DETERMINATION:  Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said.

The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow.

The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as well as expanding military presence in the Nansei Islands, it said.

On the other hand, centered on the US-Japan alliance, Japan might increase coordinated actions with South Korea, the Philippines and Australia, jointly construct maritime capabilities, advance cooperation with the EU and NATO, and develop a regional collective defense network among allies to bolster deterrence against China, the bureau said.

Japan and the US and their allies have held eight joint military training sessions or exercises from Oct. 26 to Monday, the NSB said.

Takaichi’s answer to the National Diet on Nov. 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a “situation threatening Japan’s survival” if it involves the China’s use of force has drawn anger from Beijing, sparking a series of retaliatory measures against Japan.

They included a Chinese diplomat making a comment that many interpreted as a threat to behead Takaichi, a live-fire exercise in the Yellow Sea and a range of economic measures.

The NSB’s report said the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) exertion of “hybrid” pressure on Japan and its efforts to shape the image of Japanese diplomats “bowing and obeying orders” in Beijing have drawn international attention.

The CCP’s coercive behavior has highlighted that the “Taiwan contingency” is not only a bilateral dispute between Japan and China, but also involves the safety of the Indo-Pacific region and the stability of the international order, it said.

On the side of diplomacy, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense have made threatening remarks and canceled a scheduled meeting between the cultural ministers of Japan, South Korea and China this month, the NSB said.

Chinese state media have been disseminating narratives about Japanese spies stealing confidential data and “the theory of the undetermined status of Ryukyu,” it said.

China has warned its citizens not to travel or study in Japan, and suspended cultural exchanges and seafood imports.

As for “gray zone” tactics and military aspects, Bejing has ramped up its coast guard activities in the waters within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台列嶼) — known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands — and conducted artillery and live-fire drills in the Yellow Sea, it said.

Along with information manipulation, Beijing is attempting to use “hybrid” and “limited” coercive approaches to pressure Japan to retract its remark and yield, it added.

The joint statement of the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting on Nov. 12 emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and their opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the “status quo,” particularly by force or coercion, the NSB said.

The US Department of State on Thursday also reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to the US-Japan alliance, and expressed its firm opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the “status quo,” including through force or coercion, in the Taiwan Strait, East China or South China seas, it added.

US Ambassador to Japan George Glass condemned China’s economic coercion of Japan, affirmed the US’ unwavering support for Tokyo, and expressed the US-Japan Alliance’s resolve to preserve peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the region, the NSB said.

The US and Japanese militaries also held a bilateral exercise in the East Sea and near Okinawa on Monday, which involved nearly 30 military aircraft, including F-35A stealth jets and B-1B bomber aircraft, it said, adding that the exercise demonstrated the Japan-US Alliance’s capabilities and deterrence.

It is unlikely that the conflict between Japan and China would be resolved soon, the NSB said, adding that while Japan does not want to escalate the confrontation, it also does not want to yield to a hegemony, so it might continue to respond by “maintaining its firm stance and seeking communication.”

The CCP is likely to continue its “economic and trade coercion, narrative control and ‘gray zone’ harassment” behaviors, while trying to lure Japan’s opposition parties to create internal division and force Japan’s business sector to put pressure on the government to yield, it said.

Additional reporting by CNA

Japan likely to enhance security: NSB


Missile tests demonstrate fresh capabilities: expert

INTERCEPTION:  The 30km test ceiling shows that the CSIST is capable of producing missiles that could stop inbound missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere

Recent missile tests by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST) show that Taiwan’s missiles are capable of intercepting ballistic missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere and pose a significant deterrent to Chinese missile threats, former Hsiung Feng III missile development project chief engineer Chang Cheng (張誠) said yesterday.

The military-affiliated institute has been conducting missile tests, believed to be related to Project Chiang Kung (強弓) at Pingtung County’s Jiupeng Military Base, with many tests deviating from past practices of setting restriction zones at “unlimited” and instead clearly stating a 30.48km range, Chang said.

“Unlimited” restrictions zones for missile tests is not stating that missiles can be launched into the air at an infinite altitude, but more as a way of warning that all planes should not enter the zone, as the extended-range version of the Tien Kung III (天弓, Sky Bow) missile has a maximum altitude of 70km, which is far higher than any aircraft can go.

A still image from a video released by the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology shows the coverage range of the Chiung Kung missile compared with the Tien Kung III. Photo: screen grab from a Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology video

Designating missile restriction zones as “unlimited” can help provide cover regarding a missile’s true capabilities, and also leaves a margin for error, as the system has not yet matured, Chang added.

Reaching an apogee of 30.48km is a true challenge engineering-wise, as the atmospheric density at that height is only 1 percent of sea-level atmospheric density, altering the application of the laws of aerodynamics on which traditional missiles rely when trying to turn, he said.

To intercept missiles at this altitude, a missile must rely on divert and attitude control systems or thrust vector control systems to alter its direction, he said.

Chang said that 30km was a critical altitude for intercepting ballistic missiles as they re-enter the atmosphere, and that the CSIST is essentially telling the world that we have a limited high-altitude denial capability.

Such achievements mean the CSIST is capable of designing missiles that can withstand the heat of atmospheric re-entry and operate in a near-vacuum environment, Chang said.

The CSIST’s missile might be a viable endo-atmospheric interceptor that provides Taiwan with limited high-altitude area-denial capability, he said.

Project Chiang Kung is developing two missiles (versions I and II), based on the extended-altitude TK-III missile.

The Chiang Kung I is expected to have an interception altitude higher than that of the US-produced Patriot III system, a military source said during the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September.

The Chiang Kung II is expected to have two derivatives, they said.

The Chiang Kung IIA is rumored to have an interception altitude of 100km, on par with the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, while the Chiang Kung IIB would be a new surface-to-surface ballistic missile with an estimated range of 1,000km, they said.


Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), who is visiting the Netherlands for a democracy summit, said China’s use of legal means to threaten Taiwan, including recent calls by a Chinese legal expert and local government for his arrest, “will not work.”

Shen said that over the past two months, he has been engaged in international political outreach in the US, South Korea, Germany and the Netherlands, calling such work essential.

Citing South Korea as an example, Shen said that although the country has an extradition treaty with China, he still went there for a conference attended by like-minded democratic partners.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Puma Shen, left, and Fan Yun pose in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, on Friday. Photo courtesy of the DPP

“China really wants to stop me from carrying out these international engagement efforts, so it is trying to impose sanctions on me and prevent me from traveling abroad,” he said.

Last month, China’s Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau listed Shen as “wanted” and is investigating him for alleged “criminal activities of secession.”

A Chinese legal expert also suggested that Shen could be pursued through Interpol.

“These actions are meant to show the people of Taiwan that China is a paper tiger. What it is doing is largely symbolic propaganda for domestic audiences, and Taiwan should not be afraid,” Shen said, referring to his trips, adding that he hopes that Taiwanese understand that China’s legal threats are ineffective against them.

China’s threats to the democratic world are increasing in scope and intensity, with rhetoric becoming stronger, he said, adding that Beijing’s recent stance toward Japan shows its “wolf warrior diplomacy,” a confrontational form of public diplomacy adopted by Chinese diplomats, has escalated to a new level.

Beyond diplomacy, China is also making moves militarily and economically, hence the reason democratic countries must form alliances and understand its strategies, he said.

Shen on Friday also shared a video on his Facebook page showing him posing in front of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in a gesture of defiance against China’s threats.

“This is where dictators are tried for war crimes or genocide,” he said, adding that, as a defender of democracy, he would not be intimidated even though he is wanted by an authoritarian regime.

The 209th Executive Committee Meeting of the Liberal International (LI) was held in The Hague on Friday and yesterday.

According to its agenda, Shen was to attend a panel discussion titled “Defending Democracy in an Era of Political Manipulation.”

Shen and DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) were invited to attend the event on behalf of Taiwan’s ruling party, the LI said in a news release yesterday.

Beijing’s legal threats ‘will not work’: Puma Shen


China has taken its widening spat with Japan to the UN, accusing Tokyo of threatening “an armed intervention” over Taiwan and vowing to defend itself in its strongest language yet in the two-week-old dispute.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi committed “a grave violation of international law” and diplomatic norms when she said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo, Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN Fu Cong (傅?) wrote in a letter on Friday to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“If Japan dares to attempt an armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation, it would be an act of aggression,” Fu wrote, according to a statement from China’s UN mission. “China will resolutely exercise its right of self-defense under the UN Charter and international law and firmly defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Chinese Permanent Representative to the UN Fu Cong speaks during a Security Council meeting in New York on Thursday.  Photo: AP

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister’s Office could not immediately be reached yesterday for comment on Fu’s letter, the strongest criticism of Takaichi yet from a senior Chinese official in the biggest bilateral crisis in years.

Takaichi, a conservative nationalist who took office last month, ditched the ambiguity that Japan and the US have long used regarding Taiwan when she told a questioner in parliament on Nov. 7 that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan — which is just over 100km from Japanese territory — could be deemed “a situation threatening Japan’s survival”.

That is a legal designation that allows a Japanese prime minister to deploy the nation’s military.

Takaichi’s remarks sparked the tit-for-tat dispute with China that has spilled beyond diplomacy in recent days, with China saying it has “severely damaged” trade cooperation, while concerts of Japanese musicians in China have been abruptly canceled.

