春日
As Japan pours billions into defense dreaming of arms-led prosperity, many warn history’s darkest chapters offer a sobering lesson_我的网站
一 | “今年上半年公司Token调用量7个月增长40倍，其中95%以上的推理任务来自智能体（Agent）需求。
二 | ”
在2026WAIC期间，无问芯穹CEO夏立雪在接受澎湃新闻记者等媒体采访时表示，目前无问芯穹已在全国纳管16种不同架构芯片、合计3.7万P算力，过去一年已将推理成本降低至十分之一，未来全链路协同下仍有90%成本下降空间。 Editor's Note:
August 15 marked the 81st anniversary of Japan's announcement of its unconditional surrender. Eighty-one years on, Japan, the defeated aggressor in World War II (WWII), has not only failed to conduct a thorough reckoning with its wartime aggression, but has instead intensified its drive to expand military power. In its newly released 2026 Defense White Paper on August 4, Japan says that "defense business not only possesses a high degree of public value by directly contributing to the protection of citizens' lives, but also contributes to Japan's economic growth through ripple effects into the civilian sector."
This line of argument, along with Japan's defense policies in recent years, in fact reflects a form of "military Keynesianism" - the use of military spending as a means to stimulate overall economic development. However, this logic of "trying to boost the economy through military buildup" has faced widespread skepticism inside Japan. Some scholars have also warned that Japan pursued a similar policy during WWII, which led to the expansion of the military-industrial complex (MIC) and, in objective terms, fueled the scale of Japan's war of aggression, bringing profound suffering to the peoples of Asia and the world.
Pursuing a military Keynesian path
Japan's 2026 Defense White Paper, at 598 pages, has set a record as the longest in history. More alarming than its length, however, is the document's first-ever explicit definition of the development of the defense industry as an effective means of promoting "economic growth."
"The white paper 'stresses that investment in defense benefits the wider economy and people's lives,' according to a Defense Ministry presentation document," reported Reuters on August 4. "That message aligns with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's broader use of strategic state spending in an effort to drive economic growth," Reuters commented. Previously, The Asahi Shimbun warned in an opinion piece that this entanglement of defense buildup with economic policy will, over time, slide into "military Keynesianism."
"Military Keynesianism" refers to the use of military spending as a tool to stimulate overall economic development. Since the Takaichi administration took office, Japan has been expanding its domestic defense market through year-on-year increases in the defense budget, while at the same time opening up international sales channels for defense production by relaxing export controls - thereby systematically pursuing a military Keynesian path.
In fiscal 2026, Japan's defense budget for the first time exceeded 9 trillion yen ($56.5 billion). Its defense-related spending has already reached 2 percent of GDP, according to The Japan Times. This not only means Japan's defense budget has risen for 14 consecutive years, but also indicates that the government is using fiscal stimulus to artificially create a large and relatively stable "arms market." The resulting closed-loop logic is clear: the government increases defense spending to expand procurement; defense companies receive orders and scale up production; and, through industrial-chain spillovers, related industries also expand output.
As Japan's new Defense White Paper says, higher defense expenditures will not only significantly increase orders in the defense industry, but also reinforce the defense production base through measures such as introducing mechanisms to assess corporate efforts and calculate appropriate profits for companies. These measures, the paper claims, are expected to generate economic ripple effects, "as well as technological ripple effects into the civilian sector."
What is even more alarming is that Japan is systematically removing the institutional barriers to the growth of its defense industry.
One long-standing challenge in postwar Japan has been the limited size of its domestic defense market and restrictions on arms exports, which have kept defense firms' profits relatively low and prompted some major companies to withdraw from parts of the military supply business, observers pointed out.
In 2022, however, Japan elevated the defense industry to a national strategic priority in its three key security documents, National Security Strategy, National Defense Strategy and Defense Buildup Program. In 2023, it enacted the Act on Enhancing Defense Production and Technology Bases, allowing the government to sustain and reinforce defense manufacturing through subsidies, capital investment and other measures. And in April this year, the Takaichi administration formally lifted the ban on exports of lethal weapons, fully opening the door for Japan's defense industry to enter global markets.
Together, these moves show that Japan is no longer content with relying on its Self-Defense Forces' limited procurement needs. It seeks to turn itself into a global arms supplier. This will inevitably intensify the regional arms race and seriously destabilize the security landscape in East Asia, warned some experts reached by the Global Times.
