Dan Milmo from The Guardian:
Graphcore is the latest UK tech company to be bought by SoftBank, which acquired the Cambridge-based chip designer Arm for £24bn in 2016.
SoftBank remains the biggest shareholder in Arm after its listing in New York last year. It also recently led a $1bn (£774m) investment in the British self-driving technology startup Wayve.
Riley Walters from Nikkei:
While Japan can never become an official member of the regional alliance, its participation in the organization's activities and cooperation with its member states is increasingly important as it develops its defense capacity.
There are limits to Japan's partnership with NATO. The organization cannot come to the defense of Japan, even if it were to enter conflict with Russia, China, or North Korea. But NATO's member states, especially the U.S., could certainly support Japan with military and nonmilitary support, if necessary. Beyond the mutual defense agreement of the NATO treaty (Article 5), there are other aspects of the treaty that allow for institution building and capacity training between NATO, its members and Japan.
This is a good explainer article about how Japan fits into the western security umbrella and how it could come to the nation’s aid in the event of conflict.
From Kyodo:
"Japan and Britain are important partners sharing values and principles. We will further promote the bilateral relationship with the new administration," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said at a regular press conference.
Sean Coughlan from BBC News:
The King’s speech talked of the close friendship between the UK and Japan.
“Ours is a partnership with deep roots,” said the King, in areas of science, culture, defence and trade."
He also referenced some Japanese contributions to popular culture, including the Hello Kitty brand and mentioned the “Pokemon phrase ‘gotta catch ‘em all’”.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world...
Shimpei Kawakami from Nikkei:
European countries are sending more air and sea forces to Asia for defense exercises with Japan, bringing them closer to what remains a distant security challenge: China.
A destroyer from Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force held an exercise with a Turkish navy corvette on Sunday. Earlier this month, a Dutch frigate participated in the Netherlands' first joint exercise with an MSDF destroyer before heading to the upcoming U.S.-led international Rim of the Pacific exercise off Hawaii.
Regardless if anyone will say it out loud, but Japan is clearly a hub for a greater Pacific alliance of western nations against China, Russia, and North Korea. The real question is if Abe's dream of expanding the SDF into a military will become reality within this framework.