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Japan and ASEAN aim to join hands at a time when the United States and China are boosting their presence in the artificial intelligence sector.

Tokyo hopes the plan to mine as much as 16 million tonnes of rare earths will help reduce its reliance on China, but will it work?

Japan's economy is returning to something resembling normality for the first time in decades. That's likely to mean more volatility ahead for the yen and other Japanese assets, as investors try to make sense ​of this new reality.

In its broader scope, Japan aims to establish a “rule-based international order” with Central Asia, focusing on priority areas of cooperation, including environmental sustainability, human resource development, and technology. However, beyond these headline outcomes, two substantive areas deserve closer analytical attention.

The yen edged lower on Thursday as traders fretted over the impact of possible increased fiscal spending, while keeping a close watch for any signs of Bank of Japan intervention to shore up the currency near the 160 level.

The new pragmatism, though, demands that Japan not only swallow the absurdity that this represents restitution for treating the US unfairly under the old, US-backed order, but that Japan become actively complicit in the broader erosion of faith in international rules.

Japan's wholesale inflation slowed in the year to December on sliding fuel costs, data showed on Thursday, a sign falling crude oil prices were offering some relief to companies facing rising labour and other raw material costs.