Railway Kingdom Japan: The Shinkansen's Punctual Perfection
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Japan Times
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A ‘Sputnik' moment in the global AI race
When Chinese AI startup DeepSeek unveiled the open-source large language model DeepSeek-R1 in January, many referred to it as the "AI Sputnik shock" — a reference to the monumental significance of the Soviet Union's 1957 launch of the first satellite into orbit. Much remains uncertain about DeepSeek's LLM and its capabilities should not be overestimated — but its release nevertheless has sparked intense discussion about its superiority especially in terms of cost. DeepSeek claims that its model possesses reasoning abilities on par with or even superior to OpenAI's leading models, with training costs at less than one-tenth of OpenAI's — reportedly just $5.6 million — largely due to the use of NVIDIA's lower-cost H800 GPUs rather than the more powerful H200 or H100 models. Tech giants like Meta and Google have spent billions of dollars on high-performance GPUs to develop cutting-edge AI models. However, DeepSeek's ability to produce a high-performance AI model at a significantly lower cost challenges the prevailing belief that computational power—determined by the number and quality of GPUs—is the primary driver of AI performance.
NHK
9 hours ago
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Railway Kingdom Japan: The Shinkansen's Punctual Perfection
The shinkansen: world-renowned for exceptional on-time performance. We explore the highly skilled drivers and equipment that make it possible, through history and into a future of self-driving trains.
Japan Times
13 hours ago
- Japan Times
Japan plans 'world first' deep-sea mineral extraction
Japan will from January attempt to extract rare earth minerals from the ocean floor in the deepest trial of its kind, the director of a government innovation program said Thursday. Earlier this week the country pledged to work with the United States, India and Australia to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals, as concern grows over China's dominance in resources vital to new technologies. Rare earths — 17 metals difficult to extract from the Earth's crust — are used in everything from electric vehicles to hard drives, wind turbines and missiles. China accounts for almost two-thirds of rare earth mining production and 92% of global refined output, according to the International Energy Agency. A Japanese deep-sea scientific drilling boat called the Chikyu will from January conduct a "test cruise" to retrieve ocean floor sediments that contain rare earth elements, said Shoichi Ishii, director of Japan's Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program. "The test to retrieve the sediments from 5,500 meters (3.4 miles) water depth is the first in the world," he said. "Our goal ... of this cruise is to test the function of all mining equipment," so the amount of sediment extracted "doesn't matter at all," Ishii added. The Chikyu will drill in Japanese economic waters around the remote island of Minami Torishima in the Pacific — the easternmost point of Japan, also used as a military base. Japan's Nikkei business daily reported that the mission aims to extract 35 metric tons of mud from the sea floor over around three weeks. Each ton is expected to contain around two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of rare earth minerals, which are often used to make magnets that are essential in modern electronics. Deep-sea mining has become a geopolitical flash point, with anxiety growing over a push by U.S. President Donald Trump to fast-track the practice in international waters. Beijing has since April required licenses to export rare earths from China, a move seen as retaliation for U.S. curbs on the import of Chinese goods. Environmental campaigners warn that deep-sea mining threatens marine ecosystems and will disrupt the sea floor. The International Seabed Authority, which has jurisdiction over the ocean floor outside national waters, is meeting later this month to discuss a global code to regulate mining in the ocean depths.