Fu demanded that Japan “stop making provocations and crossing the line, and retract its erroneous remarks,” which he said were “openly challenging China’s core interests.”

Ahead of this year’s 80th anniversary of Japan’s World War II defeat, Beijing has increasingly invoked Tokyo’s wartime atrocities and China’s postwar role in setting up the UN as it criticizes its Asian neighbor and seeks to reshape the international governance system.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has repeatedly emphasized two postwar declarations envisioning that Taiwan and other territories that had been occupied by Japan would be “restored” to Chinese rule.

The Potsdam and Cairo declarations form the basis for China’s legal claims of sovereignty over Taiwan, although many governments view them as statements of intent, not legally binding accords.

In Taipei, Taiwan Security Association deputy secretary-general Ho Cheng-hui (何澄輝) yesterday said that China’s latest move is a typical “lawfare” strategy, aiming to distort international rules and change the narrative in order to justify its retaliatory actions.

In its legal warfare strategy, China primarily focuses on two points: first, the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and second, UN Resolution 2758.

However, both of these points lack legal foundation, he said.

Neither the Republic of China nor the People’s Republic of China participated in the signing of the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and in the treaty, Japan only renounced sovereignty over Taiwan, but did not specify its territorial affiliation, he said.

The content of UN Resolution 2758 only addressed the issue of China’s representation, aiming to expel the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) regime at the time, Ho said, adding that the resolution makes no mention of Taiwan and does not involve the issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty.

Additional reporting by Fang Wei-li

China takes feud with Japan to the UN


The US and Chinese militaries this week held “frank and constructive” maritime security talks, the Chinese navy said yesterday, as the two superpowers gradually restore military-to-military communications after several months of trade tensions.

The working-level meetings took place from Tuesday to Thursday in Hawaii, according to a post on the official social media account of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy.

US and Chinese military officials previously held talks in April — the first such working-level meeting on military issues since the beginning of the second term of US President Donald Trump. The twice-yearly talks are known as the military maritime consultative agreement working group.

The US Navy’s Nimitz-class nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier is seen anchored in the waters of Manila Bay, Philippines, on July 4. Photo: EPA

“The two sides had frank and constructive exchanges ... mainly exchanging views on the current maritime and air security situation between China and the US,” China’s navy said in its statement.

China also criticized US freedom-of-navigation operations in the statement. These are frequently carried out in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, international waters over which China claims sovereignty.

“China ... resolutely opposes any infringement and provocation,” China’s navy said, referring to those maritime and overflight transits by US forces.

Both sides also discussed “typical cases of naval and air encounters between the two militaries... to help the frontline naval and air forces of China and the US interact more professionally and safely,” it said.

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth raised concerns about Chinese activity in the South China Sea and around Taiwan in a meeting with Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) last month.

China has been steadily increasing air, naval and coast guard deployments around Taiwan.

The Pentagon has been pushing for improved communications with China over its military modernization and regional posture, calling for greater transparency on its nuclear weapons build-up and more theatre-level discussions with military commanders.

The working group would have a follow-up meeting next year, the statement said.

US, Chinese navies hold security talks in Hawaii


MORE YOU KNOW:  Less QR codes, more youth-useful information; the new brochure offers ways young folks can go and stay green as Taiwan aims for net zero goals

The Ministry of Environment is publicizing a program aimed at helping vulnerable groups shift to a greener lifestyle in line with the net zero trend, with methods related to food and clothing written to appeal to young people.

The brochure is designed to promote information accessibility in the net zero transition, combining easy-to-read language with illustrations to make it accessible to everyone, Department of Comprehensive Planning Director Hung Shu-sing (洪淑幸) said.

Experts with knowledge of easy-to-read techniques or net zero developments and more than 40 interviewees with special needs were invited to provide advice and help write the brochure, she said.

The Ministry of Environment’s brochures on a greener lifestyle are pictured in Taipei on Thursday. Photo: Hunag Yi-ching, Taipei Times

Through discussions, the team found that interviewees were highly interested in net zero information, but the current Net Zero Green Lifestyle Action Guidelines published by the ministry contain too many QR codes, making it difficult to read for many of them, Hung said.

Interviewees also showed interest in learning more about green actions in terms of food, transportation, home life and clothing, especially innovations such as food apps, clothing and green restaurants, she said.

The streamlined brochure prioritizes the issues they are more concerned about while removing all QR codes except the one for the “Zero Waste Taiwan” map, Hung said.

Audio versions were published alongside the brochure to make the content available to people within educational, long-term care and disability service systems, she said, adding that the brochure would be supplied to 173 public libraries and 267 disability welfare institutions.

Taiwan Foundation for the Blind research and development director Lee Ying-chi (李英琪), an easy-reading advisor on the team, said the brochure’s content was designed based on the principle of “information for all” in accordance with the EU’s easy-to-read guidelines.

Only language comprehensible at least to a fourth-grade student was used, she said, adding that the content is also comprehensible simply through the illustrations or audiobooks, which suits the needs of the elderly and children.

In related news, the Ministry of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute on Friday said extending the product lifespan of wood-derived products can delay such products’ carbon emissions.

Wood-derived products such as paper, furniture or timber are hidden carbon pools, as carbon captured via photosynthesis by trees would not be released immediately after trees are chopped and made into products, it said.

Given that such carbon would remain in the products until they are rotten or burned, extending their lifespan or repurposing such products would lengthen the carbon storage and lessen climate impact, the institute said.

Lifespans vary between different wood-derived products, it said.

For example, most paper would be recycled or discarded months later, while wooden flooring or furniture would be used for 20 to 40 years, the institute said, adding that wooden construction can last more than a century.

However, the institute’s research showed that product lifespans of wood-derived products in Taiwan were slightly shorter than international standards, it said.

Most wooden furniture and decorative materials in Taiwan have a product lifespan of six to 15 years, while wooden doors, windows or flooring have a lifespan of six to 20 years, the institute said, adding that lifespans could be affected by environmental conditions, material quality, usage habits or maintenance frequency.

People are advised to choose robust, endurable products to reduce their frequency of replacement, or recycle and reuse second-hand wooden furniture to prevent them from becoming waste ahead of time, it said.

Ministry working to best get green living info out


STAR-STUDDED STUDENTS: Students are staging increasing numbers of launches out of the Pingtung rocketry site for the equipment-laden research rockets they build

The successful launch of a research rocket by the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) yesterday at Pintung County’s Hsu-Hai Research-use Rocket Launching Area is a result of the National Science and Technology Council’s efforts to foster homegrown aerospace engineering talent within Taiwan, the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA) said.

The project is educating students to help fill gaps in Taiwan’s aerospace industry, according to TASA.

The rocket, designated “Afterlight 1,” was launched at 6:30am yesterday and was not recovered, the team said.

National Cheng Kung University’s Afterlight 1 research rocket is launched from a site in Pingtung County’s Hsuhai Village yesterday. Photo courtesy of Taiwan Space Agency

The team comprised members from NCKU’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Combustion and Propulsion Lab, and the university’s Institute of Space Propulsion student club.

The rocket was built from fiberglass, powered by a solid fuel motor, equipped with a parachute, and was designed to reach a maximum altitude of 1km while carrying 4kg, according to professor and project head Wu Chih-yung (吳志勇).

The wind speed at the launching area yesterday morning was about 7 or 8 meters per second, and the team lowered the launch angle from 80° to 75° to compensate, he said.

The two-section rocket was supposed to pop apart at its apogee and have the rear section land with a parachute, but the design could not be tested, as the rocket had only achieved an altitude of 761m, Wu said.

The avionics system recorded the altitude, speed, acceleration and other data, he added.

“Although we didn’t recover the rocket, our experiences have made us more capable,” the team’s safety officer and NCKU Department of Mechanical Engineering student You Chun-hung (尤鈞閎) said, adding the club is already designing the next generation of the rocket.

Since the Hsu-Hai launch area entered active commission, 11 research rockets have been launched from there, TASA said.

Students aiming high at rocket launch area


Taiwan has detected banned Sudan red dyes in cosmetics for the first time, prompting 14 local and foreign companies to recall affected products and suspend their sales.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday said it learned late last month that some Chinese-made cosmetics might contain the banned dyes, tracing them to the source, raw materials supplied by Singapore-based Campo Research Pte Ltd.

Dermatologists warned that the dyes are potentially carcinogenic. Accidental ingestion from lip products poses the highest risk, though external-use cosmetics should not contain banned substances.

Lip gloss containing banned Sudan red dyes is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration

On Nov. 4, the FDA notified domestic manufacturers and importers to check raw material sources and step up quality control, while it began random checks of suspected Chinese products from online platforms.

Similar contamination was later confirmed in a makeup remover by Chinese company Kimtrue and in a lip oil by Taiwanese company Greenvines. Both companies ordered the removal of their products from sales platforms immediately.

On Wednesday, the FDA inspected Taiwanese importer Eho Co and seized five batches of raw materials from Campo Research, three of which were confirmed the next day to contain Sudan IV.

The contaminated materials had been distributed to 14 companies, including Shanghai Li Rou Economic Development Co, O’right Inc and Greenvines, according to the agency.

