Asia

South Korea’s chief presidential policy adviser has resigned, the presidential Blue House said on Tuesday, after President Lee Jae ‌Myung reshuffled his cabinet and senior aides amid a drop in his approval rating. Kim Yong-beom was a key adviser to Lee on economic policy, including on housing and ⁠stock market issues. Kim had offered to step down from the post on Monday, which oversees the administration’s economic and domestic policy agenda. During his term, Kim had drawn criticism over the...

After more than 250 days at sea fighting the war on Iran – and amid reports of dire conditions on board – the USS Abraham Lincoln is finally set to dock near Pattaya this week, giving more than 5,000 American sailors and Marines shore leave as the Thai resort city hopes they will spend big during their last pit stop before home. The eastern Thai beach resort, known for its colourful nightlife, has faced a grim low tourist season, driven in part by the economic downturn triggered by the same war...

Rajendra Dawadi was inside his classroom when a colleague rushed in with a warning: floodwaters were racing through Nepal’s Trishuli Valley, tearing apart homes, bridges and entire villages. Then a teacher received another warning by phone. Moments later, a parent arrived to take her child home. The danger had not yet been confirmed, but Dawadi, the principal, had little time to act. He rang the school bell and ordered his students and staff out of the building and towards higher ground. “I...

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says he believes Japan’s government and central bank will take action that leads ‌to a stronger yen, signalling a strong chance of a Bank of Japan (BOJ) interest rate hike in September. The remarks to CNBC on Monday followed those by Bessent a day earlier, when said he expected BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda to “do the right thing” on monetary policy to combat yen declines. “I have information that the market doesn’t have, and it’s my belief that the Japanese...

Yokohama’s mayor has become the latest local official in Japan to be forced from office by scandal, as analysts say voters are no longer willing to look the other way. Takeharu Yamanaka reportedly called his staff “human trash” and told a senior official to “commit seppuku” (ritual suicide) if the city failed to win a bid for an international conference. He stepped down on Friday after a prolonged investigation found he had repeatedly verbally abused city employees and humiliated...

As India prepares for the Brics summit less than two weeks away, relations with China are warming up. On July 22, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi during the East Asia Summit; five days later, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited China. Last week, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval also visited Beijing, for border talks. But India remains deeply ambivalent when it comes to economic engagement with China: it seeks Chinese...

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s birthday serenade for his wife might have been a private gesture, but as floodwaters overwhelmed much of Luzon – the country’s largest and most populous island and home to the capital Manila – a viral clip of him singing became a public-relations crisis. Observers told This Week in Asia that Marcos’ celebration of his wife, Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta-Marcos, on her 67th birthday struck the wrong chord with a public already angered by deadly floods,...

India must uphold a water-sharing treaty with ⁠Pakistan it suspended amid bilateral tensions and must limit work on a hydroelectric plant it is building in the Kashmir region, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said on Monday. India in April last year suspended the treaty ‌that ensures water supply to 80 per cent of Pakistani farms, after India identified as Pakistani two of three assailants in an attack that killed 26 people at a tourist destination in Kashmir that month. Islamabad...

A tree in Hanoi has become a symbol of how Vietnam’s Gen Z views its country – but it is not the enviable growth story sold by the government. Tree 55 on Nguyen Huy Tu Street – now dubbed the “Justice Tree” – was buried under bouquets earlier this month. It was an act of digital-age defiance over the death of a teenager in a road traffic accident in the area that went unpunished. Response to the accident, which triggered a belated explanation from the state, reveals unease with a system many...

Singapore will commit S$220 million (US$173 million) over three years to boost its fintech sector, including co-funding at least 1,000 internships in a strong push to build talent for AI and other emerging technologies. The funds come under the latest iteration of the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme (FSTI), which aims to strengthen the country’s fintech space and accelerate innovation and technology adoption in the financial sector. The industry currently has more than 1,800...

