Here's what you can do next Japan is increasingly tightening its language requirements for those looking to live in the country. Japan is increasingly tightening its language requirements for those looking to live in the country, with the Immigration Services Agency (ISA) releasing its stricter language requirements for permanent residency applications this week. Over the course of this year, the administration of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has rolled out a raft of Japanese-language requirements across several residence statuses -- leading to a surge in demand for the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT), considered the gold standard in measuring fluency. The revised guidelines released by the ISA on Thursday require permanent residency applicants to demonstrate ability at B1 or above -- roughly N3 on the JLPT -- on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) starting in April next year. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Workers wearing protective suits and masks conduct a decommissioning operation at the No. 2 reactor building of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, in January. Tokyo - Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings on Friday started inspections of the interior of the meltdown-stricken No. 2 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, inserting a robotic arm into the containment vessel. The company aims to better understand conditions inside the reactor at the plant in Fukushima Prefecture, as it plans to extract some nuclear fuel debris on a trial basis. The work is expected to take about half a year. According to Tepco, the latest operation involves cutting some rails and cables that could obstruct the robotic arm's entry with high-pressure water jets and collecting 3D data and images from inside the containment vessel.

SoftBank's credit default swaps hit their highest level since 2023 amid concerns over artificial intelligence safety, rising costs and intensifying competition. SoftBank Group's equity investors are increasingly focused on the potential returns from its artificial intelligence bets, helping the stock rebound even as the Japanese company faces higher borrowing costs. SoftBank shares posted their first monthly gain in four months in September, after OpenAI's new GPT-6 Astra model rekindled optimism around Masayoshi Son's $65 billion commitment to the ChatGPT creator. The stock rose 24% in four weeks, helped by OpenAI's latest plan to raise $30 billion at a valuation of $1.4 trillion. A recovery in chip unit Arm Holdings shares also bolstered confidence about the tech investor's ability to finance growing debt.

Apollo Global Management intends to serve as a strategic investment and financing partner for U.K. developer RHAELM Holdings, which is teaming up with Jera, Japan's largest power generator, and Dell Technologies on a venture in Chiba Prefecture. Apollo Global Management is set to provide financing for a $15 billion AI infrastructure project in Japan, accelerating the private asset firm's push into the artificial intelligence sphere. The New York-based company intends to serve as a strategic investment and financing partner for U.K. developer RHAELM Holdings, which is teaming up with Jera, Japan's largest power generator, and Dell Technologies on the venture in Chiba Prefecture, according to a statement on Thursday. The project, aimed at strengthening Japan's domestic AI capacity, is expected to involve more than $15 billion in capital deployed across land, power infrastructure, construction and computing. Operations are slated to start around 2028, and it will be powered by as much as 400 megawatts of electricity with help from Jera's nearby thermal power station.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks during a news conference in New York on Sept. 23. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Thursday that the government will draw up an action plan by the end of the year to promote the use of artificial intelligence, which she regards as an accelerator for economic growth. "The societal implementation of high-performance AI is essential for realizing the government's growth strategy," Takaichi said at a meeting of the Council for Japan's Growth Strategy. She instructed relevant Cabinet ministers to compile a concrete vision for AI utilization, as well as regulatory and institutional reforms. At the meeting, participants discussed a growth strategy implementation program to be compiled at year-end alongside the government's budget proposal for fiscal 2027.

While Gemini 4 has performed well on benchmarks widely used to gauge model efficacy, it does less well when employees actually put it to work, according to people with direct access to the effort. Alphabet's Google has begun rolling out Gemini 4 Argon, its long-awaited flagship artificial intelligence model, but the company is grappling with internal skepticism over how well it performs in key areas, such as coding. Google unveiled the model Wednesday to a small group of trusted cybersecurity partners and said it would expand access after additional testing, starting with paid subscribers. The company said Gemini 4 posted leading scores on several benchmark tests, including beating OpenAI's Astra model on one that measures security skills. But some insiders say those metrics don't tell the whole story.

U.K. accuses China of using academics to spy on AI and other tech research Policemen stand guard outside the Chinese Embassy in London on Oct. 18, 2015. LONDON - Britain's MI5 spy agency issued an unprecedented alert on Wednesday to warn that a Chinese organization was involved in funding academic research into topics such as AI on behalf of Beijing's state security service. In its "Espionage Alert," MI5 said more than 100 U.K.-based academics had contributed to projects funded by the China General Technology Research Institute (CGTRI), which had "very strong ties" to the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), Beijing's civilian intelligence service. "MI5 has identified that the primary purpose of CGTRI is to fund academic research that directly improves MSS technical capability for espionage," the alert said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

Disaster response an'urgent issue,' says new land minister Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tatsunori Ibayashi answers questions during an interview in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward on Wednesday. New Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Minister Tatsunori Ibayashi on Wednesday pledged to respond to heavy rain and other natural disasters with a sense of urgency. Disaster response is an "urgent issue," Ibayashi said in an interview with media organizations, adding that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has strongly instructed Cabinet ministers to prioritize countermeasures. Large-scale natural disasters, including Typhoon Dujuan, have caused significant damage recently in Japan, he said. "The types of disasters have diversified considerably."

While calling voice a protected right, court dismisses voice actor's AI case TikTok argued in the case that the person who posted the videos let generative AI learn their friend's voice, and it is no more than a generic male voice. The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday dismissed a demand from a high-profile anime voice actor that TikTok remove videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his voice but recognized voice as a protected right. While Presiding Judge Aya Takahashi ruled that voice is also subject to what is known as publicity rights -- celebrities' right to control and protect commercial gain from their identity, such as their name and image -- she dismissed Kenjiro Tsuda's demand, saying the videos had already been deleted. "Human voice is a symbol of an individual's personality, just like image," the ruling said, adding that unauthorized use of voice could constitute an infringement of rights. It is the first time a Japanese court made such a judgment.

Inside McDonald's push to have AI price your Big Mac McDonald's pricing engine uses machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across McDonald's nearly 14,000 restaurants. NEW YORK - McDonald's is increasingly using artificial intelligence to guide menu prices across the U.S. and some global markets, a plan that aims to boost headquarters' profit but risks alienating customers and attracting antitrust scrutiny. One pricing factor supercharged by AI: an estimate of how much each store's patrons are willing to pay. The details of how that pricing system works, its extensive use of AI, the company's regulatory concerns and the tensions with its franchisees haven't been previously reported. For this story, screenshots of the company pricing engine taken in August were reviewed, and nine sources with firsthand knowledge of the burger chain's strategy were interviewed.