☕️ Good morning, friends,

Trump picks a fight with Harvard ➡️ asiabits writes about Trump ➡️ Harvard alumni become asiabits subscribers.

🎶 And now all together: It’s the Circle of Liiiiiiife! 
Welcome to the community, dear elite students!

Speaking of students: once again, we humanities folks are being discriminated against ☹️. China has introduced a new visa just for foreign STEM talent…

We do get it, though: there are already enough taxi drivers here, no need for extra competition from Berlin philosophy PhDs.

Have a great weekend!

BENCHMARKS

NUMBER OF THE DAY

17 %

of Japanese citizens are passport holders. It’s a strong contrast to the expected number of inbound tourists this year.

🚨 Japan’s Outbound Travel Slump: Overseas travel remains below 70% of 2019 levels, with passport ownership at just 17.3% (~20.77M) vs. 50–80% in major countries. Decline driven by weak yen, high prices, and pandemic-era travel drop.

🛫 Impact on International Exchange:

• Fewer Japanese travelers limits flight growth and weakens two-way tourism

• Young generation travel demand hurt by costs, fewer school trips, and reduced study abroad.

Watch: Without a rebound in outbound travel, Japan risks eroding global competitiveness and cultural exchange. It’s a sign of a deteriorating domestic economy.

TOP BIT

💻 Foxconn – 27% Profit Boost Driven by AI Server Boom

Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer and key iPhone producer for Apple, recorded a 27% profit increase in the second quarter.

For the first time, the largest share of revenue (41%) came from AI servers, while smartphones accounted for only 35% — marking a clear strategic shift away from the stagnating smartphone market toward high-growth segments such as artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure.

The Details

💻 AI Boom: Foxconn builds servers for applications such as…