Singapore plans to introduce legislation early next year requiring social media platforms to roll out stronger safeguards for teens, including possibly setting a daily time limit, Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo has said. If a platform could not or did not want to introduce these stronger safeguards, Singapore intended to raise the minimum age of access to that platform to 18, Teo told journalists in an interview on Friday. The government wanted to know what...

The long-standing rivalry between Asia’s two leading financial centres is heating up. As Hong Kong and Singapore compete harder for investment talent, tax incentives for fund managers have emerged as the new battleground. A government bill working its way through Hong Kong’s Legislative Council would result in sweeping changes to tax rules on carried interest. The legislation, which is expected to be approved later this year, would offer preferential tax treatment to a wider range of alternative...

A South Korean court sentenced the leader of the secretive and powerful Unification Church on Monday to two years in prison on charges of bribing officials, including the then-president’s wife. Han Hak-ja, 83, was accused of providing luxury items, including a designer handbag, to former first lady Kim Keon-hee while her husband, Yoon Suk-yeol, was president, in an attempt to secure policy favours. She arrived for sentencing at court on Monday in a wheelchair, wearing pyjamas and a surgical...

Air pollution in Malaysia’s Bornean state of Sarawak has surged into hazardous territory, with the air pollutant index (API) topping 400 in the worst-hit district, as forest fires raging in Indonesia continue to send thick smoke drifting across the border. Serian in Sarawak, closest to the frontier with Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, recorded the highest reading of 476 as of Monday morning. Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman all logged readings above 300 as of 10am, according to Malaysia’s...

Indonesia, the United States and more than a dozen allies launched annual joint military exercises on Monday to boost defence capabilities and “deter aggression” in the Asia-Pacific region. Jakarta maintains a neutral foreign policy, what it calls “free and active”, as it walks a diplomatic tightrope seeking good relations with both Washington and Beijing. The Southeast Asian giant held a joint navy drill with China this month that was blasted by Taiwan as a “provocation”. Indonesia, the US and...

A proposal in Malaysia’s Perak state to pay young people 500 ringgit (US$124) for marrying for the first time has triggered a backlash after officials confirmed the scheme could apply to children as young as 15. Critics say extending the state-funded benefit to minors risks legitimising child marriage, reigniting a fraught debate in Malaysia over laws that still allow some under-18s to wed. The one-off payment, under consideration for Perak’s 2027 budget, would be open to first-time couples aged...

A Pakistani nurse who rescued the sole surviving newborn from a hospital nursery fire that killed 14 other infants will receive one of the country’s most prestigious civil awards. Fire engulfed Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, a major government hospital in Islamabad, on Wednesday. A 51-second segment of CCTV footage, widely circulated online, captures Razia Noreen running into the burning nursery and emerging seconds later with the newborn in her arms. She tries to go back in, but cannot...

Calls are growing for Asean to collectively crack down on Big Tech platforms that spread scams and harmful content, spurred on by Meta Platforms’ landmark US$18 billion US settlement last week. Meta agreed on Wednesday to enact sweeping changes to Instagram and Facebook – including default time limits and content restrictions – as part of the settlement with several US states, which had alleged the platforms damaged children’s mental health. Within hours of the deal being announced, advocacy...

Navigating the intricacies of South Korea’s residential real estate market is notoriously complex even for long-time local residents. For the country’s steadily growing international population, however, steep language barriers, unfamiliar administrative procedures, and unique tenant laws make securing rental housing a particularly daunting endeavour – and one fraught with potential financial risk. To help bridge this informational divide and protect vulnerable foreign renters, Gangbuk, a...

The Nepalese government has appealed for rescue aid from other countries just two days after it reportedly refused help, as several hundred people are still believed to be trapped in hydropower tunnels and thousands remain missing following the catastrophic flash flooding at the border with China last week. Kathmandu’s apparent reversal reflects caution born from its chaotic experience with foreign teams after the 2015 earthquake, according to observers. Other factors include the government’s...

