TOKYO -- Japan's successful launch of a rocket into orbit Tuesday paves the way for the country to fully enter private-sector launch services, as IHI Aerospace moves ahead to snag orders from Southeast Asia.

NEW YORK -- About a 30-minute walk from Tokyo's bustling Shinjuku Station, the neighborhood of Wakamatsucho marks one of the highest points in the capital's center. A building near the very top of the hill houses Radiopress, the wire service that monitors radio broadcasts from North Korea.

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

BEIJING -- Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took the helm of the nation nearly nine years ago as the Communist Party's leader, its economy has vaulted from half of America's size to 70% or so -- a gap that will continue to narrow, with some estimates saying it could surpass the U.S. within the decade.

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor and Nissan Motor are among global automakers that plan to ramp up output in the near term, sharply reversing course on recent production cuts caused by the chip shortage.

TOKYO -- Japan has finally lifted its pandemic-era travel ban, much to the relief of the roughly 370,000 foreigners waiting to arrive. But an unusually cumbersome application process means their wait will not end anytime soon.

WASHINGTON -- Samsung Electronics and Renesas Electronics were among the Asian chipmakers to respond to a U.S. request for supply chain data by Monday while withholding detailed client information.

MANILA -- Sara Duterte, who leads opinion polls to succeed her father Rodrigo Duterte as president, said Tuesday she is dropping her candidacy for re-election as Davao City mayor.

TOKYO -- Governments around the world should not attempt a one-size-fits-all policy for clean energy transitions, said Amin Nasser, the president and CEO of Saudi Aramco.

Yutong Niu is a Women in Security fellow at Pomona College, California and a former research intern at Pacific Forum, a Honolulu-based think tank focused on the Asia-Pacific region.