SINGAPORE/OSAKA -- Panasonic has decided to eliminate hundreds of jobs at home and abroad as part of a wide-ranging restructuring in response to lackluster earnings.

The Osaka-based technology group said Thursday that it will cease production of refrigeration compressors in Singapore by the end of September 2022. This will affect 700 workers, or roughly a third of the head count in the city-state. The manufacturing capacity will be moved to existing plants in Malaysia's Malacca and China's Wuxi

Stephen Givens is a corporate lawyer based in Tokyo.

The fate of Shinsei Bank, once the world's ninth-largest bank when it operated as the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB), remains hostage to the Japanese government's remorse over bad decisions made over two decades ago.

By conservative estimate, $3.5 billion of public funds was spent rescuing LTCB after it collapsed and was nationalized in 1997. Today, all the government has to show for the expenditure is a

MANILA -- At the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 22, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte talked about his war on drugs but without indulging in his usual combative "kill 'em all" rhetoric.

"I have instructed the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police to review the conduct of our campaign against illegal drugs," Duterte said in a recorded message. "Those found to have acted beyond bounds during operations shall be made accountable before our laws."

Duterte's war on drugs has

HANOI -- Vietnam faces the prospect of missing its 6.5% growth target for this year, underscoring the country's sharp turn from a pandemic success story to hard-hit victim.

The growth figure for the third quarter, anticipated by the end of this month, is being widely projected at under 2% -- worse than the same quarter of 2020. A wave of infections and a strict COVID-19 lockdown squeezed the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, and experts

TOKYO -- The Japanese government will lift the COVID state of emergency covering Tokyo and 18 other prefectures on Thursday, prompted by progress in vaccinations and a decline in new infections.

The capital has been under the decree since July 12 and the prospect of the reopening of businesses fueled stock trading on Monday. Shares in travel agencies, karaoke chains and wedding operators surged as hopes rise for pent-up demand to revive pandemic-hit industries.

Shares in Japanese tour agency H.I.S. soared 8%

Kevin Rudd is a former prime minister of Australia and is the global president of the Asia Society. Thom Woodroofe is a former climate diplomat and a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Xi Jinping's pledge to the U.N. General Assembly last week to halt China's construction of coal-fired power plants abroad through the Belt and Road Initiative has drawn a big line in the sand.

It is a welcome development signaling that China knows the future is paved by renewables. The key question now is

MANILA -- The Philippines has become the first country to approve the commercial production of genetically modified, nutrient-enriched Golden Rice, sparking safety worries even as the government tries to fight malnutrition and shore up supplies in one of the world's top importers of the staple grain.

Golden Rice was developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), headquartered in Laguna, south of Manila, to help curb vitamin A deficiency in developing nations. It is named for the yellow color of the grain. Pilot planting began

SEOUL/TOKYO -- None of the four candidates running in Wednesday's election to lead Japan's ruling party are likely to break through Seoul and Tokyo's icy relationship, South Korean analysts say.

The two neighbors are at loggerheads over issues stemming from Japan's occupation of the Korean Peninsula (1910 to 1945). They remain at odds over compensation for Koreans forced to work for Japanese companies during World War II, and the so-called comfort women who worked in

HONG KONG -- CNOOC, one of the three Chinese state-owned oil and gas conglomerates, plans to list in the mainland amid pressure from U.S. authorities to delist from New York.

The company late on Sunday said it is set to issue up to 2.6 billion new shares, representing about 5.5% of the enlarged share capital and plans to raise 35 billion yuan ($5.4 billion). It intends to use the funds to develop oil and gas fields, primarily