The country’s stagnating economy is hindered by a shrinking workforce — the result of a rapidly aging population and a slowing birth rate. Meanwhile, millions of highly educated women aren’t working. Getting more of them into jobs could lead to a dramatic change in economic fortune for Japan, experts say. But progress has been painfully slow since Prime Minister Shinzo… Read more »
TOKYO — Japan and the European Union reaffirmed Tuesday their commitment to reach a basic framework for an economic partnership agreement by the end of the year. The two sides hope to keep the momentum for free trade alive amid doubts over the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and negotiations for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership pact. Japanese Economy Minister Hiroshige… Read more »
China is in a bind over what to do about North Korea’s stepped-up nuclear and missile tests, even though it is annoyed with its ally and has started talks with other U.N. Security Council members on a new sanctions resolution against Pyongyang.
Foreign ministers for the United States, Japan and South Korea met in New York on Sunday, ahead of U.N. meetings, to discuss stepped-up measures against North Korea and expand collaboration with one another after Pyongyang’s fifth and largest nuclear test.
SEOUL, Sept. 16 (UPI) — Top diplomats of South Korea and Japan are to meet in New York on Sunday to discuss a coordinated response to North Korea‘s nuclear provocations. The talks are being held at a time when both countries are revisiting a canceled intelligence-sharing agreement known as the Japan-Korea GSOMIA, South Korean newspaper Herald Business reported.
Presiding over skinned sheep carcases in Ulan Bator’s largest wholesale meat market, stall owner Gantulkhuur has become one small part in the debt binge rippling through Mongolia. She whips out a small ledger. Names and numbers in neat Cyrillic script crowd tighter and tighter on the pages, as her accounts have been taken over by retailers buying on credit. The… Read more »
Anyone who cares about democracy – the system of government, the mode of selection of leaders, the set of universal values comprising liberty, social justice, and equality (and everything in between) – would do well to set their sights on the city of Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region in China. In the past two weeks, Hong Kong has borne witness to… Read more »
East Timor has reflected on the goodwill of its former invader as it seeks to settle sea borders with both Indonesia and Australia. A conciliation hearing in The Hague this week between Australia and East Timor has wrapped up. The United Nations commission is expected to announce whether it has the power to proceed with the process in a fortnight.
Lawmakers are proposing a ban on alcohol sales and consumption throughout Indonesia, which may negatively affect the island of Bali’s booming tourist economy. The ban would include production, sale, and consumption of alcohol across the entire country, but would have profound effects on the island of Bali. For anyone found violating this law, a prison sentence of as many as… Read more »
The number of Zika cases in the country surged to 275 in just ten days from the start of the outbreak on August 27. Science and Development Network | September 13, 2016 | Health AsianScientist (Sep. 13, 2016) – Neena Bhandari – Seventeen new cases of locally transmitted Zika virus infection in Singapore were confirmed on September 6 by the… Read more »