CRISTINA PEDLER WRITES – Sri Lanka is leading the way in banning palm oil imports and phasing out cultivation. In an unexpected turn of events, Sri Lanka has banned imports of palm oil and new palm plantations, and told producers to uproot existing plantations in a phased manner. An announcement…
Full Article SRI LANKA: THE WAR ON PALM OIL MAY SAVE THE WORLD
RYAN FRAZEE WRITES — Tik Tok is democratizing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) at a rapid rate. The hashtag #traditionalchinesemedicine has over 19 million views. If you look it up, you will find accessible home remedies like gua sha, moxibustion, and acupressure for a wide array of physical and mental health…
Full Article CHINA: TIK TOK MODERNIZES TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
MILES WHITTINGHAM WRITES — Baseball, widely regarded as America’s favorite pastime, has seen a definite upswing in several Asian countries over the years. First brought to Japan by Horace Wilson- an English teacher at the Kaisei Academy in Tokyo in 1873- a couple of other Asian countries have shown great…
Full Article ASIAN SPORTS: BASEBALL’S TURN AT BAT ON THE CONTINENT
ABEER ABUNAYYAN WRITES FROM SAUDI ARABIA – Operating in an increasingly competitive industry, Netflix has been pursuing an aggressive growth strategy intended to increase and diversify its programming whilst gaining access to new, high-potential markets. Having consolidated its position in the United States, the company has spent the past few…
Full Article SAUDI ARABIA: HOW TELFAZ11’S PARTNERSHIP WITH NETFLIX IS GOING TO AFFECT THE SAUDI FILM INDUSTRY
AIDAN M. SMITH-FAGEN WRITES — Last month, both America and China released government reports on each other’s human rights failures. Although nothing in the reports is wholly unexpected, given the tense US-China summit last month, the two documents provide insight into the struggle for global diplomatic credibility between the two…
Full Article CHINA VERSUS U.S.: HUMAN RIGHTS, NATIONAL SLIGHTS
CLAIRE GUTE WRITES — The highly anticipated 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan, following the postponement last year due to Covid-19. The games are set to occur between July 23 to August 8, with the first ever surfing competition at Tsurigasaki Beach in Ichinomiya, just 62 miles…
Full Article JAPAN: WAVES OF HOPE FOR SURFERS ENTERING THE FIRST-EVER OLYMPIC COMPETITION
NICOLAS PAPA WRITES — The launch of Japanese tech giant Sony’s newest video game system, the Playstation 5, in November of last year was quite possibly the most eagerly anticipated console launch in video game history. Sony’s Playstation console series dominates the video game market, with its previous four iterations…
Full Article JAPAN: HURRY UP AND WAIT FOR A PLAYSTATION 5 RESTOCK
KEVIN SHON WRITES — March 19, 2020 was like a never-ending state of confusion. Classes were online. People were fighting over toilet paper at Costco. Sporting events, concerts and festivals were put on hold. There was no traffic in Los Angeles. Fast-forward to April 2021, I own five different CDC-approved…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: PFIZER BOOSTS MY HOPES, BUT CAN THE COUNTRY RECOVER?
KEZIA LAKSMONO WRITES — So, on April 2nd, in the heart of Jakarta, I strode into a large building where the vaccine was being distributed and almost cried with joy as I got my jab of the Sinovac vaccine. This name might be unknown to you – with all the…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: MY FIRST DOSE OF THE SINOVAC VACCINE
TOM PLATE WRITES — Perhaps no gloomier assessment of the China-US relationship can be made than to note that, were it to sink yet another notch or two, there would be no relationship at all. Like a Japanese garden so minimalist that removing one stone might vitiate its existence, the…
Full Article US-CHINA RELATIONS: GROWING PERIL OF WAR OVER TAIWAN WOULD BE FOOLISH AND COSTLY
LAMA ALTAHER WRITES — Who would have thought that Cambodia would have been successful in keeping the coronavirus outbreak under control? This country of one-party rule with few checks and balances, with an authoritarian Prime Minister criticized by other countries in Southeast Asia, with a far from free electoral system…
Full Article CAMBODIA: STRONG-ARM GOVERNMENT TACTICS BEAT BACK A PANDEMIC
CADY ABE WRITES- On Sunday, March 28th, MAPPA animation studio released the last episode of the first half of Attack on Titan’s fourth and final season. Attack on Titan, a manga (comic book) turned anime that first aired in 2013, is currently the best-known anime in Japan. In addition, it…
Full Article JAPAN ANIME: ATTACK ON TITAN
VALERIA GURROLA WRITES — Jang Yeong-jin has found love as a gay man nearly twenty-five years after his escape from North Korea. He first made international headlines in 2015 with A Mark of Red Honor’s release, his memoir about living as an openly gay defector in South Korea. In the…
Full Article NORTH KOREA: SPECTER OF SEXUALITY
GREGORY BENNETT WRITES — Declining popularity, teams that fold and a lack of funds are common barriers to ice hockey in Asia. Today, the Asia League Ice Hockey (ALIH) is the only national league in Asia with eight different teams. Five of these teams are located in Japan, two are…
Full Article ASIAN SPORTS: A WORK IN PROGRESS
TOKYO (excerpted from Nikkei Asia) — Nomura Holdings on Monday warned of a potentially hefty loss at one of its U.S. subsidiaries after the Japanese financial services company and global peers were caught up in a share selloff on Friday involving an American investment firm. Nomura’s shares closed down 16.33%…
Full Article JAPAN: WHAT’S TWO BILLION BUCKS HERE OR THERE?
JAMES HANSON WRITES — Despite being an important industrial nation and beacon of democracy in Asia, Japan still does not recognize same-sex unions. Since 2019, 13 same-sex couples have filed ongoing lawsuits against Japanese city governments, including Tokyo, Sapporo and Osaka. These cases triggered a wave of same-sex couples in…
Full Article JAPAN: WILL SAME SEX UNIONS GAIN THEIR COUNTRY’S BLESSING?