Stephen Nagy is a senior associate professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo. He is a visiting fellow at the Japan Institute for International Affairs.

The long-awaited homecoming of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor from China has been celebrated by Canadians and non-Canadians alike.

It followed the release of Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou after she signed an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department admitting wrongdoing in exchange for being allowed to go home. Her highly choreographed return to China could not have been more of a

JAKARTA -- Novice investors crowding into the Indonesian stock market have had baptisms of fire after a number of hot initial public offerings, including the e-commerce group Bukalapak, crashed below their early trading prices.

In a country where around a half of the 270 million population remains unbanked, one million people invested in stocks for the first time this year, according to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Retail investors accounted for 59% of trading value on the IDX, it said, compared to only

KABUL (Reuters) -- A blast killed several civilians at a mosque in Kabul where people were holding prayers for the mother of the Taliban's spokesperson, officials in the movement said on Sunday, and gunfire was later reported on the outskirts of the city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's attack, apparently the most serious in the Afghan capital since the withdrawal of U.S. forces in August.

Several other civilians were hurt in the explosion on a main road near the entrance of

TOKYO -- Taiwan is turning to Japan to find new customers for its sugar apples after top buyer China suspended imports of the luxury fruit amid festering tensions between Beijing and Taipei.

Nurturing fresh appetite in Japan for the knobbly green fruit, prized for its creamy flesh, could help bolster ties between Taipei and Tokyo at a time when China is ramping up political and military pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory.

Chinese customs authorities banned Taiwanese sugar apple shipments in mid-September, saying they had repeatedly detected

HONG KONG -- Burnishing its environmental credentials, Hong Kong's de facto central bank recently gave 100 green and pink lunch boxes to employees in a bid to reduce plastic waste and raise awareness of environmental issues.

But the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is doing more than just dishing out food containers to its staff. As part of a push to embrace green finance, the HKMA last year launched a joint committee with securities supervision authorities to urge companies to disclose financial information on climate change and to push them to issue

HO CHI MINH CITY -- The yoga students have to walk past blue-and-green iguanas and jars of hummus at the entry to get to Hanna Nguyen's home studio. Nguyen started offering workout classes by converting the ground level of her house into a business, while the family lives upstairs. Vietnamese have done this for centuries -- work on one floor, sleep on another -- but the 21st century has brought new competition: retail chains.

Nguyen competes with Elite Fitness, California Fitness and

BERLIN -- The new AUKUS security alliance of three English-speaking nations signals a deeper U.S. shift away from Europe in its attempts to stem China's global ambitions.

The abrupt announcement of the pact between the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, which provides Canberra with American and British technology to build nuclear-powered submarines, has stunned many European Union and NATO member states.

France, in particular, is livid. Having lost a multibillion-dollar submarine deal with Australia

OSAKA -- A bus nears an intersection with no traffic signal amid poor visibility, its driver unable to see an oncoming car until it may be too late to avoid a crash.

But the driver has another pair of eyes watching the road from above, like a bird on a wire.

The unusual helping hand comes in the form of ubiquitous utility poles equipped with sensors along countless streets across Japan, courtesy of Kansai Electric Power.

Japan's second-largest power company envisions turning its 2.7 million utility poles

TOKYO -- Japan's streets are beginning to bustle again after emerging from a monthslong pandemic state of emergency, but the country still faces an uphill slog toward economic recovery as supply chain disruptions and labor shortages drag on.

The automobile industry has been one source of concern. Amid a chip shortage that stretches to coronavirus-hit Southeast Asian suppliers, Toyota Motor will cut global production by 40% from previous plans this month and temporarily halt all vehicle plants in Japan. Honda will decrease Japanese output by 30%