Of particular concern is that the focus of Japan's military Keynesianism has shifted from traditional weapons such as guns and artillery, to high-tech fields including artificial intelligence (AI) and drones, with an explicit emphasis on civil-military integration. Japan's new Defense White Paper places special emphasis on AI and unmanned systems, which are expected to become central issues in the year-end revision of its three key security documents.
Widespread criticism and concern
Japan's bid to jolt economic growth through higher military spending amounts to little more than a wishful gamble that "guns for butter" can be turned on its head. But when the fiscal question of "where will the money come from?" collides with public anxiety over "where is people's livelihood headed?", voices from international media outlets to Japanese scholars, lawmakers and ordinary citizens alike, are warning that the narrative of arms-led prosperity is not only unlikely to work, but could also drag Japan's economy into dangerous territory, observers noted.
Japan's fiscal expenditure faces "competing demands on the public purse," "but Takaichi has yet to explain clearly how she would pay for a further expansion without adding pressure on Japan's already stretched public finances," Reuters said on August 4.
In a Japanese-language editorial piece on August 8, The Asahi Shimbun pushed the debate further toward livelihoods, saying that military expansion would place a direct strain on the daily lives of Japanese people. The piece also cited a United Nations study saying that reallocating the same resources to education and healthcare rather than the military could generate more jobs. The International Monetary Fund has also warned that rising defense spending may, in the medium term, increase economic vulnerabilities, including through wider fiscal deficits, it said.
Strong criticism also echoes across Japan's political arena. House of Representatives member Joji Yamamoto accused the Takaichi administration of doubling defense spending and lifting bans on weapons exports, while shifting healthcare costs onto patients and eroding elderly care systems. If left unchecked, Japan will gradually turn into a nation sustained by the arms trade, seriously violating people's right to subsistence guaranteed by law, Yamamoto told the Global Times.
A risky gamble
Military Keynesianism is not only unlikely to sustain long-term economic growth in Japan, but also carries hidden security risks. Koji Sonoda, deputy editor at The Asahi Shimbun's Political News Section, recently cautioned that if defense budget expansion, initially justified by a deteriorating security environment, comes instead to serve the goal of economic growth through industrial promotion, the risk grows that spending will lose any effective restraint.
History has already proven this point. The global economic depression of 1929 triggered the Showa Depression in Japan, pushing the country's economy to the brink of collapse. At the time, rather than pursuing structural reforms, Japan's political and military leadership shifted the national economy onto a wartime footing, using military spending to boost demand and mask unemployment.
Meng Mingming, assistant researcher at the Institute of Japanese Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that in 1932, Korekiyo Takahashi, Japan's then Finance Minister, rolled out stimulus policies including yen depreciation and expanded fiscal outlays. Massive military spending paired with public works projects lifted domestic demand and enabled Japan to recover from the recession earlier than many nations. Takahashi became known as "Japan's Keynes."
However, the prosperity driven by fiscal deficits and military-industrial expansion was ultimately a shortsighted fix. Meng pointed out that, first, while wartime demand boosted Japan's heavy chemical and weapons manufacturing sectors to some extent, most military output was removed from the social reproduction cycle and constituted sheer waste. Second, heavy chemical industries relied heavily on resources such as oil, which Japan lacked domestically. This created a vicious cycle: military demand expanded heavy industrial capacity; that expansion increased Japan's dependence on overseas resources and markets; rising resource needs drove further military expansion to secure supply chains; and that expansion in turn required even more defense spending, further militarizing the economy. Finally, a coalition of interest formed among heavy industrial capitalists, emerging zaibatsu and the military. Military adventurism was no longer driven solely by the armed forces, but was backed by industrial and financial power.
Currently, many Japanese citizens have recognized the dangers of the Takaichi administration's policies and taken to the streets to protest.
Kazuo Adachi, a sexagenarian, told the Global Times in Japan that behind the administration's claim that the defense industry fuels growth lies the profit motive of the military-industrial complex. From policy deregulation launched under the Abe administration to accelerated implementation under the Takaichi administration, the path of military expansion catering to arms capital is akin to poison, fraught with alarming risks.
Marin Toyosu, a member of Japan's Generation Z, said the Takaichi administration's aggressive push for war preparedness essentially hides a self-serving agenda under the slogan of a "virtuous cycle between security and the economy." It abandons vulnerable groups to benefit a small circle of arms capitalists and represents an administration bent on stoking conflict.
