JAPAN: WHAT’S TWO BILLION BUCKS HERE OR THERE?
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%…
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JAPAN: WILL SAME SEX UNIONS GAIN THEIR COUNTRY’S BLESSING?
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…
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CHINA AND TIBET: WILL THIS DALAI LAMA BE OUR LAST?
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…
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SOUTH KOREA: “MINARI,” A PRO-ASIAN WORK OF ART
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…
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ALASKA SUMMIT: US AND CHINA MUST RETHINK THEIR DIPLOMACY
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…
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AUSTRALIA: A CORPORATE WATCHDOG INVESTIGATION UNLEASHES QUESTIONS AND A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
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…
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SOUTH KOREA: WILL TECH START UPS SMACK DOWN SILICON VALLEY?
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…
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MALAYSIA: COURT RULES LAW BANNING GAY SEX UNCONSTITUTIONAL
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…
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ASIAN AMERICAN ACTIVISM: THE AFTERMATH OF THE ATLANTA SHOOTING
KATIE SHIEH WRITES — On the evening of March 16, 2021, a 21- year- old Caucasian man named Robert Long murdered 8 people: Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park, Hyun JungGrant, Yong Ae Yue and Suncha Kim, in a mass shooting. This happened…
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BOOK REVIEW: ASTRAL SEASON, BEASTLY SEASON BY TAHI SAIHATE
ELLA KELLEHER WRITES (latest in her review series of new Japanese books) — Adolescence in Astral Season, Beastly Season (2020) is a frightening and tragic nightmare that haunts a person endlessly. The teenage mind is pried apart in Tahi Saihate’s unusual coming-of-age story to reveal a deep-seated psychology of obsession.…
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ASIAN AMERICANS: UNDERSTANDING THE SEXUALIZED HISTORY OF ASIAN WOMEN
SHAE KUROKAWA WRITES — In response to the recent shooting rampage in Georgia, in which three Asian spas were targeted and six Asian women were killed, investigators have begun to theorize that the massacre was not motivated by rising hate towards Asian Americans generated by the coronavirus. Instead, they say,…
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CHINA: A LOT OF HEAT BUT LITTLE WARMTH AT THE U.S./CHINA ALASKA SUMMIT
MANAGING EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES — Anyone who still had a tiny bit of hope for a positive change in the approach towards U.S. – China relations under the Biden administration would lose faith after watching the U.S./China talks in Alaska. The meeting this week in Anchorage was…
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FASHION: SANDY LIANG AND HER NOSTALGIC SS21 COLLECTION
SOPHIA JARAMILLO WRITES – Chinese American fashion designer Sandy Liang has designed the ‘quarantine collection’ of a lifetime for Spring-Summer 2021—overflowing with childhood and familial nostalgia and bringing the designer back to the not-so-basics of her signature styles. Sandy Liang was raised in Queens, New York, and graduated from Parsons…
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ARMENIA: NATIVE RECIPES ARE A WELL – KEPT SECRET ON THE GLOBAL SCENE
MELANIE MARGARYAN WRITES — Asian countries take great pride in their cultures. One of the most prominent aspects of any Asian culture is food. Nations such as Japan, China, and India have authentic foods that are fairly familiar, but when it comes to Armenia, it’s difficult to come up with…
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SAUDI ARABIA: WINNING TICKET FOR FILM INDUSTRY
ABEER ABUNAYYAN WRITES — In 2018, Prince Mohammed bin Salman lifted the ban on theaters that had been in place for 35 years. The ban had originally been in place due to social pressure from conservative Islamists to limit public entertainment, particularly theaters that had mixing between men and women. However,…
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JAPAN: BASEBALL STAR SHOHEI OHTANI IS BACK IN THE GAME
NICOLAS PAPA WRITES — It has been almost three years, but Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani is starting to show glimpses of the two-way talent that had previously made him one of the most anticipated players in the history of Major League Baseball. The Los Angeles Angels player had sent…
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