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A research team from the University of Tokyo and Waseda University announced Thursday that it has developed the largest-ever “biohybrid” hand that includes parts made of cultivated human tissue. Led by Xinzhu Ren and Shoji Takeuchi from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, and Yuya Morimoto, an associate professor at Waseda University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, the team engineered a multijointed robotic hand with movement powered by living muscle tissue, measuring 18 centimeters long, with a palm size of 6 centimeters — around the same size as a newborn’s — and five fingers capable of independent motion. The team’s findings were published in the online edition of Science Robotics. Source link

Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki are expected to pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers during the team’s season-opening series in Tokyo next month, manager Dave Roberts said on Wednesday. Roberts, preparing for his 10th season guiding the Dodgers, said the reigning World Series champions plan to have the Japanese aces on the mound when they face the Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19 at Tokyo Dome. “The expectation for both those guys to pitch is real,” Roberts said on MLB Network. “That’s our expectation. Source link

Japan and New Zealand are close to inking a key intelligence-sharing agreement and have committed to ramping up discussions to facilitate the exchange of military supplies and logistical support, Wellington’s envoy to Tokyo has said, as the countries pave the way for greater defense and security cooperation. “We share an awareness of the increasingly challenging strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific region and our leaders have agreed on the importance of further strengthening cooperation,” Ambassador Hamish Cooper told The Japan Times in an interview. New Zealand and Japan, he added, are working together to “identify further opportunities for bilateral and multilateral defense interactions.” The moves, he said, are part of a reset in New Zealand’s foreign and defense policy as Wellington looks to step up engagements with its Asian partners. Source link

The pace of gains in Japan’s corporate goods prices accelerated last month to the fastest clip in 19 months, keeping the Bank of Japan on track for further interest rate hikes. The measure of input prices for Japanese firms rose 4.2% in January from a year earlier, the BOJ reported Thursday. The gain, led by agricultural products such as rice, was bigger than the consensus estimate of 4% and compared with a revised 3.9% advance a month earlier. The data is likely to support growing market views that the BOJ’s current policy cycle could feature hikes that are faster and culminate in a higher terminal rate than many previously expected. The shift in thinking has helped spur repricing in the bond market. Japan’s 10-year bond yields continued to rise Thursday, hitting the highest level in almost 15 years. The BOJ raised its benchmark rate to the highest level in 17 years last month as inflation and the economy continued to perform in line with the expectations of authorities. In a Bloomberg survey conducted after the January policy gathering, more than half of BOJ watchers said they expect the next hike to come in July. In their risk scenarios, 45% said the action could be taken as early as the board meeting that concludes on May 1. BOJ Gov. Kazuo Ueda said earlier this week that he will continue to carefully monitor inflation as it’s possible that recent gains in food prices will be sustained. Source link

Berlin – Russian-linked online disinformation networks are spreading faked spy agency warnings of terrorist attacks in Germany ahead of this month’s election in an apparent attempt to sow fear and depress voter turnout, cybersecurity experts say. The networks were also spreading unfounded rumors aimed at discrediting Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz, a conservative whom polls place ahead of the second-placed, Russia-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) in polls, said the researchers. The experts, working with German human rights organizations Civil Society Forum and Robert Bosch Foundation, are veterans of efforts to combat Russian influencing operations who did not wish to be identified for security reasons. Source link

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose reciprocal tariffs as soon as Wednesday evening on every country that charges duties on U.S. imports, in a move that ratchets up fears of a widening global trade war and threatens to accelerate U.S. inflation. “I may do it later on or I may do it tomorrow morning, but we’ll be signing reciprocal tariffs,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Trump’s latest round of market-rattling tariffs comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to visit the White House on Thursday. The Trump administration has complained that India has high tariffs that lock out U.S. imports. Source link

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV – Donald Trump discussed the war in Ukraine on Wednesday in phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the new U.S. president’s first big step towards diplomacy over a war he has promised to end. In a post on his social media platform after speaking to Putin, Trump said they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately,” and that he would begin by phoning Zelenskyy. After a call with the Ukrainian leader, Trump said: “The conversation went very well. He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.” Source link

The infrastructure ministry will launch a subsidy project in fiscal 2025, which starts in April, to support the implementation of measures to prevent emergency transport road from collapsing. The move comes after many roads built on piled-up soil collapsed after a powerful earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula in January 2024. Targeting expressway operators, prefectural governments and other road administrators, the ministry will intensively support collapse-prevention measures for emergency transportation roads, which are essential for rescue operations and transporting goods, with the aim of reducing damage in the event of disasters. According to the ministry, there were 28 locations where roads built on piled-up soil collapsed on a large scale following the magnitude-7.6 Noto Peninsula earthquake. Serious damage occurred in places including where shallow valleys had been filled in. In July last year, the ministry began nationwide inspections of roads constructed by piling soil 10 meters or more high and located in water catchment areas. It is closely examining places that require immediate measures by asking road administrators to conduct investigations. Under the new project, the ministry will provide subsidies, at the rate of 55% of overall costs, to help cover the expenses for reinforcing roads at risk of collapse and improving drainage functions. Following the Noto quake, the ministry has also been discussing a review of technical standards for methods for designing tunnels, bridges and other road structures, hoping to introduce the revised standards in the second half of fiscal 2025. Source link

Hon Hai Precision Industry is open to buying Renault’s stake in Nissan, a move that may offer the struggling Japanese carmaker a lifeline. The Taiwanese company has approached both Nissan and Honda about potential cooperation, Hon Hai Chairman Young Liu told reporters on Wednesday on the sidelines of a company event. Liu also said his firm will announce a new Japanese customer for its electric vehicle contract manufacturing business in the first quarter, though he didn’t specify the name or scale of production in the brief remarks. Source link

SoftBank Group swung to a loss in the December quarter due to a drop in the value of its Vision Fund unit’s public holdings, boding ill for founder Masayoshi Son who has to raise $500 billion for the Stargate artificial intelligence project. The Tokyo-based company reported a net loss of ¥369.2 billion ($2.4 billion) for the fiscal third quarter compared with a profit of ¥950 billion a year earlier. The Vision Fund unit logged a ¥309.9 billion loss, hurting the bottom line after shares of public holdings such as Coupang and Didi Global gave up some of their gains from the previous quarter. Volatility in the Vision Fund’s quarterly performance consistently dogs SoftBank, which has embarked on a project with OpenAI to invest $500 billion on the infrastructure needed to support and propel AI development. Japanese billionaire Son is exploring project financing to raise money. One scenario under review is to raise 10% of the total sum through equity with senior loans contributing as much as 70%. Source link