KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysia's ruling and opposition parties on Monday inked an agreement that promises to halt a long bout of political instability, in a boost for new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's fledgling government.

After taking charge in August, one of Ismail Sabri's first moves was to open negotiations with rivals, hoping for a cease-fire that would allow him to focus on fighting COVID-19 and rebuilding the economy.

The prime minister on Monday said the deal includes strengthening COVID-19

TOKYO -- Hitachi has pledged to go carbon neutral across its value chain by fiscal 2050, becoming one of the first Japanese manufacturing powerhouses to set an ambitious sustainability target that covers an extensive supplier web.

The industrial group upgraded its climate goal in a statement Monday. Hitachi previously aimed to reduce direct emissions at its factories and offices to zero in net terms by fiscal 2030, while slashing those from suppliers, customers and other related companies 80% by 2050 from 20

SHANGHAI -- From a potential $1 billion fine to Xi Jinping's campaign for "common prosperity," Meituan, the operator of the China's top food delivery app, faces mounting government pressure on a business model that has made it one of the country's most valuable tech stocks.

Meituan's predicament parallels that of e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding, whose market value has taken a blow from Beijing's crackdown on the data-rich giant after outspoken founder Jack Ma is said to

SEOUL -- North Korea's announcement Monday of successful test launches of a new cruise missile appears to add to the country's ability to strike Japan and other targets in the region, emphasizing Pyongyang's military buildup ahead of talks among the U.S. and its East Asian allies.

North Korea did not state where the missile landed, and the Japanese government has not confirmed whether it flew into the country's exclusive economic zone. But if Pyongyang's claims that it flew 1,50

Stephen Givens is a corporate lawyer based in Tokyo.

Internet platform businesses like Google and Amazon, you would think, necessarily compete in a global market that spans national boundaries.

A look at geographic market segments by revenue of some of the leading internet platforms confirms the hunch: 54% of Google's revenue comes from outside North America; 30% for Amazon, 60% for eBay; and 54% for Netflix.

The logical corollary would seem to be that internet businesses that serve a single geographic

TOKYO -- Two leading candidates in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential race have joined the call to increase Japan's defense spending, setting the stage for a heated debate on how to address the growing threats from China and North Korea.

Vaccine czar Taro Kono, who is considered the front-runner, said Monday that an increase in defense spending would be inevitable.

"We need to first identify game-changing [defense] technologies," Kono told reporters, adding that "the total figure will have to be raised

TOKYO/MANILA/JAKARTA -- The number of people in Asia getting vaccinated against COVID-19 has been rising. But further progress in battling the pandemic could be slowed by the continuing appearance of social media hoaxes and disinformation that make it harder to combat hesitancy.

Some of the uglier postings have been in Indonesia, which says it has found and had taken down 2,000 vaccine-related hoaxes on social media platforms. One posting in July showed five coffins in a mosque, with a deliberately-

WASHINGTON -- Leaders from the U.S., Japan, India and Australia -- the nations that make up the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue -- will hold their first in-person summit in Washington on Sept. 24, the White House announced Monday.

The White House hosts the summit as President Joe Biden looks to demonstrate his "priority of engaging in the Indo-Pacific, including through new multilateral configurations to meet the challenges of the 21st century," the U.S. administration said.

TAIPEI -- Taiwan began annual military exercises Monday that prepared for a full-scale invasion by China, including response to biological and chemical warfare.

The five-day live-fire portion of the Han Kuang exercise kicked off early Monday morning in eastern Taiwan, an area China considers a weak link. F-16V and Mirage 2000 fighter jets were dispatched to simulate a response to an armed invasion.

The drills come during a month in which 19 Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan's air