DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Kishida to visit Fukushima plant on Sunday before water release decision
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein Acquire Licensing RightsTOKYO, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he will visit the Fukushima nuclear plant on Sunday ahead of a final decision on when to begin releasing wastewater from the wrecked facility. The government is at the final stage of when it has to make a decision," Kishida said on Friday in the U.S. His comments were aired by public broadcaster NHK. The International Atomic Energy Agency last month published a report greenlighting the release of radioactive water that Japan says it need to pump into the sea because it is running out of space to store it on site. The decision has been criticized by China and is opposed by some citizens' groups in Japan and South Korea. Kishida was in the U.S. for a trilateral meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and President Joe Biden.

Persons: Fumio Kishida, Joe Biden, Yoon Suk, Camp David, Evelyn Hockstein, Kishida, Yoon Suk Yeol, Tim Kelly, Sonali Paul Organizations: U.S, South, REUTERS, Rights, NHK, International Atomic Energy Agency, South Korean, Thomson Locations: Camp, Thurmont , Maryland, U.S, Japan, China, South Korea

U.S. President Joe Biden hopes to cement those ties with a summit at Camp David, the storied presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, this Friday. To be sure, previous efforts to build closer ties between South Korea and Japan have stumbled. China blasted the move, seizing on a chance to embarrass Tokyo ahead of the Camp David summit. No specific action by the trio in Camp David is expected to sharply escalate rhetoric with Beijing. Just last month, Kim hosted Russia's defense minister and a Chinese Communist Party Politburo member in Pyongyang for an event celebrating the end of the 1950-1953 war between North and South Korea.

Persons: Joe Biden, Kevin Lamarque, Yoon Suk, didn't, Yoon, Biden, Camp David, Dennis Wilder, George W, Bush, Kishida, Kim Tae, hyo, David, Donald Trump, Kurt Campbell, East Asia Mira Rapp, Hooper, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong, Kim, Trevor Hunnicutt, David Brunnstrom, Hyonhee Shin, Josh Smith, Tim Kelly, Sakura Murakami, Don Durfee, Alistair Bell Organizations: White, REUTERS, South, Camp, Georgetown University, Republican, East Asia, NATO, Chinese Communist Party Politburo, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, WASHINGTON, SEOUL, TOKYO, Japan, South Korean, North Korea, Seoul, Tokyo, East Asia, Taiwan, U.S, Camp, Maryland's Catoctin, South Korea, Korean, China, Korea, Washington, Pacific, Beijing, Russia, Pyongyang, North

By accepting an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report last month that greenlit Japan's Fukushima water release, Yoon could encourage fresh dissent that China will try to amplify, analysts say. On Monday, Park Gu-yeon, vice minister of government policy coordination at the prime minister's office, said both sides have made "substantial progress" on the water release issue. A senior South Korean official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivity, said the government did not see it as a source of friction. "China absolutely will try to exploit Fukushima to drive a wedge between South Korea and Japan," said David Boling, a director at consulting firm Eurasia Group. In July, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Japan had shown selfishness and arrogance, and had not fully consulted the international community about the water release.

Persons: Rafael Mariano Grossi, Kobayakawa, Joe Biden, Yoon Suk Yeol, Fumio Kishida, Biden, David, Yoon, Japan Rahm Emanuel, Moon Jae, Christopher Johnstone, Antony Blinken, they've, David Boling, Joshua Kurlantzick, Wang Wenbin, Hirokazu Matsuno, Tim Kelly, Sakura Murakami, Hyonhee Shin, Josh Smith, David Brunnstrom, Trevor Hunnicutt, Ekaterina Golubkova, Lun Tian, Yoshifumi, Gerry Doyle Organizations: International Atomic Energy Agency, Tokyo Electric Power Co, Japanese, Reuters, U.S, IAEA, Biden's National Security Council, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Japan, South Korean, South, Gallup, Eurasia Group, Council, Foreign Relations, Global Times, Thomson Locations: Futaba, Japan, TOKYO, SEOUL, South Korea, Tokyo, China, Washington, East Asia, Taiwan, Beijing, Russia, North Korea, United States, Australia, Britain, Seoul, Seoul . U.S, Fukushima, Korean

