economy [News] Joint statement by 14 countries on China’s claims over sovereignty over the South China Sea
Fourteen countries, including Japan, the United States, and the Philippines, issued a joint statement declaring that Chi...
economy 
IT [Explanation] Government Promotes ‘Vertical AI’
On July 10, 2026, the Japanese government officially decided on a revision of the "Second Phase Basic Plan for Artificia...
economy [News] Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs see inflows for the first time in 8 weeks
In July 2026, the U.S. Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs curbed eight weeks of outflows, turning to excess inflows. This is...
IT [Explanation] Digital Agency Pilots Domestic AI on Sakura’s Cloud
On July 10, 2026, the Digital Agency announced that it would trial domestic large language models (LLMs) on the domestic...
IT [Explanation] Alibaba’s “Wan-Streamer” Real-Time Interaction
A research team at Alibaba has announced a foundational model called "Wan-Streamer," which integrates audio and video to...
economy [News] Oil resource development increases U.S. crude oil and natural gas production fourfold, considering supply to Japan
Japan Petroleum Exploration Corporation (JAPEX) has announced an ambitious management plan to quadruple U.S. crude oil a...
IT [Explanation] Claude’s new feature: “Reflect”
On July 9, 2026, Anthropic in the US launched a beta release of a new feature called "Reflect," which visualizes the usa...
IT [Explanation] Adding GPT-5.6 to Microsoft 365 Copilot
On July 9, 2026, Microsoft announced that it has adopted OpenAI's latest AI, GPT-5.6, as the preferred model for Microso...
economy [News] Ministry of Justice to investigate the actual situation of buildings with unknown owners
The Ministry of Justice has launched a survey on the actual situation of "buildings with unknown owners," estimated to b...
IT [Commentary] European Commission Issues Action Plan for AI Cybersecurity
On July 7, 2026, the European Commission announced the "Action Plan on Cybersecurity and AI" to address the cyber risks ...