The FDA has since required all affected companies to complete a self-inspection within 48 hours, report products using the problematic raw materials, and remove them from sale until safety is confirmed.

Under the Cosmetic Hygiene and Safety Act (化妝品衛生安全管理法), using banned dyes can result in fines ranging from NT$20,000 to NT$5 million (US$636 to US$159,083). Products found non-compliant must be recalled and destroyed.

Toxic dye found in cosmetic goods


The Ministry of Agriculture’s Taiwan Biodiversity Research Institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Taiwan Cooperative Bank (TCB) to collaborate on the first botulism early warning system for black-faced spoonbills in Taiwan.

The institute introduced botulinum antitoxin therapy after 73 black-faced spoonbills died of botulism in Tainan’s Cigu District (七股) about 23 years ago.

Black-faced spoonbills are endangered and about 60 percent of the bird species’ global population spend the winter in Taiwan, making it one of the most proportionally impactful conservation efforts in Taiwan, the institute said.

Black-faced spoonbills take flight in Tainan in an undated photograph. Photo courtesy of Tainan City Ecological Conservation Association

However, incidents of botulism in black-faced spoonbills remained frequent in recent years and has undermined both the wetland ecosystems and the national image, it said.

The MOU, signed on Tuesday, would enhance the effort by establishing a black-faced spoonbill rescue chain that combines rescue, medical care and early warning, with satellite data collected and analyzed to anticipate sites with high botulism risks, the institute said.

The institute has long monitored black-faced spoonbill populations, and rescued sick and injured birds, while TCB has been promoting wetland conservation by funding the Taiwan Black-faced Spoonbill Conservation Association’s project to livestream black-faced spoonbills’ habitat in Dingshan Village (頂山), it said.

The collaboration between the institute and TCB is aimed to set up the first botulism early warning system for black-faced spoonbills in Taiwan, marking a shift from passive rescues to active prevention in wild bird conservation, it added.

Botulism in black-faced spoonbills mostly occurs in coastal wetlands in southwestern Taiwan during dry winters, veterinarian Chan Fang-tse (詹芳澤) said.

Black-faced spoonbills could get poisoned indirectly if they eat the toxic bacteria in fish, shrimp or shellfish, which would disrupt their motor nerve conduction and impair their ability to fly, he said.

Data from an annual survey led by the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society showed a total of 7,081 sightings of black-faced spoonbills were documented globally from Jan. 18 last year to Jan. 19.

Of all the sightings, 4,169 were documented in Taiwan, up 34 from last year, accounting for 58.9 percent globally.

That means Taiwan remained as the most winter stopover site for black-faced spoonbills, while 1,671 black-faced spoonbills were recorded in China, 716 in Japan and 328 in Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

In other news, the ministry’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency on Thursday said migratory birds arriving in Taiwan have peaked, warning poultry farmers to strengthen bird flu prevention.

Highly contagious avian influenza in poultry and wild birds has increased across Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea this year — Taiwan is situated downstream along wintering birds’ migration routes and must be aware of such viruses from abroad, it said.

Additional reporting by CNA

MOU for new bird illness warning system signed


By Wang Ting-chuan and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office is investigating a fraud case in which suspects gained access to the personal information, accounts and insurance of a New Taipei City woman and emptied her savings, taking NT$83 million (US$2.6 million) over three months.

The victim said that she received a call from a person identifying themselves as a member of Chunghwa Telecom’s Risk Control Department in April, who said someone tried to use her identity to register a phone number and urged her to call the anti-fraud hotline.

She was put in contact with a person who identified themselves as an agent at the hotline, who told her that she was being indicted, suspected of aiding and abetting scammers who had deposited tens of millions of dollars into her account, and that she must join a chat group in the messaging app Line to cooperate with the investigation.

The main entrance to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo: Taipei Times

That chat group was actually operated by scammers, she said.

In the chat, the victim was told by another member, pretending to be a prosecutor, not to speak to anyone due to the ongoing investigation, according to the police.

The fake prosecutor told the victim that she would be detained if she did not cooperate and instructed her to transfer her assets to an account opened by the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), change her passwords, sell her stock, refund her insurance, and deposit the funds into the account, police said.

The scammers also told the victim to set the fake FSC account as a designated transfer account to increase her daily transaction limit to NT$3 million, police said, adding that the victim had made more than 70 transactions over three months.

The victim became suspicious in July after seeing that no one was reading her messages in the chat group and contacted police.

Former New Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office Anti-Corruption Division prosecutor Ho Ko-fan (何克凡) said that real prosecutors would not ask people to set up designated transfer accounts or provide Internet banking passwords, nor would they act through Line.

If members of the public encounter a similar situation, they must handle it cautiously, he added.

Scammers steal NT$83m from New Taipei woman


MORE RETALIATION:  China would adopt a long-term pressure strategy to prevent other countries or future prime ministers following in Sanae Takaichi’s steps, an academic said

Taiwan should maintain communications with Japan, as Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is to lead a revision of security documents, Taiwanese academics said yesterday.

Tensions have risen between Japan and China over remarks by Takaichi earlier this month that the use of force against Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan.

Prospect Foundation president Lai I-chung (賴怡忠) yesterday said Takaichi’s stance regarding Taiwan is the same as past Japanese prime ministers, but her position is clearer than that of her predecessors Fumio Kishida and Shigeru Ishiba.

Although Japan views a “Taiwan contingency” as a “survival-threatening situation,” which would allow its military to be mobilized, that does not mean Tokyo would directly assist Taiwan’s military operations, Lai said.

Instead, it would mean Japan would have a more direct role within the security framework of the US-Japan alliance, requiring Tokyo to fulfill corresponding duties and actions, he said.

Taiwan should offer “moral support” for Takaichi, Lai said, adding that the nation should also maintain communications with Japan, as Takaichi is to lead the revision of three security documents that reflect the direction of Japan policy.

The three documents are the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Build-up Plan.

Meanwhile, National Sun Yat-sen University Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies director Kuo Yu-jen (郭育仁) said security legislation implemented by Japan in 2015 mandates that national policies must promote the greatest welfare of the people.

Takaichi’s response to the question, “If China uses force to invade Taiwan and blockades Taiwan, and the US military comes to its aid, would this meet the conditions for exercising collective self-defense?” was made from a legal perspective, Kuo said, adding that it was not a new policy, but an interpretation of existing legal framework and consistent with the stance of former Japanese prime ministers.

As for China-Japan relations, he said: “It can’t be reversed.”

Chinese authorities would adopt a long-term and comprehensive pressure strategy, primarily to prevent a “domino effect,” Kuo said.

If China allows Japan to speak this way, neighboring countries such as the Philippines, Vietnam or South Korea might follow suit, he said, adding that Beijing also aims to prevent an internal “domino effect” within Japan.

The next Japanese leader could make the same remarks as Takaichi, which China would certainly not tolerate, Kuo said.

China’s future retaliatory measures would be more severe and diversified, he said, adding that the scale of its military exercises might expand and move closer to Japan.

The sanctions could extend from agricultural and fishery products to industrial goods, and large-scale anti-Japan protests might take place in the coming months, Kuo said.

Academics urge support for Japan PM


PATRIOTIC HEROES: The president honored Taiwan’s soldiers who gave their lives during the Huaihai Campaign to defend their beliefs and to resist authoritarianism

The people we should remember are the soldiers of the Armed Forces, not communist spies, President William Lai (賴清德) wrote on Facebook yesterday, in an apparent reference to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) attending an event honoring people killed during the White Terror era, including Chinese spy Wu Shi (吳石).

Lai was paying tribute to general Huang Bai-tao (黃百韜), who died during the Huaihai Campaign (淮海戰役) at the age of 49.

“Today is the memorial day of General Huang Bai-tao’s sacrifice for the country. As the Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of China’s Armed Forces, I would like to pay the highest respect to him and to all the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country,” Lai wrote.

In the National Defense University and the Army Officer Academy, there is a building named “Baitao Hall” in honor of Huang, he said.

Huang spent his life in the military and was known for defeating enemies despite having fewer troops, successfully repelling the Chinese communist forces on several occasions, Lai said.

At that time, the KMT had already been infiltrated by communist spies, such as Wu and Guo Rugui (郭汝瑰), who leaked important operational information to the enemy, he said, adding that as a result, about 555,000 Nationalist Army troops’ lives were lost during the 66 days of the Huaihai Campaign.

During the intense offensive and defensive battles of the campaign, and as they were running out of ammunition and supplies, Huang displayed the true spirit of a soldier, choosing to defend his beliefs with his life, the president said.

“The loyalty, courage and sense of duty he exhibited serve is a profound reminder to Taiwan,” he said.

Looking back on this period of war urges us to reflect on the many patriotic heroes who gave their lives to resist communist authoritarianism, Lai said, adding that it also serves as a lesson to be vigilant about the infiltration and influence of authoritarian forces.

Remember our army soldiers, not spies: Lai


US tariff deal not yet finalized, ministry says

The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Friday said a tariff deal with the US has not yet been finalized, rejecting a Financial Times report earlier that day saying that Taiwan would commit to investing US$400 billion in the US for a lower rate.

Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) told reporters that a deal with Washington has not been struck, adding that Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), Taiwan’s lead negotiator in tariff talks with the US, and the Office of Trade Negotiations would make the deal public once it is confirmed.