☆ U.S., Japan to develop hypersonic missile interceptor - Yomiuri
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Tim KellyTOKYO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Japan and the U.S. will agree this week to jointly develop an interceptor missile to counter hypersonic warheads being developed by China, Russia and North Korea, Japan's Yomiuri newspaper said on Sunday. Officials at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be reached for comment outside business hours. Unlike typical ballistic warheads, which fly on predictable trajectories as they fall from space to their targets, hypersonic projectiles can change course, making them more difficult to target. An agreement would be the second such collaboration in missile defence technology. Washington and Tokyo developed a longer-range missile designed to hit warheads in space, which Japan is deploying on warships in the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula to guard against North Korean missiles strikes.

Persons: Marine's Camp Foster, Tim Kelly TOKYO, Joe Biden, Fumio Kishida, Biden, Yoon Suk, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin, Yoshimasa Hayashi, Yasukazu Hamada, Tim Kelly, William Mallard Organizations: U.S, Marine's, REUTERS, Japan's Yomiuri, Japanese, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yomiuri, North Korean, Thomson Locations: Ginowan, Okinawa, Japan, U.S, China, Russia, North Korea, Camp David, Maryland, Washington, Tokyo

There's no need to identify the country, all you need to do is control the item," a Japanese industry ministry official told Reuters. Two of them, deposition machinery maker Kokusai Electric and Japan's leading chip tool maker Tokyo Electron (8035.T), said they expect Japan's controls to have a limited business impact. COORDINATIONDovetailing Japan's controls with those of the U.S. and the Netherlands will require close coordination. He has met with Japanese trade officials and believes Tokyo is committed to curbing certain exports. Tokyo remains worried that targeting China will provoke damaging retaliation, such as a ban on Japanese electric cars, a third Japanese industry official said.

Persons: Emily Benson, Kevin Wolf, Jim Lewis, Lewis, Joe Biden's administrationis, Tim Kelly Karen Freifeld, Kentaro Sugiyama, Toby Sterling, Yoshifumi, Lincoln Organizations: TOKYO, Reuters, Center, Strategic, International Studies, Tokyo, Advantest Corp, Nikon Corp, Canon Inc, Screen Holdings, U.S . State Department and Commerce Department, Center for Strategic, U.S, U.S . Commerce Department, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Beijing, Japan, U.S, China, backdown, Washington, Netherlands, Amsterdam

TOKYO, July 19 (Reuters) - Japan needs to rapidly expand computing power as it vies to become a global leader in artificial intelligence, said Hideki Murai, a special AI adviser to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. "The government's key priority is computing power. We feel a real sense of crisis about that," Murai, a ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker who heads the government's AI strategy team, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. Japan, the world's third-largest economy, has been slow to invest in the field, and lags the United States in AI computer infrastructure. Some 3,000 companies in Japan have access to a supercomputer at the government's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) offering 0.8 exaflops of computing power.

Persons: Hideki Murai, Fumio Kishida, OpenAI, Murai, Shohei Ohtani, Tim Kelly, Sam Nussey, Miho Uranaka, Sam Holmes Organizations: Liberal Democratic, Reuters, government's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science, Technology, Microsoft, Japan's Ministry of Economy Trade, Industry, SoftBank Corp, AIs, Japan, Major League, European Union, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, United States, AIST, European

REUTERS/Issei KatoTOKYO, July 8 (Reuters) - Japan on Saturday marked one year since former prime minister Shinzo Abe was gunned down during an election speech by a man angry at his links to the Unification Church. The death of Japan's longest serving prime minister, which was caught on video, rattled a nation unused to gun violence. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and other senior officials and lawmakers joined Abe's widow, Akie, at a private memorial service at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo. Among them was Tsuu Ogawa, 49, a hotel worker, who celebrated her birthday the day that Abe was assassinated. In social media posts before the shooting, he blamed the Unification Church for leaving his mother in financial straits.

