The resistant roots of Japan’s digital dysfunction

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A city clerk in western prefecture of Yamaguchi carries a floppy disk containing account information for 463 residents to a local bank. He has every intention of transferring payments to the residents. But somewhere between the clerk’s instructions and the bank’s processing of the transaction, there is a miscommunication. Instead of 463 residents receiving their […]

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US-China keep rumbling and grumbling over Taiwan

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US-China tensions have spiked again with the US Senate’s passage of the 2022 Taiwan Policy Act, which if enacted will see Washington allocate billions of dollars to fortify Taiwan’s defenses against a potential Chinese invasion. Qiu Kaiming, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee, said Wednesday the Taiwan issue has become more […]

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Cambodia not quite yet in a China debt trap

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While other developing nations slip into foreign debt death spirals, Cambodia sits in a relatively hale spot on league tables monitoring who is likely next at risk of tumbling into a so-called China “debt trap.” Whereas Ethiopia and Zambia are the latest to request restructuring of their China-owed debts, joining Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Laos, […]

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Kishida-Yoon sideline summit hangs in the balance

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SEOUL – Will they? Or won’t they? There are conflicting reports on whether Japanese Prime Minster Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol will summit on the sidelines of the 77th UN General Assembly held in New York this week. The two early-in-their-term leaders – Kishida took power in October 2021, Yoon in May […]

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The amazing and unstoppable collapsing yen

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TOKYO – There’s something surreal about the debate at Bank of Japan (BOJ) headquarters over whether to jump into markets to support the yen. Japan’s central bank faces the most intense pressure in more than two decades to intervene in currency trading, but unlike previous pressure campaigns, the BOJ isn’t being prodded to weaken the yen […]

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