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AI Will Change the Way Countries Are Run, Says Mirai Leader

TOKYO - Artificial intelligence could bring changes equal to or greater than the Industrial Revolution, reshaping the role of government, society and policymaking, Mirai party leader Takahiro Anno said in an interview broadcast on July 26.

Anno said the world remains at the very beginning of the AI revolution, with generative AI making it possible to obtain intelligence capable of reasoning at low cost.

"We have become able to procure thinking intelligence cheaply," Anno said. "As a result, the nature of the nation and society will change, affecting policies across a wide range of fields."

Anno also reiterated his opposition to reducing the consumption tax and called on Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to reconsider her position.

"One way to take responsibility is to fulfill an election pledge, but it is also the prime minister's duty to take responsibility by putting people's livelihoods first," Anno said. "I would like her to change course decisively."

Source: テレ東BIZ

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A large new typhoon formed near the Ogasawara Islands on August 12 and could approach Honshu around the end of the Obon holiday period, while the remnants of Typhoon No. 15 continue to bring unstable weather and a risk of heavy rain across a wide area of Japan.

Hiroko Saito was 19 years old when she left Japan for North Korea in June 1961 with her Korean husband and their one-year-old daughter, persuaded by assurances that they were heading to a "paradise on earth" and that she could return to Japan after three years. Instead, she would spend four decades in North Korea, enduring chronic hunger, the deaths of her husband and children and a desperate struggle to survive before finally escaping and returning home in 2001.

Transport disruption caused by Typhoon No. 15 was easing across eastern Japan on the morning of August 12, with most major railway and airline services returning to normal after dozens of flight cancellations and widespread rail disruption during the storm's landfall in Ibaraki Prefecture the previous evening.

Japan's H3 Rocket No. 9 successfully placed the Michibiki No. 7 navigation satellite into its planned orbit after lifting off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at 4:23 a.m. on August 11, marking the country's second consecutive successful H3 launch.

The Tokaido Shinkansen operated its first overnight service ahead of the Obon holiday period, offering travelers a 15,000 yen trip from the Tokyo area to Kyoto and Shin-Osaka while allowing them to save on hotel costs and arrive earlier than the first regular morning trains.

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