Mizuho economist Yasuhisa Irie said persistently high energy prices are keeping import costs elevated and could sustain Japan’s trade deficit in the near term. He added that until shipping via the Strait of Hormuz fully normalizes, import prices will remain high, and even if Middle East tensions ease a rebound in import volumes could raise import values faster than export gains from strong AI-related investment. Japan ran a ¥634.5 billion trade deficit in July, government data showed Thursday.

Minutes published Wednesday show Fed officials' inflation concerns deepened at the July meeting. Several policymakers were prepared to raise rates, and many said raising borrowing costs would be necessary if inflation does not return to the Fed's 2% target. Officials favoring hikes said price pressures appeared broad-based and urged a more restrictive policy stance to secure price stability and maximum employment, warning that failure to act could require a later sequence of larger, costlier tightenings. A broad set of participants indicated policy would likely need to tighten further if inflation does not fall.

At the World Robot Conference in Beijing Yizhuang on Aug. 19, Li Quan, committee member and deputy director of the Beijing Economic‑Technological Development Area management committee, unveiled "Beijing Jiyu," a plan for a human‑machine integrated embodied‑intelligence society. Beijing Yizhuang said it will speed development of 100 commercially deployable specialist robot models and push applications across 1,000 niche use cases; accelerate mass production of embodied‑intelligence robots at a 100,000‑unit scale; and build production capacity for 1 million sets of key core components.