Asia - South China Morning Post

Northeast Japan escaped relatively unscathed from the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck off its coast on Monday, but residents have been advised to stay alert as it is too early to tell whether the tremor was the main shock or a precursor to a far larger one.

Hours after the quake, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a special advisory warning of a slightly elevated risk of a temblor with a magnitude of 8 or stronger in the coming days.

There was a 1 per cent chance of a megaquake,...

A Malaysian NGO is demanding more accountability in project approvals in Cameron Highlands after a two-hour downpour on Monday resulted in a “river of mud” gushing through the main road of a town in the popular hill resort.

A 15-second clip shows waist-high muddy waters, which social media users likened to teh tarik, surging through Ringlet, swallowing the main road and pushing against cars.

Cameron Highlands police chief Azri Ramli said the flood was caused by a heavy downpour that began at 2pm...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent a ritual offering on Tuesday to a shrine honouring the country’s war dead that has long angered neighbouring countries but did not visit in person, media reports and an unidentified source close to the matter said.

The Yasukuni shrine in central Tokyo is dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, mostly Japanese, who perished in conflicts since the late 19th century.

That number includes senior military and political figures convicted by an international...

We have selected seven stories from the SCMP’s coverage of Asia over the past week that resonated with our readers and shed light on topical issues. If you would like to see more of our reporting, please consider subscribing.

1. Singapore balances national interest with rising anti-US sentiment

In a rare public protest in Singapore, hundreds gathered in Hong Lim Park over the weekend to denounce the “US war machine”. They brandished placards and banners, including one with horns drawn on US...

Indonesia appears to have ceded its position as Asean’s natural leader to Singapore in a new survey of regional opinion leaders, with analysts pinning the shift on President Prabowo Subianto’s preference for pursuing Jakarta’s ambitions outside the regional bloc.

More than 2,000 policymakers, researchers and business figures from across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were polled by the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for its latest annual State of Southeast Asia survey.

When asked...

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Jae-yong posed for a widely shared selfie in New Delhi on Monday, drawing attention to the optics of “selfie diplomacy” at a Korea-India summit.

The photo was taken during a state lunch using Samsung’s latest foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Z Flip7. The image quickly went viral online on social media and was picked up by multiple media outlets.

The moment comes months after Lee drew...

Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are working closely together to keep vessels moving safely through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong said on Tuesday, stressing the three countries’ shared responsibility for keeping the waterways open and secure.

“The Straits of Malacca and Singapore are used for international navigation, and therefore the rights of transit passage similarly apply,” said Gan, who is also trade and industry minister, speaking on the opening...

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has affected every Asean nation, with a crisis looming, according to Malaysia’s Sultan Nazrin Shah.

The Perak ruler said the ongoing conflict in the Middle East would directly affect the economies of countries in the region.

“The surging prices of energy, fertilisers and transport are driving up food prices, increasing production and distribution costs, and fuelling inflation. The worst affected are countries with low energy reserves,” he said in his keynote...

Governments across Southeast Asia have been banking on work-from-home arrangements for civil servants to ease the sting of soaring energy costs triggered by the Iran war, but analysts say the maths is messier than it may first appear.

Indonesia estimates its Friday work-from-home policy, introduced on April 1, will save around 6.2 trillion rupiah (US$361.5 million) in state fuel subsidies and nearly 10 times that amount in total consumption.

The Philippines has similarly introduced a four-day...

Rohingya refugee Rahila Begum spent two days adrift ⁠in the Andaman Sea this month, clinging to a wooden shard after her ⁠overcrowded boat capsized, one of the few survivors of a disaster that left 250 missing and feared dead.

She was among the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who brave hunger and accidents on rickety boats each year to flee desperate conditions in camps in southeastern Bangladesh for countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Hundreds die en route from hunger or accidents at sea,...