery and an effort to take a traditional industry abroad.
Can a Sold-Out Ramen Special Become a National Product?
A limited mazesoba rollout shows how restaurant groups use scarcity and customer response to test wider expansion.
Rokko Mountain Opens a Ten-Ton Ice Chamber to Cool Visitors Naturally
Winter-stored ice and mountain wind create a space roughly 10°C cooler than Kobe, linking seasonal knowledge with climate design.
Tokyo Turns Designer Manhole Covers into a Citywide Treasure Hunt
Ordinary infrastructure has become public art, neighborhood branding and an unexpected form of urban tourism.
From Dufy to Warhol and Kusama: Inside Tokyo’s Summer Art Auction
A Tokyo sale connects modern art, postwar icons and contemporary investment while revealing a changing collector market.
Fukui’s Dinosaur Museum Is Looking for a New Face
A logo search asks how one symbol can carry scientific authority, family adventure and Fukui’s dinosaur identity.
How Iwaki Is Using 60-Second Dramas to Sell a City
Iwaki tests whether characters, emotion and minute-long vertical stories can outperform conventional municipal advertising.
Today’s Entry Points
Weather, horoscope, regions and archive
Today’s Art Choice
The visual language of woodblock modernity
Today’s Art Choice: Kuniteru’s Tomioka Silk Mill
Kuniteru’s image of the Tomioka Silk Mill turned machinery, brick, women’s labor and national modernization into a vivid public lesson. Read why this visual language was chosen for today’s edition.
Read the standalone Art Choice →