Media Mentions

US President Trump imposed new tariffs this summer. Based on Section 301 of the Trade Act, he imposed high tariffs of 10% or 12.5% ​​on imports from 60 trading partners and regions, including Japan. However, the bigger focus is not on the impact these tariffs will have on the remainder of Trump’s term, but rather […]

It would be a mistake for observers to view strengthening India-Japan cooperation as a sign of weakening U.S.-Japan cooperation. It would be equally unwise to evaluate the present value and future trajectory of Japan’s bilateral ties with India through a side-by-side comparison of investment pledges into the world’s largest economy; Japan’s history of massive foreign

“If the US is going to ban Chinese models on the grounds of national security, it will not affect just American companies (using the tech),” said George Chen, the Hong Kong-based chair of digital practice at The Asia Group consultancy. “You’re basically talking about the US trying to ban Chinese AI models for business practice

“This intervention brings things back into alignment closer to where most people think that the exchange rate should be over the long term,” says Amb. Kurt Tong, TAG managing partner and former U.S. deputy treasury attaché in Tokyo, in an interview with CNN International’s Newsroom with Rosemary Church (8/4) on Japan-U.S. joint currency intervention. “This

“A lot of countries are looking at the competition between US and China, and they don’t want to take a side right now because the competition’s just starting,” said George Chen, partner and Digital Practice chair at The Asia Group. Both President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping have made AI leadership a national

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun (8/1), TAG Managing Director for Japan David Boling says, “because Trump has long argued that yen weakness gives Japan an unfair trade advantage, any push to strengthen the yen also fits squarely with Trump’s trade policy agenda.”

Recent Chinese AI models are also now compatible with cheaper, locally made processors. “For the money [a Chinese AI company would] spend on an Nvidia chip, they can buy 10 local chips from Huawei or other local chipmakers,” says George Chen, a partner at The Asia Group. Demand (for Chinese AI models) has only grown as

George Chen, partner and chair of digital practice at The Asia Group, said US “closed models”, which include products offered by OpenAI and Anthropic, were too expensive for most consumers in global south countries, which lacked the capacity to develop their own AI. “So China has suddenly provided a very good Plan B [for developing countries], maybe

Japan’s involvement is part of an effort to bolster its regional energy security, according to Taro Han, a former official at Japan’s trade ministry, who recently joined The Asia Group, a consulting firm. Even with its own substantial stockpiles, Japan remains deeply dependent on Southeast Asian supply chains for goods made with oil byproducts, including

“Election interference allegations strike at the most politically sensitive fault line in US-China relations,” said Han Shen Lin, the China managing director for The Asia Group, a strategic advisory firm.  “They reinforce Washington’s bipartisan narrative that strategic competition with China extends beyond trade and technology into democratic institutions.