Asia - South China Morning Post

The number of Chinese visitors to Japan dropped sharply last month amid a diplomatic row over Taiwan. With Beijing again warning against travel to Japan during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, analysts have been closely watching to see how much damage the slowdown might inflict on the Japanese economy.

Though Chinese tourism has plunged, overall visitor numbers have only dipped slightly as Japanese travel operators pivot to alternative markets. Meanwhile, Japan’s airlines have unexpectedly...

Singapore’s southern holiday island of Sentosa has halted all water activities after a crocodile sighting on Saturday night.

The island’s main coastal recreational stretches – Siloso, Palawan and Tanjong Beach – remain open, but the Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has banned all water activities, including swimming and kayaking, as wildlife officials continue to search for the reptile that was spotted off Sentosa Cove.

The SDC said on social media it has ramped up patrols and was...

It has been just over a month since Lee Hyun-jun* was discharged from his mandatory military service, but the 22-year-old college student already feels he has hit an invisible wall regarding his future.

“Whenever I search for jobs, internships or fellowship programmes on online platforms, they always ask for the name of your university,” Lee told This Week in Asia.

“Looking at the comments section, people are saying most places prioritise which school you graduated from. They say you might as...

The India–EU trade agreement marks a significant moment in the development of the global political economy. Described by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the “mother of all deals”, the agreement links one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies with the world’s biggest single market.

Yet, within hours of Brussels and New Delhi announcing their “strategic partnership”, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused the EU of putting trade ahead of the Ukrainian people....

Separatists from Pakistan’s Balochistan province claimed responsibility for nearly a dozen coordinated attacks across southern Pakistan early on Saturday that targeted civilians, a high-security prison, police stations and paramilitary installations.

Eleven civilians, 10 security personnel and 67 insurgents were killed, authorities said.

Though Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban frequently target security forces in Balochistan and elsewhere in the country, coordinated attacks on this...

The leaders of Japan and Britain agreed on Saturday on the urgent need for their countries and like-minded partners to cooperate in strengthening supply chains of critical minerals, as Tokyo seeks to align more closely with London in the face of China’s growing clout.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told a joint press event with her British counterpart Keir Starmer after their meeting in Tokyo that they affirmed the two nations will strategically promote cybersecurity cooperation and set up a new...

Compared with the turmoil threatened by US President Donald Trump’s actions in everything from geopolitics to trade, the outcome of Japan’s parliamentary lower house election, set for February 8, may seem like small beer. Yet it could presage a great upheaval in global finance.

The election outcome is widely expected to strengthen the political power base of the fiscally expansionist Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, and increase borrowing when government debt almost everywhere is already...

Russia’s call to revive a troika with China and India is unlikely to be greeted with enthusiasm by New Delhi, with critics pointing to tense border stand-offs and India’s reluctance to be seen as part of an “anti-West” grouping.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov earlier this month lauded Moscow’s bilateral ties with Delhi and Beijing, calling for the revival of the Russia-India-China (RIC) trialogue.

First mooted in 1998 by then Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, the RIC has not taken...

A man who was sentenced to jail in Singapore over an altercation with the police was released on the same day he was sentenced due to an error in calculating the jail term.

Muhammad Fathurrahman Mohd Adzlan was contacted and returned to jail four days later to complete his sentence.

In a statement on Friday, a judiciary spokeswoman said Muhammad was sentenced to 32 weeks’ jail on October 27, last year. However, this was erroneously reflected as 20 weeks.

According to court papers, Muhammad, then...

At an Indian gourmet food store, Avanti Mehta is organising a blind tasting of drinks sourced from France, Italy and India. No, this is not wine, it is water.

Participants use tiny shot glasses to check the minerality, carbonation and salinity in samples of Evian from the French Alps, Perrier from southern France, San Pellegrino from Italy and India’s Aava from the foothills of the Aravalli mountains.

“They will all taste different … you should be choosing a water that can give you some sort of...