Asked whether a deal would be reached soon, Kung said: “We are working hard on it.”

A crane moves a shipping container over a cargo truck at the Port of Kaohsiung on Aug. 1. Photo: CNA

The Financial Times cited an unnamed US official as saying a draft tariff agreement indicated that Taipei would pledge an investment amount between the US$350 billion promised by South Korea and the US$550 billion agreed with Japan, in exchange for lower US tariffs.

The official said Taiwan would commit to a US$400 billion investment in the US.

“The difference is that in Taiwan’s case, these are not something vague, but investments that are being planned or even under way already,” the report cited the official as saying.

Two people briefed on the draft tariff deal said the commitments from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) would be part of Taiwan’s total investment promises, the Financial Times said.

TSMC is investing US$65 billion for its advanced semiconductor manufacturing operations in Arizona, and has pledged an additional US$100 billion to build three new fabs, two advanced packaging facilities, and one research and development center. The chipmaker’s first fab in Arizona started mass production in the fourth quarter of last year.

The Office of Trade Negotiations said the negotiation team continues to hold talks with its US counterpart through videoconferences and document exchanges, adding that the team hoped to strike a deal as soon as possible, so that they could move to the next stage and forge closer bilateral economic cooperation.

The negotiation team is exploring possible supply chain collaborations with the US under a “Taiwan model,” as one way to reduce the 20 percent tariff imposed by Washington, the office said.

Taiwan is also seeking a “most favored nation” treatment under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act, as Washington conducts a national security investigation aimed at deciding on tariffs for semiconductors and other devices, it added.

The negotiation team is trying to ensure that any adjusted tariff rate would not be added to the existing most-favored-nation tariffs, the office said.

Under a Taiwan model supply chain cooperation, Taiwanese enterprises would map out US investment plans on their own, taking advantage of geographic proximity to their clients to boost their competitive edge, it said.

The government would provide financial guarantees to these local investors to help them build industrial clusters in the US while they seek a better investment environment and preferential investment terms from the US government through “government to government cooperation,” the office said.

The Taiwan model is different from the US’ investment models with Japan and South Korea, it said, adding that it cannot be directly compared.


Taiwan must tap into whole value chain: academic

To maintain Taiwan’s competitiveness in the global semiconductor industry, the nation needs to compete in the entire value chain, instead of just chip manufacturing, economic historian Chris Miller, author of the book Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Robert N. Noyce Award ceremony hosted by the Semiconductor Industry Association in San Jose, California, Miller said Taiwan already plays a critical role in chip production, making an artificial intelligence (AI) era possible.

“But there’s so much more value that we created across the value chain by artificial intelligence,” he said. “So, I think the challenge for Taiwan is to make sure it’s competing in a whole variety of value chain steps, not only the chips, where Taiwan is already very, very capable, but also in the software and application layers as well.”

A silicon wafer is displayed during this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show in Taipei on Sept. 11. Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA

AI has changed the landscape of the global semiconductor industry, and software is expected to become a very important part of the industry, although the focus right now is on chips and infrastructure, Miller said.

“AI will accelerate those changes,” he said. “I think it’s important for countries to think about... the AI technology stack as well.”

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) and former TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) on Thursday received the Robert N. Noyce Award — the highest honor in the semiconductor industry.

TSMC leaders were given the award, as the chipmaker has become a central player in the global semiconductor ecosystem that has benefited Taiwan and the US, Miller said, adding that the award was evidence that such cooperation would continue for a long time.

“I think the US ecosystem is always going to exist in collaboration with the Japanese and the European and the [South] Korean and the Taiwanese chip ecosystem,” he said. “No country is going to be self-sufficient.”

Still, the sentiment in the global semiconductor industry appeared mixed, as worries over geopolitical tensions continue growing and an extraordinary surge in AI investments has pushed up demand for chips, Miller said.

Amid growing geopolitical unease, the global supply chain has been restructuring, posing more challenges to the global semiconductor industry, he said, adding that Taiwan is not the only one that needs to navigate the turbulences.

“The reality is, if you got a technology everyone else requires, then geopolitics is just gonna be less impactful, because everyone needs your technology,” Miller said.

Miller praised TSMC, which manufactures about 90 percent of the world’s high-end chips, for its importance, saying everyone in the world needs the chips that the company produces.


By Hsu Kuo-Chen and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

An alternative-service conscript enlisted for less than seven hours at Chenggong Ling (成功嶺) military training camp in Taichung on Thursday stole an officer’s car keys and drove out of the base, police and military officials said.

The man, surnamed Lee (李), 26, went missing on Thursday, his first night for alternative service, they said.

Lee reportedly asked to use the toilet while service members were filling out their induction paperwork, but did not return, triggering a base-wide search.

The entrance to the Chenggong Ling military training camp in Taichung is pictured in an undated photograph. Photo:Taipei Times

Military personnel in charge of the search contacted Lee’s family in Taipei upon discovering that the commander’s identification, car key and vehicle were also missing.

The family called at 2am on Friday saying that Lee was home, sleeping.

The military allowed Lee to remain home, an Army 10th Corps spokesperson said, citing concerns for his mental health.

The police have been informed about the incident and have launched a probe into Lee’s alleged impersonation of a commanding officer and flight from the camp, they said.

Enhanced security measures are being implemented to prevent escapes or infiltration of the base, the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson of the police unit stationed at the base confirmed news reports about the incident, saying that Lee has been asked to answer questions at the precinct.

A source said, on condition of anonymity, that Lee allegedly drove out of the base using his commander’s identification and vehicle, which indicates severe flaws in site security.

Additional reporting by Chang Hsuan-che

Conscript steals car, leaves base


MOFA thanks Macron for anti-disinformation praise

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for commending Taiwan’s efforts in combating disinformation.

Macron on Wednesday during his “tour of France” seminars spoke about “democracy being tested by social media and algorithms” and praised Taiwan for establishing a system to combat disinformation in the face of information warfare attacks from China, the ministry said, adding that Macron said France could learn from Taiwan’s model.

The ministry thanked Macron for his commendation.

The name and logo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is pictured at the ministry in Taipei in an undated photograph. Photo: CNA

Disinformation and external interference have become common challenges for democracies across the world, it said, adding that Taiwan, having faced long-term threats from authoritarian expansion and information warfare, has gradually built societal resilience and a transparency mechanism.

Taiwan’s experience could serve as reference for international friends, it said.

The nation is willing to continue deepening cooperation with like-minded countries, including France, share methods for countering information manipulation, jointly enhance democratic resilience, and work together to combat disinformation and uphold freedom, democratic values and a rules-based international order, the ministry said.

In other news, Paraguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs Ruben Ramirez Lezcano said his country aims to become a model of friendship with Taiwan, the Legislative Yuan said yesterday.

Ramirez made the comment during a meeting on Friday with a cross-party legislative delegation, led by Deputy Legislative Speaker Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), in Asuncion, the Legislative Yuan said.

Paraguay and Taiwan are like-minded allies that put much emphasis on freedom, human rights and the rule of law, so Asuncion will continue to support Taipei in its quest to become part of international organizations, Ramirez was quoted by the legislature as saying.

The two countries complement each other — Paraguay has abundant natural resources and Taiwan has advanced technologies — so they should cooperate, Ramirez was cited as saying.

Paraguay wants to become a model of friendship with Taiwan, and would continue to work with the nation to contribute to regional stability and global peace, he said.

Chiang told Ramirez it was the first time the delegation members visited Paraguay and expressed gratitude for the warm reception of Paraguayans, who made them feel at home.

The Legislative Yuan will push for cooperation plans with Paraguay to forge closer ties between the two countries, Chiang said.

The delegation also visited the Republic of China embassy in Paraguay, and met with Taiwanese technical personnel stationed in the country as well as overseas Taiwanese in Asuncion.

They departed for Dallas on Friday afternoon, the legislature said.


Awards night

Actor Brando Huang, left, takes a selfie with the cast of “Left-Handed Girl” on the red carpet at the 62nd Golden Horse Awards in Taipei last night.


Competitors participating in the family category flex at the 2025 National Bodybuilding Championship at the New Taipei Sinjhuang Gymnasium yesterday. The event, promoting a government policy encouraging the public to take up sports, attracted more than 300 participants this year, the Chinese Taipei Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation said. For the first time, this year’s event also offered a category for people aged 70 and over, it added.

Flex fest


Advocacy groups urge parents to avoid AI toys this holiday seasonThe serious harms that AI chatbots have inflicted on children are well-documented, including fostering obsessive use, having explicit sexual conversations, and encouraging unsafe behaviors, violence and self-harm, an advocacy group said

They are cute, even cuddly, and promise learning and companionship — but artificial intelligence (AI) toys are not safe for kids, children’s and consumer advocacy groups said, urging parents not to buy them during the holiday season.

These toys, marketed to kids as young as two years old, are generally powered by AI models that have already been shown to harm children and teenagers, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, said an advisory published on Thursday by the children’s advocacy group Fairplay and signed by more than 150 organizations and experts such as child psychiatrists and educators.

“The serious harms that AI chatbots have inflicted on children are well-documented, including fostering obsessive use, having explicit sexual conversations, and encouraging unsafe behaviors, violence against others and self-harm,” Fairplay said.

