Asia - South China Morning Post

K-pop megastars BTS will release a new album in March ahead of a world tour, the group announced on Thursday.

South Korea’s biggest musical act has been on self-described hiatus since 2022 as its members undertook national military service required of all men under the age of 30.

All seven members were discharged last year, and the group announced a comeback for the spring of 2026.

They confirmed on Thursday that they would release an album on March 20, before heading on tour.

The exact date...

Malaysia on Thursday moved to bring some of the world’s biggest social media and messaging platforms under its licensing regime, closing a year-long gap in which several tech giants had operated without formal approval.

From January 1, platforms with more than eight million users in Malaysia are automatically treated as licensed under local law, even if they had not applied, according to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

The shift coincides with the Online Safety Act...

Australia’s government is “disappointed” with China’s decision to impose new beef import tariffs, with one industry group warning the move could damage trade worth over A$1 billion (US$667 million) between the two countries.

China announced it would impose additional 55 per cent tariffs on some beef imports from countries including Brazil, Australia and the United States that exceed a certain quantity for the next three years.

The country also said it would suspend part of a free-trade agreement...

Sheila Lim, 25, travels from Singapore to the United States every year to spend Christmas with her boyfriend and his family in California, usually staying for nearly a month.

She has never had trouble entering the country, but on her most recent trip she noticed immigration queues moving more slowly than before.

“This November, I waited two hours in line,” Lim told This Week in Asia.

That experience has left her uneasy about a new US proposal that would require visa-exempt travellers to submit...

Malaysia’s tourism minister has urged the public to be more friendly to visitors and take cleanliness seriously as the country ramps up preparations for Visit Malaysia 2026, after several government agencies flagged complaints from tourists about rude treatment when they sought help.

Speaking on New Year’s Day at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing said he had asked for explanations after receiving the feedback.

“I have received complaints and...

Japan’s economy is likely to fall behind India’s in 2026 to fifth place in the world, according to an International Monetary Fund’s estimate, potentially diminishing the East Asian nation’s presence on the global stage.

The subdued economic outlook makes Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s planned growth strategy, due out in the summer, all the more important to combat the burden from the country’s shrinking population, economists say. They call for productivity improvements and further efforts to...

It was like any other day for 24-year-old sales adviser Kanimolhi Krisnan from Shah Alam in Malaysia’s Selangor state. She was at the MRT station waiting for the bus to go home after work when a stranger approached her for help.

Frida Pigny, an education strategist from Indonesia, was in Kuala Lumpur with her French husband Samuel Pigny and their daughter Axelle.

“We were stuck at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral with no Wi-fi, no Grab, no taxi app; just faith and people,” Frida said. “We needed to go...

Even as North Korea spent 2025 pushing a political strategy centred on ignoring South Korea, the country simultaneously copied South Korean products, designs and cultural content – from food packaging to football fan zones – revealing what analysts describe as a contradictory yet calculated pattern of imitation.

While Pyongyang continues to warn against the inflow of South Korean culture, it has selectively adopted popular elements and repurposed them as its own through what observers call...

A viral video has reignited a debate on elite schools in Singapore, with users sharing their own childhood experiences and views on whether such an educational environment may lead to insular views of society and indifference to those less better off.

In an online clip, user Erica Lee recounts her time in an elite primary school and how her classmates’ families travelled several times a year for the holidays, had chauffeurs to ferry them to and from school, and threw extravagant birthday parties...

Early on the morning of December 30, 2025, Takeshi Tsuchida got down on his knees to carefully place flowers in front of a black-slab tomb marking the last resting place of Mikio Miyazawa, his wife and their two children.

Tsuchida bowed his head, clasped his hands together and offered a silent prayer.

Now 78, Tsuchida has retired as head of the Seijo police station in Tokyo’s upmarket Setagaya ward, but he has never been able to move on from the one crime that still hangs over his...