Tech at the plate for Asian baseball climax

KENJI KAWASE

Hello, this is Kenji, bringing you the latest version of the #techAsia newsletter from Tokyo.

For baseball fans across the Pacific, including me, we are in the midst of the most exciting and nerve-racking moment: Champions in the respective professional leagues are about to be determined after a long season that began in early spring.

The World Series for North American Major League Baseball, or MLB, starts Friday in Milwaukee, where the Brewers host the Tampa Bay Rays. This is the first contest between two title-less teams since the 1980 series, when the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Kansas City Royals.

Turning to this side of the ocean, the Taiwan Series -- decided in the same best-of-seven format as in the major leagues -- is a bit ahead in its schedule. The Wei Chuan Dragons are one win away from clinching the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) championship against the CTBC Brothers, who responded on Wednesday with their first win. Game 5 is scheduled for Friday at Taipei Dome.

In South Korea, the Kia Tigers swept the LG Twins in a preliminary playoff on Tuesday at Seoul's storied Jamsil Stadium. The Gwangju club awaits the next round of playoffs against the Samsung Lions in Daegu from Sunday, before the winner faces KT Wiz in the Korean Series from Nov. 2.

The Japan Series kicks off on Saturday with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks taking on the Yokohama DeNA Baystars in a rematch of 2024, when the latter ended its 26-year championship drought. On a very personal note, I was completely devastated when my team, the Hanshin Tigers, was eliminated by the Baystars with four straight home losses in the final playoff round last weekend.

Even those unfamiliar with the sport may have noticed a very distinctive feature of the three Northeast Asian professional baseball leagues compared with MLB in North America -- the teams carry company names. In the U.S., the Brewers and Rays are respectively owned by Mark Attanasio and Patrick Zalupski, both billionaires, but their business interests don't show up in the team names.

Meanwhile, the final series in South Korea and Japan this year are set to be "proxy wars" between local tech companies.

The remaining challengers for the Korea Baseball Organization, or KBO, championship are Kia, the automaker, Samsung, which makes chips and smartphones, and KT, a telecom operator.

In Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball, or NPB, the matchup is between SoftBank Group, a global tech investor led by its founder Masayoshi Son, and DeNA, a mobile and online services provider of games, e-commerce and entertainment content.

For Taiwan, Wei Chuan is a subsidiary of Ting Hsin International Group, a major food and beverage conglomerate, widely known for its Master Kong brand instant noodles, while the Brothers' parent is CTBC Financial Holding, a large private banking group in Taiwan.

This may sound a little counterintuitive, but there is only one tech company baseball team owner in Taiwan, Japanese e-commerce platform and telecom operator Rakuten, which is also owner of a team in NPB. Another cross-Asian league baseball owner is Lotte, a conglomerate that began in confectionery. It has team franchises in Chiba, Japan and Busan, South Korea.

Tech is not only involved in team ownership, but has also transformed the game itself. This stretches from training methods to statistical analyses and recently onto the field, where high-definition cameras and tracking technologies have begun to replace even some of the most important functions of human umpires.

MLB fully adopted the automated ball-strike (ABS) challenge system this season, and it has certainly changed the game, at least from a fan perspective. KBO had already introduced the ABS system in the 2024 season. CPBL is now considering adoption, while NPB has no specific timetable for implementing this game-changing tech evolution.

There is another notable feature about baseball in this region. The game is arguably the most popular sports pastime in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the three leading liberal democracies in Northeast Asia. In contrast, it is not so in non-democratic China, Hong Kong and North Korea, due to various historical and socio-political reasons.

China tech's Japan struggles

Despite a severe diplomatic chill with Japan, Chinese tech companies are striving to unlock business opportunities here. I approached several at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC), an annual tech trade show held in a Tokyo suburb last week. Economic stagnation at home is pushing them to seek new markets elsewhere, but scrutiny of them is only getting tougher, especially in Japan, as it suffers from Beijing's economic sanctions, including rare earth export restrictions.

LimX Dynamics, a Shenzhen-based embodied AI robotics startup, made its CEATEC debut. The company is setting up a subsidiary in Japan to display its products and conduct deals with local clients. A central Tokyo location has been secured, and the showroom could open as early as the end of the month, with the company counting on the strength of its technology to overcome political obstacles and win over local clients.

While its compatriots, from providers of electronic components to smartphone gadgets, shared similar optimistic views and outlooks, Guo Jinhui, or Sophie Guo, global business development manager at Shenzhen Grepow Battery, did not share their feelings.

"It is not OK. I can feel it," she told me, noting that decision-making by Japanese clients was getting slower, with some not even giving specific deadlines for a response for battery testing.