AI toys, made by companies including Curio Interactive and Keyi Technologies (可以科技), are often marketed as educational, but Fairplay said they can displace important creative and learning activities.

They promise friendship, but disrupt children’s relationships and resilience, the group said.

“What’s different about young children is that their brains are being wired for the first time and developmentally it is natural for them to be trustful for them to seek relationships with kind and friendly characters,” said Rachel Franz, director of Fairplay’s Young Children Thrive Offline Program.

Because of this, the trust young children are placing in these toys can exacerbate the types of harms older children are already experiencing with AI chatbots, she said.

A separate report on Thursday by Common Sense Media and psychiatrists at Stanford University’s medical school warned teenagers against using popular AI chatbots as therapists.

Fairplay, a 25-year-old organization formerly known as the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, has been warning about AI toys for years. They just were not as advanced as they are today. A decade ago, during an emerging fad of Internet-connected toys and AI speech recognition, the group helped lead a backlash against Mattel’s talking Hello Barbie doll that it said was recording and analyzing children’s conversations.

Although AI toys are mostly sold online and more popular in Asia than elsewhere, some have started to appear on store shelves in the US and more could be on the way, Franz said.

“Everything has been released with no regulation and no research, so it gives us extra pause when all of a sudden we see more and more manufacturers, including Mattel, who recently partnered with OpenAI, potentially putting out these products,” Franz said.

It is the second big seasonal warning against AI toys since consumer advocates at US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) last week called out the trend in its annual Trouble in Toyland report that typically looks at a range of product hazards, such as high-powered magnets and button-sized batteries that young children can swallow.

This year, the organization tested four toys that use AI chatbots.

“We found some of these toys will talk in-depth about sexually explicit topics, will offer advice on where a child can find matches or knives, act dismayed when you say you have to leave, and have limited or no parental controls,” the report said.

One of the toys, a teddy bear made by Singapore-based FoloToy, was later withdrawn, its CEO told CNN this week.

Young children do not have the conceptual tools to understand what an AI companion is, said Dana Suskind, a pediatric surgeon and social scientist who studies early brain development.

While kids have always bonded with toys through imaginative play, when they do this, they use their imagination to create both sides of a pretend conversation, “practicing creativity, language and problem-solving,” she said.

“An AI toy collapses that work. It answers instantly, smoothly and often better than a human would. We don’t yet know the developmental consequences of outsourcing that imaginative labor to an artificial agent — but it’s very plausible that it undercuts the kind of creativity and executive function that traditional pretend play builds,” Suskind said.

Beijing-based Keyi, maker of an AI “petbot” called Loona, did not return requests for comment this week, but other AI toymakers sought to highlight their child safety protections.

California-based Curio Interactive makes stuffed toys, such as Gabbo and rocket-shaped Grok, that have been promoted by the pop singer Grimes.

The company said it has “meticulously designed” guardrails to protect children and encouraged parents to “monitor conversations, track insights, and choose the controls that work best for their family.”

In response to the earlier PIRG findings, Curio said it is “actively working with our team to address any concerns, while continuously overseeing content and interactions to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for children.”

Another company, Miko, based in Mumbai, India, said it uses its own conversational AI model rather than relying on general large language model systems such as ChatGPT to make its product — an interactive AI robot — safe for children.

“We are always expanding our internal testing, strengthening our filters, and introducing new capabilities that detect and block sensitive or unexpected topics,” Miko CEO Sneh Vaswani said. “These new features complement our existing controls that allow parents and caregivers to identify specific topics they’d like to restrict from conversation. We will continue to invest in setting the highest standards for safe, secure and responsible AI integration for Miko products.”

Miko’s products are sold by major retailers such as Walmart and Costco, and have been promoted by the families of social media “kidfluencers” whose YouTube videos have millions of views. On its Web site, it markets its robots as “Artificial Intelligence. Genuine friendship.”

Ritvik Sharma, the company’s senior vice president of growth, said Miko actually “encourages kids to interact more with their friends, to interact more with the peers, with the family members etc. It’s not made for them to feel attached to the device only.”

However, Suskind and children’s advocates said analog toys are a better bet for the holidays.

“Kids need lots of real human interaction. Play should support that, not take its place. The biggest thing to consider isn’t only what the toy does; it’s what it replaces. A simple block set or a teddy bear that doesn’t talk back forces a child to invent stories, experiment and work through problems. AI toys often do that thinking for them,” Suskind said. “Here’s the brutal irony: When parents ask me how to prepare their child for an AI world, unlimited AI access is actually the worst preparation possible.”


Ireland hosts one of the world’s fast-growing clusters of data centers, but is running headlong into the difficult consequences.

The server farms powering global tech giants consume one-fifth of the small nation’s electricity, igniting concerns over grid stability, and Ireland’s commitments to boost renewable energies and cut gas emissions.

Already home to more than 80 data centers, a report by US-based researchers Synergy last year ranked Dublin behind only the US’ Virginia and Beijing in its density of such state-of-the-art facilities built for colossal amounts of data.

A Meta Platforms Inc data center in Dublin is pictured from the air on Oct. 16 last year. Photo: AP

Vast energy-hungry warehouses around Dublin’s ring road host thousands of servers handling massive amounts of cloud computing, storage and artificial intelligence (AI) demands for data giants such Google, Meta Platforms Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc.

The facilities are a quietly purring economic engine, injecting billions in investment, employment and anchoring the tech multinationals which, coupled with big pharma, fund more than half of Ireland’s corporate-tax take, analysts said.

However, doubts are mounting over the environmental cost.

Such centers are “completely unsustainable,” campaigner group Friends of the Earth said.

“It’s one of the fundamental climate justice issues of our times,” spokeswoman Rosi Leonard said.

Data centers’ share of Irish metered electricity consumption reached 22 percent by last year, compared with an EU-wide average of 2 to 3 percent, official data showed.

Irish national grid operator EirGrid PLC projects that data centers could account for 30 percent of demand by 2030 as the growth of artificial intelligence technology accelerates.

That is equivalent to powering 2 million homes for a full year, energy analysts Wood Mackenzie said in July.

Some data centers in high-pressure areas in Dublin have already turned to generators for backup, which are usually gas and oil-powered, Leonard said.

That could hamper Ireland’s already fraught efforts to meet EU 2030 climate targets that threaten multibillion euro fines if missed.

The server farms are also gobbling up much of the renewable energy such as wind and solar that is being added to the grid, Leonard said.

“We want a moratorium on further expansion of data centers until they pose no threat to our climate and carbon budgets,” she said.

EirGrid plans capacity upgrades to accommodate future data center demand more evenly nationwide. The Irish government has said a new strategy would be published soon with a pledge to update the grid within five years.

However, experts doubt whether those plans could deliver in time to meet demand.

As Ireland aims “to reduce emissions ... expanding a sector that’s going to increase emissions very significantly just ... doesn’t make sense,” Dublin City University climate change expert Barry McMullin said.

Data center compatibility with emissions goals “is unlikely for another decade,” he said.

Some planning authorities have already pushed back.

Last year, a local council in Dublin refused a Google data center development, citing “insufficient [grid] capacity” and a “lack of significant on-site renewable energy.”

Ireland’s digital sector contributes an estimated 13 percent to GDP.

However, Maurice Mortell, head of Digital Infrastructure Ireland, a group representing data centers, said the nation could lose out on AI-driven investment due to grid and planning blockages.

“We’ve over 18 billion euros (US$20.73 billion) of investment in digital infrastructure here already, with another 5.8 billion planned, but without power, so potentially marooned,” he said.

“Ireland’s lead, particularly in cloud computing, is at risk,” he said, highlighting its fading appeal and frustrations from large US firms.

“Our sector is in limbo, we need a grid that’s capable and a clear policy environment,” he said.

A 2022 Irish government strategy paper said data centers should demonstrate a “clear pathway” to decarbonize and net-zero “data services by design.”

Meanwhile, a project launched in 2023 by Amazon Web Services (AWS) in partnership with a local Dublin authority shows how some climate impacts could be offset.

Waste heat provided from an AWS data center is carried via hot water through pipes to a local heating hub next door to heat offices and a library, and soon hundreds of homes.

“There is potential for other data centers to do the same,” said Admir Shala, a project manager at the heating hub called Heatworks.

However, McMullin was skeptical.

“We don’t really have heat networks to plug this waste heat into,” he said, adding that data centers run year-round whereas homes only need to be heated for about six months a year.

Ireland’s data centers drain the grid


Japan brushes off Chinese tourist worries

By Mathias Cena, Kyoko Hasegawa and Jing Xuan Teng / AFP, TOKYO and SHANGHAI

Shiina Ito has had fewer Chinese customers at her Tokyo jewelry shop since Beijing issued a travel warning in the wake of a diplomatic spat, but she said she was not concerned.

A souring of Tokyo-Beijing relations this month, following remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan, has fueled concerns about the impact on the ritzy boutiques, noodle joints and hotels where holidaymakers spend their cash.

However, businesses in Tokyo largely shrugged off any anxiety.

“Since there are fewer Chinese customers, it’s become a bit easier for Japanese shoppers to visit, so our sales haven’t really dropped,” Ito said.

Chinese buyers normally make up half of the customers at her business in the capital’s traditional Asakusa district, where crowds of tourists stroll through shop-lined alleys.

