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Japan Expands Free High-School Tuition, Secures Lead Stake in Rapidus in Policy Drive

The decisions signal a more interventionist fiscal and industrial strategy under Prime Minister Takaichi.

Overview

  • Cabinet approved a bill to broaden tuition support from April by removing income limits and raising aid for private high schools.
  • The government will invest ¥100 billion in Rapidus, becoming its largest shareholder within a ¥267.6 billion public–private round involving 32 companies.
  • Tokyo’s special investigation unit re-arrested three Chinese nationals suspected of laundering proceeds from gold bars with falsified stamps via cryptocurrency, with investigators estimating roughly ¥9.5 billion in fraud.
  • Meta said Instagram will automatically alert parents if teens repeatedly search self-harm or suicide terms, piloting next week in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia before a wider rollout this year.
  • Anthropic stated it will refuse a U.S. Defense Department request to remove safety safeguards from its Claude conversational AI.