TOKYO -- COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers will have produced a total of more than 12 billion doses by the end of 2021, enough to cover the portion of the world's population needed for herd immunity, a report shows.

But rich countries are on track to surpass 1 billion excess doses in their stockpiles by year-end, while access to vaccines remains limited in developing nations, even as output is accelerating.

Global vaccine production reached 6.1 billion doses at the end of August

Benjamin Knopp is marketing chair for EO Tokyo Metropolitan and co-founder of Kurashu.jp.

An international investor I know bought a commercial building in Tokyo for some $16 million last year but has still not been allowed into Japan to manage the details surrounding the purchase.

Another woman I know invested in a Tokyo apartment but has been unable to enter the country to set up a bank account and take possession, costing her months of rental income. Anecdotes like this repeat themselves over and again.

Japan's travel

TOKYO -- Will democracy ever take root in the Middle East? To this question, Chiba University professor Keiko Sakai answers that Islam is not necessarily incompatible with democracy. Nikkei interviewed Sakai about the responsibility the international community should take for the Islamic world. The following are edited excerpts from the interview.

The Middle East has long been considered a dangerous region. However, only since the start of the 21st century have terrorist attacks jumped globally, particularly from around 2004, and many occurred in the Middle

SEOUL -- The South Korean military conducted its first successful underwater test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, it was revealed Tuesday, setting the stage for an intensified missile development race with North Korea.

The new Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine that went into service last month conducted the test last Wednesday, according to a report by South Korea's Yonhap News Agency that cited confidential sources.

This makes South Korea the eighth country to possess such capabilities, joining peers such as the U.S., China,

Late on Sept. 11, 2001, Najib was at home with his family in Kabul listening to a radio bulletin on the Pashto language service of the BBC. There was no such thing as the internet in Afghanistan then, and with almost no other information sources apart from the Taliban's Voice of Sharia radio, the BBC's evening program became known as the "sixth prayer" of the day.

The newsreader said planes had been flown into buildings in New York City and Washington DC.

NEW DELHI -- The Taliban named key cabinet members of a caretaker government on Tuesday after having taken control of Afghanistan, drawing from their own ranks despite having promised an inclusive leadership.

The lack of a full roster seems to underscore the difficulty in coordinating among the different camps within the Islamist group.

Mullah Hasan Akhund, who served as deputy prime minister in the previous Taliban government that collapsed in 2001, was named as interim prime minister. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the group who

Associate professor James D.J. Brown is academic program coordinator for international affairs at Temple University's Japan Campus.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's restrained attitude toward Russia marked a stark contrast with the hyperactive engagement of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe. As Suga now heads for the exit, Japan's next prime minister will have a choice of models to follow. Suga's sober approach has more to recommend it.

Russia's Eastern Economic Forum, held annually in Vladivostok, symbolized Prime Minister Abe's

YANGON/BANGKOK -- Norwegian telecom giant Telenor Group remains stuck in Myanmar for now, despite its July announcement of the $105 million sale of its local business to Lebanese investment company M1 Group, as sources confirmed the military regime's reluctance to approve the deal.

Telenor also faces uncertainty over the future of its 51% stake in Myanmar mobile payments group Wave Money after the collapse of a deal to sell a portion of its Wave holding to China's Ant Group, an affiliate of China

TOKYO -- SoftBank Group's telecommunications unit will launch one of Japan's biggest startup incubation centers to nurture more unicorns -- startups valued at $1 billion or more -- in the country, the company announced Tuesday.

SoftBank Corp. won a 14.4 billion yen ($131 million) contract from the Aichi prefectural government to design and build the facility, Station Ai, in Nagoya. The facility is scheduled to be completed in 2024 and will span 23,