Persons: Shinzo Abe, Issei Kato TOKYO, Japan's, Fumio Kishida, Akie, Tsuu Ogawa, Abe, Critics, Atsuhiro Ueda, Kishida, Tetsuya Yamagami, Daishiro Yamagiwa, Tim Kelly, Irene Wang, Kim Coghill Organizations: REUTERS, Unification Church, Liberal Democratic Party, Unification, Korean, Economic, Thomson Locations: Zojoji, Tokyo, Japan

That initiative follows a visit to Japan by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in January when he said the lessons China was learning from Ukraine could influence its decisions. NATO documents have begun to reflect concern about China, East Asia and the Indo-Pacific, but Japan needs to deepen its awareness of those issues, a Japanese official involved in discussions about NATO ties said. Diplomats from two European NATO countries who spoke to Reuters said unease in the alliance about a Tokyo office went beyond France. Another Japanese official involved in preparations for Kishida's NATO visit said the idea of a NATO office in Japan had nothing to do with China, but that is how it became framed, and each NATO country has its own relations with China. Under Yoon, South Korea has set up a liaison office with NATO in Brussels and has embraced a call for unity among like-minded countries.

Persons: Fumio Kishida, ”, Michito Tsuruoka, Kishida, Jens Stoltenberg, Emmanuel Macron's, Yoon Suk Yeol, Yoon, Anthony Albanese, We’ll, Albanese, Sakura Murakami, Tim Kelly, John Irish, Josh Smith, Praveen Menon Organizations: NATO, Atlantic Treaty Organization, Keio University, NATO's, Diplomats, Reuters, Japanese, SYDNEY South, Australian, Asia Pacific, Ukraine, Sky News, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Lithuania, Ukraine, Asia, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, U.S, Europe, Russia, NATO, East Asia, China, Taiwan, North Korea, Lithuania's, Vilnius, Tokyo, France, Brussels, Danish, SEOUL, Poland, Paris, Seoul, Sydney

☆ SBI Holdings to help Taiwan's Powerchip build a plant in Japan
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, July 5 (Reuters) - Financial firm SBI Holdings (8473.T) said on Wednesday it would help Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (6770.TW) establish a factory in Japan as the country looks to revive its chip industry. "This is the best possible time to enter chip manufacturing," Kitao said at a joint press conference with the Taiwanese company's chairman, Frank Huang. Powerchip is currently looking at three or four potential sites and manufacturing could begin two years after construction starts, Kitao added. Japan is also funding a homegrown venture, Rapidus, which says it plans to produce advanced logic chips from the middle of the decade with help from IBM Corp (IBM.N). Powerchip provides contract manufacturing services for logic and memory chips for power management to customers including MediaTek Inc (2454.TW), Taiwan's largest designer of mobile phone chips.

Persons: Yoshitaka Kitao, Kitao, Frank Huang, Powerchip, Miho Uranaka, Tim Kelly, Christopher Cushing, Jamie Freed, Louise Heavens Organizations: Financial, SBI Holdings, Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, SBI, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Sony Group, Denso Corp, Kioxia Corp, Western Digital Corp, chipmaker Micron Technology, IBM Corp, MediaTek Inc, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, Kumamoto prefecture, Hiroshima

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationTOKYO, July 3 (Reuters) - Japan is leaning toward softer rules governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) than the European Union, said an official close to deliberations, as it looks to the technology to boost economic growth and make it a leader in advanced chips. A softer Japanese approach could dull EU efforts to establish its rules as a global benchmark, with requirements such as companies disclosing copyrighted material used to train AI systems that generate content like text and graphics. EU industry chief Thierry Breton is visiting Tokyo this week to promote the bloc's approach to AI rule-making as well as to deepen cooperation in semiconductors. The government official did not elaborate on areas where Japan's rules were likely to differ from those of the EU. For Japan, AI could help cope with the population decline that is causing a labour shortage.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Thierry Breton, Yutaka Matsuo, Matsuo, Breton, Japan's, Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly, Christopher Cushing Organizations: REUTERS, European Union, EU, The University, Tokyo's, Learning, SoftBank, Microsoft, Japan, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, European, U.S, Tokyo, China