The chief of Japan’s largest opposition party in the powerful House of Representatives effectively confirmed on Monday that it would split, following the failure of merger talks with other forces. The break-up of the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA) comes around seven months after it was established in January by lower house lawmakers from the left-leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and Komeito, which was the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) coalition partner for 26...

Every bloc needs a chair capable of getting things done – and Southeast Asia watchers say that description fits no country better than Singapore. The city state will get the chance to prove it in the bloc’s 60th anniversary year, after it takes the Asean helm from the Philippines on January 1. Speaking at Singapore’s National Day Rally on August 22, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said the world was becoming more fractured and dangerous – one that the city state would have to “endure and survive...

On Sunday morning, ⁠Jais, a farmer in ⁠Ketapang, West Kalimantan on Borneo island – the ⁠province hardest-hit by raging forest fires – was en route to his farm when he found an orangutan writhing on the ground in a weak state on a palm-oil plantation near the fire site. “It was very weak, then I gave it water,” ‌said Jais, who only goes by one name. Indonesia has intensified efforts to contain haze from forest and land fires across six provinces in Borneo and Sumatra islands after smoke...

Malaysian Prime Minister ⁠Anwar Ibrahim on Sunday ⁠introduced measures to address rising living ⁠costs and support businesses, including restoring higher quotas for subsidised petrol and diesel purchases, as well as more funding for schools and small traders. The measures are expected to take effect on September 1, Anwar said in a televised address. “The economic ‌growth of the country must be returned to the people,” he said. Anwar has been under pressure to tackle higher living costs, even as...

Pakistan’s prime minister said eight officials were suspended and called for criminal proceedings against them, after 14 infants were killed in a fire in a maternity ward in a hospital in the country’s capital. A preliminary report conducted by a four-person committee formed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif found the deadly blaze had engulfed the unit “within approximately two minutes” just after 6.30am on Wednesday, with a nurse only able to save one of the 15 infants in hospital care. Among...

As the waters of the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers recede, leaving behind mud, debris and damaged infrastructure, a familiar pattern is visible in Nepal. When disaster strikes, the country’s usual political divisions, cronyism and institutional mistrust give way, for a while, to real unity. Across party lines, political leaders worked around the clock alongside security forces. Digital channels opened for the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, a “one-door policy” was enforced to prevent...

At Tower Records in Tokyo’s Shibuya district earlier this month, fans flocked to a pop-up store set up for Filipino boy band SB19, buying exclusive merchandise including limited-edition CDs, T-shirts, stickers and phone straps. Due to overwhelming demand, the store ran for an additional five days. During the band’s tour in Japan, SB19 met fans in Yokohama and performed in Tokyo and Osaka during the Summer Sonic festival. Another Philippine act, the eight-member girl group BINI, made their debut...

The wife of a British passenger who died after severe turbulence struck Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight SQ321 in May 2024 has begun legal proceedings against the carrier in Britain, seeking damages after she suffered serious spinal injuries in the incident. Linda Kitchen, 74, broke her back during the flight and has begun High Court proceedings seeking damages to help her access specialist support for her recovery, the BBC reported. Her husband Geoff Kitchen, 73, had also died on the...

A yellowing receipt, framed behind glass near the entrance of Abdul Razak Gold House, records an address that no longer officially exists: “63 Ampang Street, Kuala Lumpur (Malaya)”. The shop’s modern glass frontage, polished counters and gleaming bullion cases give little away about its history. But step inside and that simple receipt serves as a small window onto pre-independence Malaysia. For six decades, this family business has reinvented itself in step with the city around it. What began as...

Yutaka Kato* knew there would be risks when he reported suspected misconduct by his employer to Japanese authorities. What he did not expect, he said, was a 47.88 million yen (US$300,000) damages claim from that employer – the Japanese subsidiary of US-listed medical device manufacturer STAAR Surgical – along with the prospect of years in court and the uncertainty of whether he would ever return to work. Kato is among a growing number of whistle-blowers in Japan who say laws meant to protect...