Technology Takes Flight as Life Changes Below
From flying cars and working robots to migrant remittances, household support, competition law, international justice, dangerous heat, Gion Matsuri and American baseball: today’s edition follows technology and institutions into daily life.
Four to Read First
Flight, robots, workers and welfare
Japan Market Desk
July 15 Tokyo close and global handoff
After Tokyo, Before the Next Open
The Nikkei 225 closed at 68,751.51, up 1.49%, while TOPIX gained 1.22% to 4,088.12. Advantest rose 5.83% as semiconductors and financials led a broader rebound, with the yen, JGB yields, Europe and early U.S. trading shaping the next-open setup.
Read the full closing report →Four More from July 15
Manufacturing, education, medicine and food
Today: 14 News Stories + Art
Technology, work, welfare, justice, climate, culture and sport
SkyDrive’s Flying Car Makes High-Speed Flight over the Seto Inland Sea
Could electric vertical aircraft transform island and urban transport? Learn the history, certification challenge and path to commercial service.
Humanoids, Farm Robots and Factory AI Gather in Tokyo
As robots move from exhibits to workplaces, Japan confronts labor shortages, productivity, safety and responsibility.
Foreign Workers Send More Than ¥1 Trillion Home from Japan
Remittances sustain families abroad while revealing the realities of Japanese wages, the weak yen and migration policy.
Japan Proposes New Benefits for Low-Income and Seriously Ill Residents
Eligibility lines, funding and application barriers explain how cash benefits fit beside social insurance.
Three Companies Raided over Suspected Seven-Eleven Bid-Rigging
Learn the difference between coordinated estimates and a cartel, and how Japan’s competition watchdog investigates.
Japan Defends the International Criminal Court as Washington Escalates Pressure
The Rome Statute, alliance politics and the rule of law place Japanese diplomacy before a difficult choice.
More Than 100 Japanese Locations Hit by Dangerous Extreme Heat
Temperature, humidity, hot nights and urban heat storage combine to make a serious public-health threat.
Gion Matsuri’s Lantern-Lit Yoiyama Nights Take Over Kyoto
Pedestrian streets, float houses and the folding-screen festival reveal the relationship between ritual and city life.
The Moving Museums of Kyoto: Inside the Art of Gion Matsuri’s Floats
Imported textiles, carving and metalwork carry Kyoto’s global history through the streets on wheels.
Japanese Slugger Rintaro Sasaki Begins His American Professional Journey
From Japanese high school to U.S. college and the professional game: a new route illuminates two development systems.
Mitsubishi Motors to Produce Humanoid Robots at its Kyoto Plant
What does it mean when a car factory becomes a humanoid production base? Japan’s automation history offers the context.
Japanese Girls Take a Record Three Places in a Global App Contest
Teenagers solving social problems with software illuminate technology education and the gender gap.
Eisai Points to a More Convenient Treatment Route for Leqembi
A simpler delivery method could reshape the burden on patients, caregivers and medical centers.
Japan’s Rice Crisis Swings from Shortage to Surplus
Supply volatility hits consumer prices and farm income together; acreage controls and stockpiles explain why.
Today’s Gateways
Weather, horoscope, regions and archive
Today’s Art Choice
Gion Festival’s praying-mantis float
Kano Atsunobu — Gion Festival’s Praying-Mantis Float
A giant mantis rides an ox cart in this strange seventeenth-century festival painting. The dancing mechanical float opens a lesson in Kyoto faith, ingenious machinery and visual memory.
Read the independent art article →