A softer Japanese approach could dull EU efforts to establish its rules as a global benchmark, with requirements such as companies disclosing copyrighted material used to train AI systems that generate content like text and graphics. EU industry chief Thierry Breton is visiting Tokyo this week to promote the bloc's approach to AI rule-making as well as to deepen cooperation in semiconductors. The government official did not elaborate on areas where Japan's rules were likely to differ from those of the EU. For Japan, AI could help cope with the population decline that is causing a labour shortage. "If you increased the GPUs in Japan by 10 times, it would probably still be less than what OpenAI has available," said Prof. Matsuo.

☆ Factbox: Japan ramps up efforts to strengthen its chip industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Below are investments in Japan announced by chipmakers and measures the government is taking to revive its semiconductor industry. Sony Group (6758.T) and auto parts maker Denso (6902.T), which will use the chips TSMC makes, are also investors. It said it would be the first chipmaker to bring EUV technology to Japan for production. It has offered TSMC a 476 billion yen subsidy, or about half the expected cost of the factory. Rapidus secured an initial 70 billion yen of funding from the government, and local media reported in April that the government was finalising a plan to provide an additional 300 billion yen.

Persons: TW, Rapidus, JIC, Makiko Yamazaki, Sam Nussey, Tim Kelly, Miho Uranaka, Miyoung Kim, Jamie Freed Organizations: Semiconductor, chipmakers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Sony Group, Micron Technology, Samsung Electronics, Reuters, Business Machines, IBM, Samsung, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan Investment Corp, Innovation Network Corp of Japan, Toshiba, Japan Industrial Partners, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Japan, Kyushu, Denso, KS, Yokohama, Japan's, Chitose, Hokkaido, Rapidus, U.S, China, State

To help address that, Tokyo in April said it would offer like-minded countries military aid, including radars, that the officials said would help the Philippines plug defensive gaps. One, however, said the aid effort was a Japanese initiative and not anything the United States had pressed for. The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs said it was not immediately able to comment on security aid from Japan or hosting Japanese troops. LOOSENING THE RULESThe scope of Japanese military aid is limited by a self-imposed ban on lethal equipment exports. But he said Japan and the United States are treading carefully in trilateral talks with the Philippines.

Persons: Read, Fumio, Katsutoshi Kawano, Joe Biden's, Jake Sullivan, Takeo Akiba, Eduardo Ano, Fumio Kishida, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Kishida, Kawano, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Marcos, Yusuke Ishihara, Tim Kelly, Sakura Murakami, Yukiko Toyoda, Neil Jerome Morales, Gerry Doyle Organizations: U.S, Marines, Warriors, Philippine Marine Corps, Japanese, Reuters, Washington, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, Ukraine, Group, Seven, Self - Defence Forces, Staff, Japan's National Institute for Defense Studies, Thomson Locations: Philippine, Japan, South Korea, ”, Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines, TOKYO, Indonesia, Taiwan, Ukraine, East Asia, Tokyo, Pacific, China, Japanese, United States, Kyiv, Manila, Yonaguni, Britain, Australia

☆ North Korea fires two short-range missiles after warning of response to allied drills
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, June 15 (Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Thursday, the South Korean military said, less than an hour after Pyongyang warned of an "inevitable" response to military drills staged earlier in the day by South Korean and U.S. troops. The latest action by North Korea came as U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was in Tokyo for meetings with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts. The government was due to hold a National Security Council meeting, Kyodo news reported separately. North Korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programmes are banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions that have sanctioned the country. South Korea sued North Korea on Wednesday for $35 million in compensation for a liaison office that North Korea blew up in 2020, in a case highlighting the breakdown of ties between the neighbours as the North presses on with its weapons programmes.