Many tourism and retail businesses in Japan rely heavily on Chinese visitors, who spend more on average than other foreign tourists on everything from sushi to skincare.

Some hotels, designer clothes shops and even pharmacies have Mandarin-speaking assistants, while department stores often have signs in Chinese.

In Tokyo’s upscale Ginza district, Yuki Yamamoto, the manager of an Instagram-famous udon noodle restaurant, said he had not noticed any immediate impact on sales in the days since China warned its citizens to avoid Japan.

“I don’t think there’s been any sudden, dramatic change,” he said, despite estimating that on a normal day about half the hungry diners who queue outside his door are Chinese.

“Of course, if customers decrease, that’s disappointing for the shop, but Japanese customers still come regularly, so we’re not extremely concerned,” he added.

China is the biggest source of tourists to the archipelago, with almost 7.5 million visitors in the first nine months of this year — one-quarter of all foreign tourists, official Japanese figures show.

Attracted by a weak yen, they splashed out the equivalent of US$3.7 billion in the third quarter.

Last year, each Chinese tourist spent on average 22 percent more than other visitors, the Japan National Tourism Organization said.

However, a record 36.8 million arrivals from across the globe last year has also led to fears of overtourism affecting the daily lives of many in Japan.

On Nov. 7, Takaichi implied Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.

Beijing then advised Chinese citizens to avoid traveling to Japan, and retail and tourism stocks subsequently plunged. Most have yet to recover.

In response, Japanese Minister of State for Economic Security Kimi Onoda — a hawkish political figure — warned of the danger of “relying too heavily on a country that resorts to economic coercion whenever it is displeased.”

That “poses risks not only to supply chains, but also to tourism,” she said.

Wu Weiguo, the manager of a travel agency in Shanghai, said that “the biggest impact is on group travel,” with 90 percent of his clients requesting refunds for planned Japan itineraries.

However, only about 12 percent of Chinese visitors last year came to the archipelago as part of organized tours, down from almost 43 percent in 2015.

Japanese Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Yasushi Kaneko said the issue was not “something to get all worked up about,” adding that there has been an increase in arrivals from other countries.

Nevertheless, hotels in Japan that heavily depend on Chinese customers are feeling the effects.

“Cancelations from travel agencies in China are coming one after another,” said Keiko Takeuchi, who runs the Gamagori Hotel in central Japan.

“About 50 to 60 percent of our customers are Chinese nationals,” Takeuchi said. “I hope the situation calms down quickly, but it seems it will take time.”

Beijing has made clear it was furious with Takaichi, summoning Tokyo’s ambassador and postponing the release of at least two Japanese movies, according to Chinese state media.

However, Wu said that the spat would not stop holidaymakers dreaming of Tokyo.

“They believe the service is high-quality and shopping is reasonably priced,” he said. “Chinese people will continue to want to visit Japan.”


吳釗燮 洪秀柱 馬英九 雷倩 賴清德

The diplomatic dispute between China and Japan over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments in the Japanese Diet continues to escalate.

In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong (傅聰) wrote that, “if Japan dares to attempt an armed intervention in the cross-Strait situation, it would be an act of aggression.”

There was no indication that Fu was aware of the irony implicit in the complaint.

Until this point, Beijing had limited its remonstrations to diplomatic summonses and weaponization of economic levers, such as banning Japanese seafood imports, discouraging Chinese from traveling to Japan or issuing warnings of “rampant crime” against Chinese nationals there.

The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday disclosed crime data to refute the Chinese claim, demonstrating that “such an assertion is incorrect.”

The same day, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would lift the remaining food import controls implemented following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, after testing had shown little cause for concern.

National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) posted on social media about lifting the remaining ban, writing that “Taiwan and Japan are … friends who share values, and good neighbors who support each other in times of difficulty.”

President William Lai (賴清德) on Thursday posted a video and photos of himself on social media eating a plate of sashimi, saying the ingredients were from both Taiwan and Japan, writing that this “fully shows the firm friendship between Taiwan and Japan.”

Lai and Wu were leveraging the situation to their political advantage, to say that it is better to tighten ties with a friendly neighbor than to relitigate past trauma to assist a hostile one.

Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) reacted by saying that Takaichi was only causing problems for Taiwan, disrupting attempts to improve cross-strait relations, and that Japan had no business intervening in Taiwan’s affairs. This characterization is partial and misleading, as Takaichi was speaking of Japan’s security, not Taiwan’s. Neither Ma nor Hung represent mainstream public opinion, but it would be a mistake to discount the support that their basic position has in Taiwan.

National Women’s League chairwoman Joanna Lei (雷倩), a former KMT legislator, spoke in an online interview about the ongoing spat. Just as Ma and Hung have done, Lei sympathized with China’s position, emphasizing Chinese fears about a rise in Japanese militarism, and how this would be met by concern in China and the wider region. Lei sought to play up Japan’s wartime legacy, which would be legitimate were it not for the fact that she was doing so to leverage it for her political advantage in criticizing the Lai administration and to make Beijing’s point.

She painted a picture of Lai as an example of Taiwanese stuck in a form of Stockholm syndrome of ingrained loyalty to former colonial masters. It is a very different picture from that painted by Lai and Wu. There is irony here, too, as one could equally say that Lei, Ma and Hung are stuck in a Stockholm syndrome with a hostile foreign force that holds sway over them because of a shared — if distinctly troubled — past and a nationalistic ideological affinity.

The five politicians’ respective positions reflect cultural, historical and national beliefs in Taiwan, and broadly represent those of the Democratic Progressive Party and the KMT. Their political methods, almost necessarily so, appeal to unity through division, to bolster one position by targeting the other through simplistic messaging.

For democracy to thrive, Taiwanese must see through this simplistic messaging and arrive at their own informed conclusions.

EDITORIAL: Japan-China spat divides Taiwan


Most of what gets written about Taiwan focuses on its strategic value. The semiconductors everyone needs, the democracy everyone admires, the threat China poses. All true, all important.

What does not get much attention is simpler and harder to quantify: living in a place where your entire future might get decided by forces completely outside your control, and that reality just becomes part of the air you breathe.

It affects the young couple deciding against kids, the doctor considering jobs in other countries, the teenager who cannot sleep because they are old enough to understand what “reunification” actually means. This is not background context to the Taiwan story. For the people who live there, it is the story.

The international media treats Taiwan like a chess piece in some grand strategic game. Semiconductors, naval routes, democracy versus authoritarianism. All true, all important.

However there is another story underneath that almost never gets told — what happens to ordinary people when they live under the constant shadow of military threat, year after year, with no end in sight.

The Institute for National Defense and Security Research runs regular polls on how people view the China threat. Numbers show that 63.9 percent see China’s territorial ambitions as serious, and a third call it their top national security concern for the next five years.

However, there is a disconnect in the data that shows something important about the psychological state of the nation: 65 percent do not actually believe China is going to attack within five years.

This creates a strange mental space where the threat is real enough to worry about, but vague enough to ignore. People acknowledge the danger intellectually while continuing with their daily routines.

The problem is that this kind of chronic low-level stress does not just disappear because you are not actively thinking about it. It accumulates in ways that show up elsewhere — in health statistics, demographic trends, medication use and migration patterns.

The same polling found that 46.9 percent of people feel “indifferent” to China’s military exercises. One Taipei resident, Jeff Huang (黃杰夫), said it best: “I have been threatened by this kind of threats since I was a child, and I am used to it”.

Another man, surnamed Lin (林) described the drills as “like a daily routine.”

When China launched major military drills last year, Taiwanese television spent more airtime covering a local mayor’s recall vote and a parachuting accident in San Francisco than the warships encircling their nation. The stock market barely reacted.

This looks like resilience from the outside, but it is actually something closer to emotional exhaustion. Your brain can only maintain high alert for so long before it starts filtering out the danger signals just to function. That filtering comes with costs.

Researchers compared Taiwan with Ukraine and Poland during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They found post-traumatic stress levels in Taiwan were only slightly lower than in Ukraine — a country actively experiencing war.

More than half of Taiwanese respondents reported feeling distressed by war scenes in media. Taiwan has not been bombed, has not seen cities destroyed, has not had refugees fleeing across borders, but the psychological markers are already approaching those of an active conflict zone.

The brain does not distinguish well between imminent threats and anticipated ones. If you spend years wondering when the attack is going to come, your body’s stress response activates in similar ways to if the attack were already happening. This is not academic theory, it shows up in concrete health outcomes.

Over 1.65 million Taiwanese were using antidepressants by 2022, an increase of 320,000 from just five years earlier. The highest rates of use are among people under 30, which represents a significant reversal from typical patterns where older adults usually lead in medication use. Among junior-high school students, 54.3 percent report feeling pressure about their future, and their rates of anxiety and insomnia are 3.5 times higher than students who do not report this pressure.

Suicide became the second-leading cause of death for Taiwanese teenagers, with the proportion of teen deaths from suicide jumping from 12.5 percent to 18.4 percent in just five years. The standard explanations about academic pressure and social media apply everywhere, but Taiwan’s numbers are moving faster and in more concerning directions than comparable societies.

One study tracked the correlation between increased Chinese military activity near Taiwan and Internet search behavior.

