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?
DANIEL SEUNG TAK OH WRITES – The Dalai Lama is often seen as the face of peace, love, and compassion in the West. To the Tibetan people, he is the vanguard of their national identity and a living buddha. However, to the Chinese he is a dangerous demon, or as…
Full Article CHINA AND TIBET: WILL THIS DALAI LAMA BE OUR LAST?
YOLANDA NOSAKHARE WRITES — At a time when hate crimes against Asian Americans are soaring across the US, the arrival of director Lee Isaac Chung’s film “Minari” hit theaters in the nick of time. The film’s storyline follows a first-generation Korean-American family’s experience moving to Arkansas in the 1980s. They…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: “MINARI,” A PRO-ASIAN WORK OF ART
TOM PLATE WRITES — The future is not always all that tough to predict: “Should both Pacific powers remain frozen in stereotype, high-level diplomacy may yield next to nothing, or worse”. That was my fearless view last month. It remains the view today in the aftermath of the Alaska summit where…
Full Article ALASKA SUMMIT: US AND CHINA MUST RETHINK THEIR DIPLOMACY
HEATHER CREAMER WRITES — Melissa Caddick, age 49, vanished from her luxury $6.1 million home in Dover Heights, a coastal suburb of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Her disappearance occurred November 11, the day after corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) executed a search warrant at her…
Full Article AUSTRALIA: A CORPORATE WATCHDOG INVESTIGATION UNLEASHES QUESTIONS AND A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
AUDIE LAYARDA WRITES — Seoul will invest $1.7 billion through 2022 to become one of the world’s top five technology start-up hubs. Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon said, “I will improve the structure of Seoul economy and make a “miracle of startup.” Seoul, now one of the top 20 startup…
Full Article SOUTH KOREA: WILL TECH START UPS SMACK DOWN SILICON VALLEY?
ALEX DASHWOOD WRITES — Malaysia’s top court on February 25th ruled that a Syariah (Sharia) state law banning gay sex “against the order of nature” was unconstitutional. Its ruling exemplifies a step toward strengthening legal protections for the LGBT+ community in the Southeast Asian country. The case “arises from a…
Full Article MALAYSIA: COURT RULES LAW BANNING GAY SEX UNCONSTITUTIONAL