Persons: Joe Biden's, Jake Sullivan, Cho Tae, Takeo Akiba, Yoon Suk, Heekyong Yang, Josh Smith, Tim Kelly, John Stonestreet, Alex Richardson, Chizu Organizations: South Korean, Korean, South, National, National Security Council, Kyodo, North Korea's Ministry of National Defence, United Nations, Thomson Locations: SEOUL, North Korea, Pyongyang, U.S, Tokyo, Japan, Hegura, Ishikawa prefecture, South Korea, Korea, Seoul

☆ Explainer: How could solid-state batteries improve next-gen EVs?
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Solid-state batteries have been used in small electronic devices such as pacemakers and smart watches. Solid-state batteries can hold more energy than liquid lithium-ion batteries, a gain that would potentially speed the transition to EVs by addressing a consumer concern: range. That has made solid-state batteries far more expensive than liquid lithium-ion batteries. Honda is developing solid-state batteries but has not detailed a timeline for bringing them to market. Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), another Solid Power investor, has said it plans to mass produce solid-state batteries by 2030.

Persons: Tesla, Bill Gates, Tim Kelly, Sayantani Ghosh, Kevin Krolicki, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Toyota, Reuters, Tesla, Panasonic, Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen, Automotive Cells Co, Mercedes, Benz, ProLogium Technology, Ford, BMW, Hyundai, Solid Power, EV, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, SINGAPORE, U.S, Taiwan

☆ China aircraft monitored US, France, Canada, Japan navy drill - media
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIJING, June 12 (Reuters) - China deployed a reconnaissance aircraft over Pacific waters east of Taiwan last week that Chinese media said monitored and gathered intelligence on an exercise involving the navies of the United States, Japan, France and Canada. The islands separate the East China Sea from the Philippine Sea, and dot the West Pacific between Japan and Taiwan, which China claims as its territory. The Japanese defence ministry reported a sighting of a Y-9 reconnaissance variant in the Pacific on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Japanese ministry said on Monday it was analysing a piece of equipment attached to the undercarriage of the Y-9 variant that had not been seen before. Days before the quadrilateral exercise, the coast guards of the Philippines, United States and Japan held their first trilateral exercise off the coast of a western Philippine province.

Persons: USS Nimitz, Ronald Reagan, Albee Zhang, Ryan Woo, Tim Kelly, Gerry Doyle, Robeert Organizations: Global Times, U.S, USS, U.S ., U.S . 7th Fleet, Military, South China, Thomson Locations: BEIJING, China, Taiwan, United States, Japan, France, Canada, Ryukyu, Philippine, Beijing, East, Pacific, U.S, South, Philippines, Tokyo

☆ Japan, South Korea to speed up talks over pending military issues
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, June 4 (Reuters) - Japan and South Korea agreed on Sunday to quickly resolve disputes over past military encounters that stand in the way of closer security cooperation, Japan's defence minister said at the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore. Yasukazu Hamada held talks with his South Korean counterpart, Lee Jong-sup, as part of Asia's top security conference. "We discussed pending issues" and agreed "to accelerate talks, including steps to prevent a recurrence" of a 2018 radar incident, Hamada told reporters after the meeting. "We will continue to keep close communication with South Korea," he said. Hamada said he and Lee agreed on the importance of promoting defence cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Persons: Yasukazu Hamada, Lee Jong, Hamada, Lee, Kaori Kaneko, Tim Kelly, Hyonhee Shin, Hyun Young Yi, Gerry Doyle, William Mallard Organizations: South Korean, Thomson Locations: SINGAPORE, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Seoul, Korean, North Korea, U.S, United States

[1/2] Ukrainian artillery fires towards the frontline during heavy fighting amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near Bakhmut, Ukraine, April 13, 2023. Following Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to Japan during the Hiroshima G7 leaders summit last month, Kishida agreed to donate jeeps and trucks. Japan is one of dozens of friends and allies that Washington is asking to help arm Ukraine as it wrestles with stretched military supply chains. Reuters contacted 22 explosives makers listed on the Japan Explosives Industry Association's website. The only one that said it made industrial TNT was Chugoku Kayaku, an Hiroshima-based firm that supplies Japan's military.

