Asia - South China Morning Post

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, has extended its lead from last week in a new poll on the race ahead of the February 8 election, with 36.1 per cent backing the party, up 6.9 percentage points, the survey showed on Sunday.

The Centrist Reform Alliance, a new major opposition force, was second with 13.9 per cent, up 2.0 points. At the single-constituency level, the survey conducted over two days from Saturday showed that 44.0 per cent would vote for...

Pakistani police and military forces killed more than 100 “Indian-backed terrorists” in counterterrorism operations across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan over the past 40 hours, government officials said on Sunday, a day after coordinated suicide and gun attacks killed 33 people, mostly civilians.

The raids began early on Saturday at multiple locations across Balochistan, and left 18 civilians, including five women and three children, and 15 security staff dead, authorities...

Myanmar’s junta called for ex-civil servants who quit their jobs in protest over the coup five years ago to report back to work, pledging to remove absent state employees from “blacklists” on Sunday.

After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.

Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a...

In a new memoir No Borders: Journeys Across Islands And Continents, renowned historian Wang Gungwu traces his life across Malaya, London, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore, sharing both personal anecdotes and perspectives on the changes in China and the modern world. In the excerpt below, Wang reflects on his impressions of Singapore after arriving from Hong Kong with his wife Margaret in the 1990s, the differences between the two cities, and his work on contemporary China with Singapore’s...

India’s government dismissed a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel made by Jeffrey Epstein in an email in 2017.

The US Justice Department released 3 million pages of material related to the late financier, a convicted sex offender, on Friday.

In an email addressed to a Y. Jabor in July 2017, Epstein referred to Modi’s trip to Israel, saying the Indian prime minister “took advice. and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president. They had met a few weeks...

As Southeast Asia accelerates into electric vehicle manufacturing, industry leaders in the Philippines say their country risks falling behind neighbours that have moved quickly to support the sector, with policy uncertainty raising doubts about Manila’s commitment to long-term growth.

Those concerns sharpened last month when President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr vetoed 92.5 billion pesos (US$1.56 billion) in unprogrammed appropriations from the 2026 national budget, a move that also swept up funding...

From the principled and the populist to the outright eccentric, Thailand goes to the polls on February 8 with its main prime ministerial candidates wielding lofty promises to turn the country’s flagging fortunes around.

Here are the main contenders and some of their policies.

Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut – People’s Party

Better known as “Teng”, the former tech executive took over leadership of the People’s Party in 2024 aged just 37. He leads them into the election as the most popular candidate to...

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...