Meanwhile, Tokyo plans to establish a system to certify the security of data centers and cloud services from as early as next April, aiming to block risks posed by China, Russia and other countries of concern. According to Nikkei's Ryuto Imao, one of the models for the new certification mechanisms will be the JC-STAR labels issued by an arm of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

The badges are awarded to network equipment and other Internet of Things products meeting designated cybersecurity standards, but no Chinese-made products have received them to date. Similarly, grid-connected equipment such as solar power systems and storage batteries will be required to meet the program's baseline standards, with such a move widely seen as shutting out Chinese equipment.

China's villages pay price for Beijing's AI ambitions

China's tech giants are pouring billions into rural hinterland regions to build data centers, as part of the country's push to become the global AI superpower, reports the Financial Times' William Langley.

Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei are among those taking advantage of ample land, cheap electricity and a cooler climate to develop computing infrastructure in the southern Chinese region of Shaoguan, part of Guangdong province.

Local governments view the AI infrastructure boom as a chance to attract investment, convert low-productivity land into revenue-generating tech hubs and spur growth.

But as construction sweeps through Shaoguan, residents seem concerned about whether the developments will offer them tangible economic benefits far into the future.

"The money and the economy are a bit better than before... but the pollution is very bad," said one resident who runs a shop in the shadow of a data center complex operated by telecoms group China Unicom. "Look around, everything is covered in dust. It's filthy."

Read more in the final piece in the FT's three-part series on China's data center dreams.

Battery recycling is running low

Recycling lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles is not only environmentally sound but also important for recovering critical metals such as cobalt and nickel. However, Nikkei's Koki Izumi found that recycling capacity is significantly underused.

According to data from U.S.-based Mobility Global, lithium-ion battery recycling capacity was 4.2 million metric tons in 2025, but only 670,000 tons were discarded. Overcapacity is expected to continue through 2030, at around four times the discarded amount.

Similar to its global EV share, China accounts for around 80% of battery production and recycling capacity worldwide. While the U.S. and Europe have also promoted battery recycling research and development to reduce reliance on imported critical metals, falling EV demand has hit their recycling rates.

American battery recycling startup Ascend Elements filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April after its Kentucky plant's profitability outlook worsened and government subsidies were cut. Canadian recycler Li-Cycle filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

Plant construction is being delayed or halted. Japan's JX Advanced Metals has pushed back its 2030 commercialization target for its technology to efficiently recover lithium from EV batteries. German chemical conglomerate BASF has suspended construction of recycling facilities planned in Spain and Canada.

Educators study AI's effects

The growing influence of artificial intelligence is putting universities to the test. I met Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University in the southern U.S. state of Tennessee, during his recent visit to Japan, where the scholar said he was confident higher education institutions were up to the task.

"Historically, universities have been able to metabolize innovation, to incorporate [the changes] into what they are doing, rather than being disrupted," he said, citing precedents from the printing press and television to computers and the internet, and now AI.

However, he conceded that the latest risks posed by AI could have a "much bigger impact on society" than previous disruptions, requiring vigilance.

A major educational challenge is to "make sure that students still obtain mastery of a particular field," even though AI can answer questions instantly. "The danger is, people will not do the hard work anymore," as the technology's tools "will also be crutches for not doing the hard work."

However, he is not worried about students cheating with AI. "I don't understand why people are so worried about that," he said, as to him, a "very simple solution" is to conduct oral exams after students submit papers.

Suggested reads

1. China's Oppo pushes premium smartphones to combat component crunch (Nikkei Asia)

2. OpenAI employee accused of bugging had links to Saudi royals, prosecutors claim (FT)

3. Ambani's tech shift in focus as investors pile into Jio's record IPO (Nikkei Asia)

4. SoftBank in talks to buy US security group Allied Universal (FT)

5. Japan faces 'next big storm' as hackers use stolen data, warns Trend Micro (Nikkei Asia)

6. China unveils draft export controls on AI technologies and chips (FT)

7. Mynt, Philippine digital wallet GCash parent, goes public in Manila (Nikkei Asia)

8. The Australian data centre IPO debacle that sparked a market meltdown (FT)

9. AI-detected PHP security flaws disrupt websites, spark warnings across Asia (Nikkei Asia)

10. Chipmaker TSMC profits surge amid relentless AI demand (FT)

Podcast: Tech Latest

How SoftBank plans to power its AI ambitions

Welcome to the Tech Latest podcast. Every Tuesday, we deliver the hottest trends and news from the tech sector.

In this episode, host Brian Chapman speaks with Japan tech correspondent Tsubasa Suruga about SoftBank's high-stakes push into AI infrastructure. They discuss SB Energy's shift from renewable power to massive data center projects, its "power first" strategy, the enormous capital required and the risks facing Masayoshi Son's latest AI bet.

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