TOKYO -- Some of Japan's leading companies will look into their suppliers for human rights violations, including the possible use of forced labor, as global brands confront a hidden risk in supply chains spanning the globe.

Cosmetics maker Kao plans to launch an investigation into palm plantations, while pharmaceutical company Shionogi will do the same at suppliers in India, Nikkei has learned.

Businesses have come under rising pressure from investors to conduct due diligence on their suppliers for human rights compliance. They now face serious reputational damage if they do

TAIPEI -- China's Honor, the former budget brand of Huawei Technologies, launched its first smartphone geared for the global market on Thursday since being spun off from its embattled parent to skirt U.S. export controls on vital components.

Honor's Magic 3 series will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G Mobile Platform, the U.S. chipmaker's top-of-the-line mobile processor.

The high-end phone underscores Honor's ambition to regain the global

HANOI -- In the year since the European Union imposed sanctions on Cambodia, the Southeast Asian country has turned to China to blunt the economic impact, deepening its dependence on its main patron.

Brussels last August partially revoked the largely duty-free market access that Phnom Penh had enjoyed since 2001, citing human rights abuses including a crackdown on political opposition. The move reimposed standard tariffs on products amounting to about 20% of Cambodia's exports to the bloc, including travel goods, some apparel and

SHANGHAI (Kyodo) −  A Japanese woman convicted for espionage in China has been released after serving a six-year prison sentence in Shanghai, a source privy to bilateral relations said Thursday.

The woman, who is of Chinese origin, was detained in Shanghai in June 2015. The then-executive of a Tokyo-based Japanese language school was indicted in July the following year. The source, however, said the specifics of what she did remain unknown.

The Shanghai Intermediate People's Court sentenced her

TOKYO -- Japan is not constrained to keep defense spending within 1% of GDP, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told Newsweek magazine, signaling a willingness to go beyond a long-standing ceiling to cope with a demanding security environment.

Acknowledging that "the security environment is getting tougher now," Suga identified the space and cyber domains as among the areas of focus for increasing defense capabilities.

"So even in a tough fiscal position, such necessary defense spending will be budgeted," Suga said.

Japan's annual defense

DALIAN, China/WASHINGTON -- Recent Chinese state media reports on the coronavirus have heavily featured comments from a Swiss scientist by the name of Wilson Edwards.

Edwards echoes Beijing's claims about a proposed new World Health Organization investigation into the virus's origin potentially becoming a "political tool." He alleges being under "enormous pressure" and "intimidation" from the U.S.

The problem? According to a tweet Tuesday by the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, "Wilson Edwards" does not exist in Swiss

BEIJING -- China is encouraging carmakers to adopt the domestically developed Beidou satellite navigation system in their automated vehicles and other connected cars, apparently to steer them away from the U.S. government's GPS.

The advice comes in a new Ministry of Industry and Information Technology notice that calls on carmakers to strengthen data management. They should use a reliable satellite positioning system, the notice says, recommending Beidou for this purpose.

But because Beidou, which was completed in 2020, has met with only a

Ian Lloyd Neubauer is a freelance journalist based in Southeast Asia.

Four to five years. That has always been my answer when people in Asia ask me how long I think Australia will remain closed and prevent its own citizens from traveling abroad since the country enacted one of the world's toughest border restrictions at the start of the pandemic.

There have been some protests. Thousands marched maskless in Sydney and Melbourne last month and again last Friday when the Victorian State government announced a seven-day lockdown -- it is sixth

TOKYO/TAIPEI -- Ajinomoto, the 112-year-old Japanese food maker most famous for its monosodium glutamate seasoning, has emerged as a surprising beneficiary of the upheaval caused by the pandemic.

While its spices and sauces have struggled as lockdowns devastate the restaurant industry, the company's unexpected sideline as a supplier of a high-tech film for the computer chip industry has been booming -- helping Ajinomoto report a record operating profit last quarter.

Ajinomoto illustrates Japan's ability for corporate reinvention, much