"This military expansion agenda harms Japanese citizens and endangers people across the world," she noted.
Tatara Satoshi, an anti-war activist, pointed out that the Takaichi administration hypes up the "China threat" to justify military buildup while pushing the flawed argument that the defense industry can boost the economy.
This does not reflect the genuine aspirations of Japanese society or ordinary citizens. "Japanese people do not want war with China. They should unite to firmly oppose efforts to advance military expansion by stoking tensions and overstating supposed economic benefits," he said.
Global Times
。 夏立雪认为，当前AI行业的核心矛盾从未改变：需求是指数级增长，芯片供给的增长是线性的，单纯堆芯片已经追不上需求增速。“大家不是觉得AI没用，是觉得它有点贵——这本身就是供不应求的信号，如果供大于求，大家只会觉得它没用。” 过去三年推理成本的下降，已经带动了第一批场景落地；他判断未来全行业仍有至少90%的成本下降空间，来源不只是单点技术优化，而是全链路协同：跨域异构集群的资源池化、PDD等新架构的普及，以及场景端的需求分层。 夏立雪认为，真正的生产力应该是“资源规模×Token生产效率×Token转化为生产力的效率”。
三 | 目前全行业还在共创价值衡量指标，本质是计量每个Token产生的实际经济价值，推动行业从“按Token数量计费”转向“按最终价值计费”。
四 | 据了解，今年上半年，无问芯穹Token增量几乎全部来自Agent。“95%以上的推理任务跑的都是智能体相关任务，不管是直接服务大模型厂商，还是直接服务垂类客户，最终需求都来自Agent落地。”夏立雪表示，目前代码生成、文娱营销、基础设施运维、具身智能、制造、电力、法律等行业都已经在大规模使用AI。
五 | 针对行业普遍关注的Token标准化问题，夏立雪明确判断：Token必然分层，且分层已经在发生。未来会出现面向高端复杂任务的高价值Token，也会有面向简单场景的高性价比Token。 这种分层直接带动了过去一年国产芯片的落地进展。他坦言，国产芯片适配效果的明显提升，一半来自技术端解决了跨集群调度、负载均衡等问题，更核心的原因是Agent带来了任务分层：智能体会派生大量不同复杂度的子任务，不需要所有任务都跑在最高端的芯片上，国产芯片可以承担自己擅长的任务，不用再“硬扛”最复杂的大模型训练负载。 “不同芯片各有侧重，都能在价值金字塔里找到自己的位置，不用浪费资源杀鸡用牛刀。
六 | ” 夏立雪透露，目前无问芯穹已经在和行业客户探索多模型协同的分层交付模式，通过不同能力的模型配合完成任务，直接为最终结果负责。 对于今年的热点话题物理AI，无问芯穹宣布将具身智能场景纳入Token工厂的覆盖范围。 夏立雪表示，AI必然从数字世界走向物理世界，云侧GPU、边缘节点、机器人本体的算力都应该被纳入统一资源池调度，而团队过去在大规模云侧强化学习、跨集群调度上积累的能力可以直接复用，其发布的RLinf新版本已经实现真机渲染、训练到推理的全链路云边协同，Mizar-Robo推理优化方案已经和星海图、云深处等具身机器人厂商达成合作，优化机器人端侧推理效率，形成“机器人采集物理世界数据-云侧强化学习训练-端侧推理落地”的闭环。
七 | “我们不做机器人本体，就做好具身场景的Token工厂，给伙伴们提供低成本的弹药，让他们能以更低的成本推产品、拓市场。” 谈到AI赛道的行业竞争，在夏立雪看来，AGI不是单一公司能完成的使命，当前行业供需缺口还在持续扩大，只要技术能创造效率价值就有商业空间。近期智谱GLM、月之暗面Kimi等清华系开源大模型登顶国际榜单，中国的开源生态是核心优势，开源让技术、数据、资源能更快流动形成闭环，带动全行业效率提升。 当天，无问芯穹公布Agentic Infra 的“前店后厂一中心”战略布局，涵盖三大核心技术能力与产品服务体系：“算力集散中心”：Agentic Infra 自主式基础设施平台；“Token工厂”：Agentic MaaS 大模型服务平台；“AI生产力商店”： Agentic Infra 行业解决方案。
Current article:http://cv213q.zongchaeiwengshuabaisisuofu.sbs/list_g6g/uvyf.html
Published on:04:55:39
