Japan's 'fandom' economy rises as talent agency bankruptcies hit record

With Halloween approaching, Japanese municipalities are stepping up measures against disruptive celebrations in major entertainment districts as larger crowds are expected this year, with the event falling on a Saturday. Halloween is not a traditional festivity in Japan, but has evolved into a major urban event in recent years, particularly in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, where revellers in costumes gather for street celebrations. The festivities have increasingly become associated with public...

Thai authorities have vowed to seize more than US$1 billion in assets from a group accused of laundering proceeds from Southeast Asia-based scam syndicates. A criminal court issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for the alleged ringleader, South African Benjamin Mauerberger, his Thai wife Cattaliya Beevor, Cambodian businessman Yim Leak and four others, police said. Media reports have previously linked Smith, also known as Ben Smith, to transnational scam operations in Cambodia, part of a...

Shen Jiaoqi, a banker living in southern China’s Guangdong province, cannot stop watching microdramas. The shows are so addictive that she sometimes spends entire days gazing at her phone. One time, she even kept watching while she showered. “Honestly, I was watching for the eye candy rather than the plots,” she said. “The AI has really made the characters look stunning.” Shen is far from alone. Microdramas have exploded in popularity in China over the past few years, offering viewers a quick...

South Korean memory chip giant SK Hynix kept almost 80 per cent of its total sales as operating profit last quarter, a margin almost unheard of in manufacturing, as the country’s chipmakers reap the rewards of the global artificial intelligence boom. Operating profit, defined as earnings from the company’s core business before interest and taxes, soared 632 per cent in the three months to September from a year earlier to 83.33 trillion won (US$62.76 billion) on revenue of 104.62 trillion won, SK...

The move will block shipments from BGI, a major Chinese firm that U.S. officials allege is associated with forced labor and the abuse of minority groups.

In his annual state of the nation address, Tokayev laid out an ambitious spending spree focused on infrastructure and investment.

Lula’s victory secures the most important destination for Chinese foreign direct investment in the Western Hemisphere and ends a winning streak for Trump-supported candidates.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday proposed a new US-Asean defence framework to guide cooperation over what he called “critically important years” ahead, but offered few details on what it would entail. The proposal faces questions over whether members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will embrace a bloc-wide initiative, with analysts suggesting they would prefer bilateral arrangements that preserve their flexibility as they navigate ties with Washington and...

Insights from Eric Setzekorn.

In a rare move, Singapore on Wednesday summoned top executives from 10 locally registered companies potentially linked to haze-causing fires in Indonesia to a meeting with three ministers. The executives all agreed to cooperate fully in an investigation by the city state into the regional environmental crisis that has caused air quality to dip to “very unhealthy” levels earlier this month. Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, Senior Minister K. Shanmugam and Minister for Sustainability and the...

Singapore has spent decades making itself indispensable to a global economy in which it has little control over the behavior of the major powers. Germany might be seeking to learn from that example.

Questions have been raised over the strength of Pakistan’s security commitment to Saudi Arabia ever since the SMDA’s inception in September 2025.