ASEAN News

JAPAN: As the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Japan, Prime Minister Lee has written to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida to congratulate him on the LDP’s success. Two days after the killing of a senior LDP member and former prime minister Shinzo Abe, Japan’s conservative coalition government extended its majority in the upper house of …

CHINA: A record quarterly profit from Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing pushed the company’s share price to its highest level this year in Tokyo trade on Friday. One-day gains of 8.5% were the most since April 15, and it was expected to conclude at its best level since November 2021. China, Fast Retailing’s most important international market, had severe losses in …

TAIWAN: According to a government official, Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, would need permission from the Taiwanese government to invest in troubled Chinese semiconductor firm Tsinghua Unigroup (Jul 14). According to reports in Taiwan’s media, Foxconn Industrial Internet, a China-listed affiliate of Foxconn, aims to invest 9.8 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in Unigroup as part of Foxconn’s strategy …

JAPAN: Coronavirus cases appear to be spreading swiftly across Japan, prompting the country’s health ministry to issue a public health alert and urge residents to exercise extra caution ahead of the forthcoming long weekend and upcoming summer school breaks. Japan’s new COVID-19 cases have climbed to levels not seen since early this year, with Tokyo reporting 16,878 new cases on …

SOUTH KOREA: Ioniq 6, Hyundai’s first electric sedan, was unveiled on Thursday, July 14th, and the South Korean automaker hopes it will help them gain market share in the electric vehicle market, which is now dominated by Tesla Inc. More than 31 electric vehicles, including Hyundai Motor, its sister business Kia Corp, and the premium brand Genesis, will be introduced …

SOUTH KOREA: Each day’s COVID For the first time in the past two months, the number of infections in South Korea has surpassed 40,000, and the government has issued a warning about a possible five-fold increase in the months ahead. Han Duck-soo, the prime minister of South Korea, informed a government COVID-19 reaction meeting that between mid-August and late September, …

CHINA: A team of Chinese scientists from Sichuan University in southwest China believes that robot fish that “eat” microplastics could one day assist in cleaning up the world’s filthy oceans. These robots, which are only 1.3 centimeters in diameter, have already begun removing microplastics from shallow water. Wang Yuyan, one of the researchers behind the robot’s development, explained that the …

JAPAN: There are many Japanese farmers who begin to worry about Typhoon Season months in advance, haunted by recollections of the tremendous rains and landslides that devastated wasabi farms during one of these storms. “Due to global warming, typhoons are now more powerful than ever before. It’s becoming stronger,” said an elderly farmer in Okutama, a suburb west of Tokyo, …

CHINA: The country’s market regulator announced on Sunday that a number of companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, had been fined for violating anti-monopoly regulations regarding the transparency of transactions (Jul 10). There were 28 trades that were found to have broken the rules by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). Alibaba’s Youku Tudou streaming platform is one of the …

SOUTH KOREA: Satellite images show what appear to be multiple missile launches from North Korea, South Korea’s military said based on Sunday’s (Jul 10) satellite images (MLRs). Shots were heard after 6 p.m., and South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the military had increased monitoring and alert levels without indicating any further response. North Korea regularly conducts MLR …