Persons: Kai Pfaffenbach, Lloyd Austin, Washington, Fumio Kishida, Volodymyr Zelenskiy's, Kishida, Tsuneo Watanabe, Austin, Akihisa Nagashima, Tim Kelly, Nobuhiro Kubo, Yukiko Toyoda, Kaori Kaneko, Idrees Ali, David Crawshaw Organizations: REUTERS, TNT, Russian, Reuters, Panasonic, Defense, U.S, Japan's Ministry of Trade, Industry, Technology, Logistics Agency, U.S . State Department, Ukraine, TNT Washington, Japan Explosives Industry, Liberal Democratic Party, Thomson Locations: Ukraine, Bakhmut, TOKYO, United States, Japan, Washington, U.S, Tokyo, China, Taiwan, East Asia, Kyiv, Hiroshima, Sasakawa, South Korea, Chugoku, Japan's, Russia, Seoul

☆ Japan tells US it wants closer cooperation to deal with North Korea
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada shake hands at the end of a joint press conference after their meeting at the Japanese Defense ministry in Tokyo, Japan, 01 June 2023. After Japan, Secretary of Defense Austin will travel to Singapore, India and... Read moreTOKYO, June 1 (Reuters) - Japan's Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada on Thursday told U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin he wanted to deepen security cooperation with Washington and South Korea after North Korea's failed rocket launch. "We need to strengthen ties between Japan and the U.S. and also between Japan, the U.S. and ROK (Republic of Korea), as it possible that North Korea launches again," Hamada told Austin at a meeting in TokyoAustin was in Japan on a stopover on his way to Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue Asian security summit. The failed North Korean launch of what it said was a military satellite on Thursday prompted emergency alerts in parts of Japan and South Korea, with residents warned to take cover. Austin told Hamada he wanted to bolster cooperation between their alliance, South Korea and Australia, as they also face challenges posed by China and Russia.

Persons: Defense Lloyd Austin, Yasukazu Hamada, Defense Austin, Read, Lloyd Austin, Hamada, Austin, Tim Kelly, Mariko Katsumura, Tom Hogue, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Defense, Japanese Defense, Japan's Defense, Thursday, U.S . Defense, ROK, Korea, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan, Singapore, India, TOKYO, Washington, South Korea, North, U.S, Republic of Korea, Tokyo Austin, France, Australia, China, Russia

☆ US Defense Secretary Austin says China's meeting snub unfortunate
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Tim Kelly | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/6] US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reviews the guard of honour at the Japanese Defense Ministry in Tokyo, Japan, 01 June 2023. After Japan, Secretary of Defense Austin will travel to Singapore, India and France. Austin stopped in Tokyo on his way to the annual Shangri-La Dialogue Asian security summit, which starts in Singapore on Friday. At their meeting in Tokyo, Austin and Hamada said they had discussed North Korea's rocket launch on Wednesday, tensions with China and Russia's attack on Ukraine. "North Korea's dangerous and destabilising nuclear and missile programs threaten peace and stability in the region," Austin said.

