Science and Technology Policy Japan

The government on Tuesday called for quickly beefing up defenses against cyberattacks and threats from outer space as it unveiled a draft outline of the national defense buildup guidelines, to be updated next month.

Japan will help countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations groom 80,000 manufacturing and digital industry specialists over five years, part of a broader effort by Tokyo toward cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

The government is considering the introduction of the U.S. Avenger unmanned combat aircraft to the Maritime Self-Defense Force with an eye on strengthening its surveillance of Chinese naval vessels in waters around Japan and North Korean smuggling activities, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The government needs to create tough regulations for information technology giants through measures such as forming a specialist monitoring team, according to an interim report released Monday by the government’s expert panel.

The Japanese government has decided to ban flying drones near venues for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games during the events, a government source said Friday.

On Oct. 15, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed during an extraordinary Cabinet meeting that the government would raise the consumption tax from 8 to 10 percent next Oct. 1. The tax hike has already been postponed twice owing to jitters over how it might affect consumption. The last consumption tax increase, in 2014, sparked a recession, and reportedly there is still a chance that Abe might postpone the hike once again if economic indicators show a similar scenario. Consequently, the prime minister said the government would do its “utmost to minimize a negative impact on the economy by implementing all sorts of policies.”

Twenty-five years after particle physicists began studying prospects for a linear collider, Japan is poised to decide whether to pay for half of the $7 billion project and build the 20-kilometer-long superconducting tunnel in mountains northeast of Tokyo.

The Environment Ministry said Wednesday it plans to urge companies to reduce their use of microplastics, amid heightened global concern over marine pollution.

Dealing with various climate change-related issues is likely to be one of the top points of discussion at the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Osaka next June, Jacques Attali, one of the world’s most prominent nongovernmental organization leaders, said in an interview with The Japan Times on Tuesday.

For Japan to achieve its goal of reducing household food waste by 50 percent by fiscal 2030 compared with 2000, consumers and manufacturers need to change how they think about food, participants at a recent meeting on food loss said.