Searches for depression, suicide and emigration all increased significantly during periods of heightened military pressure. People were literally asking search engines how to leave or how to end their lives in direct response to the military threat.

That is the immediate psychological damage, visible in real-time search data.

The longer-term damage shows up differently, in decisions people make about the most basic question: whether to bring new life into this situation at all.

Taiwan’s birth rate fell to 0.85 children per woman in 2023, one of the lowest fertility rates recorded anywhere in the world. For three consecutive years, more people have died in Taiwan than have been born, with only immigration preventing outright population decline.

The standard explanations focus on economics — high housing costs, demanding work culture, expensive childcare.

However, research examining mental health in the context of geopolitical threat finds that the vicarious experience of war — anticipating conflict in your own country creates high levels of anxiety that might inform major life decisions, including marriage and childbearing. This makes intuitive sense even if it is difficult to measure precisely.

The Institute for National Defense and Security Research has officially designated the population decline as a national security issue, not just a social or economic one.

The warning signs are already visible in how young Taiwanese think about their futures. The data shows a generation hedging their bets.

Surveys found that 50 percent of young Taiwanese people would be willing to work abroad.

This is not casual interest in international experience, it represents half of an entire generation keeping their options open for permanent departure.

Historically, emigration has functioned as Taiwan’s release valve during periods of political crisis. During the 1970s and 1980s, roughly 20 percent of college graduates left for advanced study overseas, and most never returned.

The pattern appears to be repeating, driven by the same underlying uncertainty about Taiwan’s long-term future.

International media coverage of Taiwan is pretty formulaic. Journalists show up for the military exercises, interview defense analysts about strategic implications, film B-roll of fighter jets and warships, then leave.

The psychological dimension barely registers because it does not fit standard news formats. There are no dramatic visuals for chronic stress, no specific incident to report for accumulated anxiety, no clear footage for demographic decline driven partly by existential uncertainty.

The government does not emphasize this angle either. They need to project confidence and stability to maintain international support and prevent panic domestically. So they avoid talking about the mental health crisis and demographic collapse, worried it would make Taiwan look weak.

However, ignoring a problem does not make it go away, and these trends are arguably as threatening to Taiwan’s survival as any military scenario.

Taiwan’s situation forces an uncomfortable question about how much psychological damage a population can absorb before it stops functioning as an effective society capable of defending itself.

The early indicators — antidepressant use, teen suicide rates, plummeting birth rates, emigration interest — suggest that damage is accumulating faster than most outside observers recognize.

This matters not just for Taiwan but for understanding how modern great power competition actually works when direct conflict remains too costly.

The weapons are not just missiles and warships, they are also sustained uncertainty, chronic stress and the slow erosion of hope about the future.

23 million people are living with this weight. Some go numb. Some get depressed. Some plan escape routes. Some keep going, because what else can you do?

This is the cost of being Taiwan. Not hypothetical. Not future. Right now, today, this is what it is doing to people and nobody is covering it because there is no explosion to film, no body count to tweet, no burning buildings to show at 6pm. That is the entire point of this kind of warfare. Conventional attacks create international responses. Psychological pressure just grinds away until one day the damage is too deep to reverse.

Beijing is counting on this pressure to break Taiwan without a fight, but Taiwan has survived worse odds before, and its people have shown they can adapt and maintain their identity under pressure that would have crushed other societies. The determination is still there — millions still choose to stay, to build lives, to resist in their own ways.

The question is whether that determination gets the support it needs, whether Taiwan and the world are going to recognize psychological warfare as the real attack it is and respond before the damage becomes irreversible. The war is not coming. It is already here, just fought with different weapons.

Noa Wynn is a researcher and journalist focusing on international security, social dynamics, and the forces shaping modern societies. He has reported on political and social issues across multiple regions, with a particular interest in how global pressures shape local realities.

Strain from idea of invasion shows


On Wednesday, China abruptly suspended imports of Japanese seafood, citing the need for further monitoring of water conditions, and halting imports of Hokkaido scallops, which had just embarked on their first trip to China. However, the move is not really due to a technical issue — it is another blatant act of political retaliation. China’s weaponization of the economy is nothing new, and what Japan faces is all too familiar to Taiwan.

In 2021, China, with the intention of creating internal turmoil in Taiwan and making farmers blame the government for damages, suspended Taiwanese pineapple imports right at the peak of harvest season. However, Beijing never anticipated that Taiwan’s true friend — Japan — would step up at such a crucial moment.

On March 11 that year — which coincided with the tenth anniversary of the 2011’s massive, deadly earthquake — Japanese who had long remembered Taiwan’s support during the disaster stepped forward to return the favor. Within just a few days, Japanese orders for Taiwanese pineapples surged to three times the total of the previous year.

Even during the off-season and cold weather, Japanese consumers still grabbed up box after box of pineapples. By contrast, pineapples from the Philippines — which were half the cost — received little attention. Japan did more than provide verbal support — it used genuine sentiment and concrete action to tell Taiwan: “You are not alone.”

The situation Japan faces is almost identical to what Taiwan dealt with back then. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statement that a Chinese naval blockade of Taiwan would constitute a “survival-threatening situation” merely reflects geopolitical reality, yet China continues to retaliate. Now, it is attempting to use seafood as a tool for exerting political pressure.

US Ambassador to Japan George Glass immediately voiced public support, sharing a social media post calling China’s previous ban on Japanese seafood “unjustified” and describing Hokkaido scallops as “the perfect start to any meal.” He criticized the ban as economic coercion — a “hard habit to break” for Beijing.

“But just as the US stood by Japan during China’s last unwarranted ban on Japanese seafood, we will be there for our ally again this time,” he said.

The US’ swift response demonstrates the unshakable strength of the US-Japan alliance, once again exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s “wolf warrior” tactics to the world.

Taiwan and Japan are not just neighboring countries, but a community with a shared destiny.

Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s famous remark that “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency” reflects an undeniable geopolitical truth.

By simply reiterating this fact, Takaichi has incurred China’s sweeping retaliation through the tourism, entertainment and trade sanctions — the very tactics typically used on Taiwan, directed at Japan.

True friendship is revealed in times of adversity. When Taiwan needed help the most, Japan stepped up without hesitation to help pineapple farmers overcome their worries.

Now that Japanese fishermen are under the same pressure and Takaichi has even received death threats for supporting Taiwan, how could Taiwanese — who have always valued reciprocity — turn a blind eye?

A Japan contingency is a Taiwan contingency. If we do not stand with Japan’s scallops now, when would we?

Wang Hui-sheng is a founding member of the East Asian Research Institute.

Translated by Kyra Gustavsen

Paying it forward: It’s time to help Japan


EDITORIAL CARTOON

“Si ambulat loquitur tetrissitatque sicut anas, anas est” is, in customary international law, the three-part test of anatine ambulation, articulation and tetrissitation. And it is essential to Taiwan’s existence. Apocryphally, it can be traced as far back as Suetonius (蘇埃托尼烏斯) in late first-century Rome. Alas, Suetonius was only talking about ducks (anas).But this self-evident principle was codified as a four-part test at the Montevideo Convention in 1934, to which the United States is a party. Article One: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government;


The Asian century rolls on as  Trump risks freezing the US

Rising tariffs and fraying alliances erode Washington’s connections in the world’s fastest-growing region  by Malcolm Scott, Scott Johnson, Maeva Cousin and Tom Orlik / Bloomberg

US President Donald Trump’s bid to rekindle the kind of economic supremacy that saw the 1900s dubbed “America’s Century” risks isolating it from the region that is laying claim to the 2000s — Asia.

Trade ties forged over decades are running up against the steepest US tariff wall since the 1940s. People-to-people interactions are fraying as Chinese students are turned off by visa roadblocks and Singaporean tourists prefer Asian getaways.

Where Trump has notched wins — including US$900 billion in investment pledges from Tokyo and Seoul — incidents such as a shock immigration raid that led to the detention of more than 300 South Korean workers in September have shaken trust.

From the corridors of the sandstone Secretariat Building in New Delhi to the halls of Beijing’s Zhongnanhai (中南海) compound, leaders across a region that remains the world’s main growth engine are rewiring their economies to work around Trump’s “America First” policies.

India and China are seeking to put aside a decades-long border dispute to deepen cooperation. North Asia’s biggest economies are pledging to boost trade ties, although rivalries such as the latest China-Japan spat make it a bumpy process. Southeast Asian countries are trying to chart a neutral course, even as they are increasingly entwined economically with China.

Ten months into his second term, it is too early to make a definitive judgment on Trump’s efforts to realign the global economy in the US’ favor, bringing shuttered factories — and the jobs they create — humming back to life.

Investment pledges from the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co into new chip fabrication plants and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries Co into long-neglected ship yards may yet revitalize strategic industries on US shores. The tariff shock to US inflation, growth and markets that economists warned of has yet to materialize.

The risk is clear: The US is cutting itself off from a region set to comprise about 60 percent of the global economy by 2050 versus just 11 percent for the US, Bloomberg Economics said.

For China, Trump’s tariffs and retaliation from Beijing threaten to slash trade by half, even after the two sides hit pause on some export restrictions late last month.

China remains the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, even if a property slump means growth is running slower than the pre-COVID-19 years. Its leaders have just mapped out an ambitious plan to keep closing the gap on strategic technologies such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI), and support future industries including quantum computing and nuclear fusion.