Persons: Defense Lloyd Austin, Defense Austin, FRANCK ROBICHON, Lloyd Austin, Austin, of National Defence Li Shangfu, Li, Yasukazu Hamada, Hamada, Tim Kelly, Mariko Katsumura, Tom Hogue, Gerry Doyle Organizations: Defense, Japanese Defense Ministry, REUTERS, . Defense, of National Defence, Austin, Japanese Defence, Ukraine, ASEAN, Association of Southeast Asia, Thomson Locations: Tokyo, Japan, Singapore, India, France, REUTERS TOKYO, U.S, Chinese, South China, China, Austin, Ukraine, North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Australia, Korea, United States, Republic of Korea, Association of Southeast Asia Nations

☆ Washington and Tokyo vow closer chip cooperation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Nishimura Yasutoshi, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), talks during an interview with Reuters in Tokyo, Japan, April 5, 2023. In a joint statement, the two countries agreed to increase cooperation between their research and development hubs, as they map out future technology collaboration. The statement came after Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura met in Detroit with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. The two countries agreed to work together "to identify and resolve geographic concentrations of production undermining semiconductor supply chain resilience". Raimondo on Thursday met China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao in Washington where the pair exchanged views on trade, investment and export policies.

☆ G7 leaders agree to new initiative to fight economic coercion
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - Group of Seven leaders on Saturday agreed to a new initiative to counter economic coercion, and pledged action to ensure that any actors attempting to weaponise economic dependence would fail and face consequences. The initiative, dubbed Coordination Platform on Economic Coercion, will use early warning and rapid information sharing on economic coercion with members meeting regularly for consultations, the leaders said in a statement. "The world has encountered a disturbing rise in incidents of economic coercion that seek to exploit economic vulnerabilities," the G7 leaders said in a statement following a meeting in Hiroshima, Japan. The statement also committed the G7 leaders to deepen cooperation on hardening supply chains and called for a bigger role for lower income countries in promoting economic resilience. The group also agreed to deepen cooperation in information sharing as it looks to establish new standards for next generation technologies.

☆ Japan arranging subsidies for Samsung chip facility -source
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Maki Shiraki | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, May 17 (Reuters) - Japan is arranging subsidies that could be worth around 15 billion yen ($110 million) to South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS) for a chip facility it is considering setting up near Tokyo, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. Samsung, the world's largest maker of memory chips, would construct the facility including its first chip packaging test line in Japan near its existing research and development centre in Yokohama, Reuters reported in late March. The facility could cost around 40 billion yen to set up, of which about a third would be subsidised by the Japanese government, said the source, who declined to be named because the information is not public. Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday plans to meet with executives from leading chip firms including Samsung to strengthen multilateral cooperation. Japan said last month it would give 260 billion yen in subsidies to domestic chipmaker Rapidus, which is building a factory on the northern island of Hokkaido, in addition to 70 billion yen of government funding secured earlier.

☆ Mitsubishi Heavy expects record defence orders as Japan pours money into military
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (7011.T) on Wednesday said it expects to book record defence equipment orders this business year as Japan embarks on its biggest military expansion since World War Two. His company said it expects defence orders to jump by around a half to as much as 850 billion yen ($6.29 billion) in the first year of Japan's five-year $318 billion military build up which began in April. The maker of missiles, tanks, submarines and other defence equipment is Japan's biggest defence contractor, with military work accounting for around a tenth of overall revenue. Many other military contractors in Japan, however, have been hesitant to invest in defence businesses as they often represent a much smaller share of sales. Mitsubishi Heavy, which makes products ranging from air conditioners to nuclear reactors expects overall operating profit for the business year to increase by a half to 300 billion yen.

Landing of aircraft at night and in bad weather, for instance - crucial to regular offshore carrier operations - remain far from routine, several of the attaches and analysts said. "Carrier operations are a very complicated game, and China's got to figure this out all by itself. A new plane, the KJ-600, designed to perform a similar role to the E-2C/D Hawkeye launched from U.S. carriers, is still in testing, according to the Pentagon's latest annual report on China's military. Several countries operate aircraft carriers but the U.S. remains the most dominant, running 11 carrier battlegroups with global reach. A September editorial published in a magazine run by a PLA weapons manufacturer, titled "Four great advantages the PLA has in attacking Taiwan", did not mention the role of Chinese carriers.

Search resuls for: "Tim Kelly"

25 mentions found