When Will Japan’s Cherry Blossoms Bloom? A.I. Can Help Answer That; The New York Times, March 31, 2026

Javier C. Hernández, Kiuko Notoya and Hisako Ueno

Visuals by Kentaro Takahashi

, The New York Times; When Will Japan’s Cherry Blossoms Bloom? A.I. Can Help Answer That

Experts use artificial intelligence to analyze data, plus thousands of crowdsourced photos, to forecast the prized flowers, which are a multibillion-dollar attraction.

"For Hiroki Ito, a data scientist and meteorologist who specializes in the high-stakes art of predicting the exact date that the trees will bloom, it has always been a time of stress. Japan’s prized cherry blossoms generate an estimated more than $9 billion in tourism and other revenue each year. Airlines, hotels and restaurants depend on the forecasts — not to mention the 123 million Japanese who want to know when to head to parks and gardens for peak bloom...

Now, Mr. Ito and other experts are turning to a tool they hope might reduce some of the burden of forecasting: artificial intelligence. They are using A.I. systems to analyze decades of temperature data, and to deliver maps and “bloom meters” for trees in more than 1,000 spots, which blossom at different times.

This year, forecasters are crowdsourcing photos from the public and feeding them into A.I.-powered databases that can track the growth of buds, which form in the summer, stay dormant through the winter, and take anywhere from two to four weeks to blossom after turning green in the spring.

In the past, experts relied on computer analysis of weather patterns and observations of trees to predict the arrival of the “blossom front,” or the flowering of the trees — with varying success. In 2007, forecasters with the official Japan Meteorological Agency were forced to deliver a televised apology after a computer glitch caused the agency to get the forecast wrong by up to nine days in some places.

A.I. systems have brought more efficiency and precision to the process, scientists say, allowing the first predictions to come out a few weeks earlier, in December — three months before the start of the main cherry blossom season."

Japan Police Accuse Man of Unauthorized Use of AI-Generated Image in Landmark Copyright Case; IGN, November 21, 2025

 VERITY TOWNSEND, IGN ; Japan Police Accuse Man of Unauthorized Use of AI-Generated Image in Landmark Copyright Case

"Police in Japan have accused a man of unauthorized reproduction of an AI-generated image. This is believed to be the first ever legal case in Japan where an AI-generated image has been treated as a copyrighted work under the country’s Copyright Act.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun and spotted by Dexerto, the case relates to an AI-generated image created using Stable Diffusion back in 2024 by a man in his 20s from Japan’s Chiba prefecture. This image was then allegedly reused without permission by a 27-year-old man (also from Chiba) for the cover of his commercially-available book. 

The original creator of the image told the Yomiuri Shimbun that he had used over 20,000 prompts to generate the final picture. The police allege that the creator had sufficient involvement in the AI image’s creation, and the matter has been referred to the Chiba District Public Prosecutors Office.

Japan’s Copyright Act defines a copyrighted work as a “creatively produced expression of thoughts or sentiments that falls within the literary, academic, artistic, or musical domain.” In regard to whether an AI-generated image can be copyrighted or not, the Agency of Cultural Affairs has stated that an AI image generated with no instructions or very basic instructions from a human is not a “creatively produced expression of thoughts or sentiments” and therefore not considered to meet the requirements to be copyrighted work.

However, if a person has used AI as a tool to creatively express thoughts or feelings, the AI-generated output might be considered a copyrighted work. This is to be decided on a case-by-case basis. The process behind the creation of the specific AI-generated image has to be looked at in order to determine whether it can be considered to be creative enough to be termed a copyrighted work. Key criteria are the amount of detailed prompts, the refining of instructions over repeated generation attempts, and creative selections or changes to outputs."

Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations; NiemanLab, August 11, 2025

 ANDREW DECK  , NiemanLab; Japan’s largest newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, sues AI startup Perplexity for copyright violations

"The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest newspaper by circulation, has sued the generative AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed in Tokyo District Court on August 7, marks the first copyright challenge by a major Japanese news publisher against an AI company.

The filing claims that Perplexity accessed 119,467 articles on Yomiuri’s site between February and June of this year, based on an analysis of its company server logs. Yomiuri alleges the scraping has been used by Perplexity to reproduce the newspaper’s copyrighted articles in responses to user queries without authorization.

In particular, the suit claims Perplexity has violated its “right of reproduction” and its “right to transmit to the public,” two tenets of Japanese law that give copyright holders control over the copying and distribution of their work. The suit seeks nearly $15 million in damages and demands that Perplexity stop reproducing its articles...

Japan’s copyright law allows AI developers to train models on copyrighted material without permission. This leeway is a direct result of a 2018 amendment to Japan’s Copyright Act, meant to encourage AI developmentin the country’s tech sector. The law does not, however, allow for wholesale reproduction of those works, or for AI developers to distribute copies in a way that will “unreasonably prejudice the interests of the copyright owner."

CMU Joins $110M U.S.-Japan Partnership To Accelerate AI Innovation; Carnegie Mellon University, April 11, 2024

 Kelly Saavedra, Carnegie Mellon University; CMU Joins $110M U.S.-Japan Partnership To Accelerate AI Innovation

"Carnegie Mellon University and Keio University have announced they will join forces with one another and with industry partners to boost AI-focused research and workforce development in the United States and Japan. The partnership is one of two new university partnerships between the two countries in the area of artificial intelligence announced in Washington, D.C., April 9 at an event hosted by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.

The collaboration joins two universities with outstanding AI programs and forward-looking leaders with leading technology companies committed to providing funding and resources aimed at solving real-world problems. 

CMU President Farnam Jahanian was in Washington, D.C., for the signing ceremony held in the Department of Commerce's Research Library, during which the University of Washington and the University of Tsukuba agreed to a similar collaboration."

‘It’s almost magical’: how robotic pets are helping UK care home residents; The Guardian, September 1, 2023

 Robert Booth, The Guardian; ‘It’s almost magical’: how robotic pets are helping UK care home residents

"It is not the first time care homes have experimented with robots. With mixed results, Japan has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in developing potential devices such as Hug, a lifting robot; Paro, a robotic seal; and Pepper, a “lovable” humanoid robot. In 2021 it was reported that production of Pepper had been halted...

With one in 10 social care jobs vacant, a temptation may be to use the pets to free up pressed staff from spending time with residents. Care workers at Oak Manor, where the pets have been used for a year, said they must not be deployed in the same way some parents pacify children with iPads. Success comes when the pets provide a familiar focus when agitation and anxiety is rising and they encourage socialisation as residents pet them together."