China’s high-tech sector now accounts for more than 15 percent of GDP, up from less than 11 percent in 2017, Bloomberg Economics estimated. When it comes to AI, China is rapidly closing the gap with the US thanks to lower cost models such as DeepSeek, whose R1 stunned Silicon Valley with its sophistication this year.

Trump during his meeting on Oct. 30 with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Busan, South Korea, secured the resumption of soybean sales and rare earths flows, while the US agreed to suspend a rule expanding restrictions on blacklisted Chinese firms.

The US president also announced his 20 percent fentanyl tariff would be halved, shaving the average rate on Chinese goods to 31 percent, Bloomberg Economics said. However, that is still too high for China’s factories — operating on razor thin profit margins — to turn a profit on US sales. And on semiconductors, progress continues to be measured in nanometers, with a rumored shift to allow Nvidia Corp to sell its advanced Blackwell chips to China failing to materialize.

Washington’s Quad partner New Delhi has been shocked by the punitive 50 percent tariffs and bellicose rhetoric directed its way for oil purchases that Trump said is helping fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine. In his quest for lower levies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to describe Trump as a “friend.” However, the political mood has swung against the US, with Modi’s main political rival Rahul Gandhi describing Trump as a “bully” and his tariffs as “economic blackmail.”

Trump’s approach to India helped accelerate a rapprochement between New Delhi and Beijing. The two sides are now trying to put a deadly 2020 border clash in the past and deepen commercial links — a dance that Xi has dubbed the “Dragon-Elephant Tango.”

Behind closed doors, Indian officials are realizing they need Chinese investment to further their plans to boost manufacturing. For China, which is facing an aging population and battling industrial overcapacity, improved relations with India offer access to a rapidly growing market.

Indeed, by the end of this decade, India would have picked up the global growth baton with its contribution swelling in following decades, Bloomberg Economics forecasts showed.

As Trump throws up the trade barriers, intra-Asian trade is becoming freer. Just a day after Trump wrapped up a trip to Malaysia, Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim oversaw the signing of an agreement in Kuala Lumpur to expand the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. During a speech, Li sought to project his nation as a champion of free trade and called for unity with the 11-nation grouping.

“Interference by external forces in our region is rising, and many countries are being unreasonably subjected to high tariffs,” Li said. “Faced with strong political and economic bullying, disunity and confrontation will not only bring no benefits, but will lead to division and rule by external forces.”

The expanding BRICS group — which now includes Indonesia — is an additional avenue for China to build ties, as capitals across the region fret about unraveling relations with Washington.

And it is not just fewer goods headed to the US. Student arrivals to the US dropped 19 percent in August year-on-year to just more than 313,000 — the fifth consecutive month of declines, International Trade Administration data showed. That is the lowest number of students entering the US for August — a peak month ahead of the start of the academic semester — since 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Indian academics decreased by 45 percent, while those from China dropped 12 percent.

Trump’s move to slap a US$100,000 fee on new H-1B applications for skilled workers would disproportionately hurt Indians, who account for two-thirds of the visas. Indian outsourcers led by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Infosys Ltd had been heavy users of the program to deploy tens of thousands of engineers across US clients, from Citigroup Inc to Walmart Inc.

Trump’s US has also become less appealing to tourists from places such as Singapore, whose high-spending travelers are instead vacationing within Asia.

About 80 percent of travelers in Southeast Asia said the US is losing appeal as a destination due to concerns over discrimination, Trump’s policies and gun violence, a CNBC Travel survey showed.

In a noodle bowl of trade, investment and people-to-people interactions, not all ties have been severed — or even frayed — and some new connections are evolving. At the business-to-business level, companies such as Apple Inc have secured carve outs from Trump’s sweeping tariff campaign, and Chinese firms have leveraged their market dominance to maintain sales worth about US$1 billion a day to US importers.

Investment pledges from Asian nations and companies now run into the hundreds of billions of US dollars. Even if much of that is smoke and mirrors, there could be a lot of Asian money — and manufacturing — heading toward the US.

For US power in the Asia-Pacific region, there is also a kind of automatic stabilizer built in: The more China’s might rises, the more its neighbors would seek US support as a counter balance.

For one of the world’s most China-dependent developed economies, Australia, that means locking into a multi-decade nuclear submarine agreement with Washington to counter any expansionist moves from Beijing. South Korea and the US are in private negotiations to jointly build nuclear-powered subs, too. For China’s historic rival Japan, it means increasing defense spending, and committing to a vast and vague US$550 billion US investment pledge to win Trump’s favor.

For Trump and his supporters, the benefits of breaking ties might be worth the cost of doing so. Why carry on free trade with China when it is using the proceeds to accelerate its challenge to US economic and geopolitical supremacy? Why allow hundreds of thousands of Indian engineers into the country when investing in US workers would pay higher dividends?

Free trade or national security? Comparative advantage or America First? Offshoring to boost profits or onshoring to boost wages? The argument from Trump and his team is that past administrations paid too much attention to the first half of those pairings, and that their job is to restore balance by paying more attention to the second.

It is an argument that finds some support in the data: China’s rise as an export powerhouse coincides with an accelerated decline in US factory jobs and stagnant incomes for the US’ middle class. More importantly, it is an argument that has won support at the ballot box, catapulting Trump into two terms as president.

However, as a policy package, it is hardly cost free. The US has already transitioned from friend and ally to something some capitals regard as a rival and others as a bully. In the years ahead, if tariffs sever trade ties, people-to-people connections cool and investments fail to materialize, the US might end up as little more than a bystander in the Asian 21st century.


Will AI turn Japan’s artistic ‘irreplaceable treasures’ into slop?

When a UN report warned that Japan’s storied animation sector was in danger of potential collapse, you would be forgiven for thinking the cause was the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

It was not. Low pay, excessive working hours and weak protections for people’s intellectual property (IP) rights had created “an environment ripe for exploitation,” the UN human rights body said last year. If the outlook was grim then, the proliferation of AI could prove existential.

Tokyo owes more to these artists. Even as Japan’s industrial might slipped during the so-called “lost decades,” their imagination and soul propeled the nation’s soft power and global influence. Dragon Ball, Pokemon and Studio Ghibli churned out internationally beloved storylines and characters. The government was arguably slow to appreciate or monetize this, but has since spent years trying to turn the nation’s creative works into a leading export — as powerful as any car or chip.

AI’s threat gives Japan a second chance to do right by the workers propping up the US$21 billion industry. Tokyo must move fast to bolster labor rights, protect IP, demand transparency and fairly compensate artists, or risk letting Silicon Valley write the rules as it goes.

The release of OpenAI’s Sora 2 video creator was the latest wake-up call. Users of the TikTok clone began quickly turning a beloved catalogue of anime characters into AI slop.

Japanese Representative Akihisa Shiozaki in a commentary said he was especially alarmed to see high-quality generations of Japanese icons — while Western figures such as Mickey Mouse or Superman were conspicuously absent.

Japan expressed its concerns to OpenAI, he said, apparently prompting OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to announce an update that gives rightsholders “more granular control” and praising the nation’s “remarkable creative output.”

Altman said they hoped to start a revenue sharing plan “soon.”

OpenAI’s swift response is a good first step, but tech giants should also pay for the creativity they have already exploited. While I was scrolling Sora 2 a few days ago, clips featuring Naruto, Doraemon, Totoro and many other anime favorites were abundant, even if my brief attempts to create new videos with some of them were refused. It is more than apparent that Japan’s cultural crown jewels were used to train the video generator that has the potential to be a big moneymaker for the tech giant.

The reach of Japan’s creative industry gives it an obligation to lead this global fight for the future of arts in the AI era. It can start by demanding transparency. Most leading tech companies have stopped sharing the details of the data used to train their models. The public deserves to know what goes into these systems — not just so rightsholders are aware if their work was used, but so researchers and policymakers can better understand how these tools shape the world around us.

As Bloomberg Opinion columnist Dave Lee said, companies pay for the chips that their machines need, they pay for the power to run them and for the labor of their engineers, “So why not pay for the work of human creators, without whom today’s AI models wouldn’t be worth a penny?”

Even amid periods of massive technological transformation, there are precedents for how to renumerate creatives, Lee said.

It is also clear that even before the rise of AI, Japan’s anime industry was overdue for a labor reckoning. Despite a boom globally, many creatives are living in poverty. Tokyo could fix this by empowering unions in a sector long resistant to organizing. This would not only help improve conditions, but also offer the artists a fighting chance to have a say in how their work is used by AI and how the technology can be deployed within their industry.

The 2023 Hollywood writers’ strike exposed how critical organized labor is for creative sectors and offers a precedent: Those employed in the field won the right to decide for themselves how and when AI is used, while still ensuring they would be compensated either way.

Automation can threaten artists’ livelihoods or be used responsibly to help fill gaping labor shortages. Collective bargaining agreements give workers a say in how this process ultimately unfolds.

In a news conference last month, a Japanese lawmaker overseeing IP strategy called anime and manga “irreplaceable treasures of our country.” AI tools are now capable of replicating, and even replacing, something that has made Japan a cultural powerhouse. The window for Tokyo to act is closing fast.

Catherine Thorbecke is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asia tech. Previously she was a tech reporter at CNN and ABC News.