TOKYO -- Japan remains reluctant to ease its 14-day quarantine requirement for even fully vaccinated travelers from overseas, bucking a global trend and possibly delaying the resumption of business travel.

Japan's quarantine policy is stricter than those of many other countries. All travelers from overseas must quarantine for 14 days at home or a hotel. Australia also generally mandates a two-week quarantine.

Restrictions on foreign arrivals to Japan are administered by the health ministry, which handles quarantines; the foreign ministry, which issues visas

Boonsithi Chokwatana is the Chairman of Saha Group, Thailand's leading consumer products conglomerate. This is part 15 of a 30-part series .

Up until now, I have described Saha Group's early days and the beginning of its ascent. As readers may have noticed, when we enter a new field or start a joint venture with a new partner, we launch new companies one after another, almost as if they are cells dividing. This is one of the reasons why the group has grown to

TOKYO -- The Tokyo Olympics are well underway after a long journey filled with controversy and an unprecedented one-year postponement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proceedings officially began with the opening ceremony at the National Stadium , a mostly subdued affair mixed with joyous moments like a high-tech drone show, and capped by tennis star Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic cauldron.

We're tracking the latest medal count .

Read our breakdown of the events to watch .

Here are the latest developments:

Friday, Aug

TOKYO -- Shares in Nintendo took a dive on Friday after investors were left disappointed by the gaming giant's first quarter earnings, which indicated fading demand for its popular Switch console.

Nintendo's stock tumbled 10% at one point, hitting its lowest intraday level in a year. Trading spiked, with Nintendo leading the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in trading value as of 10 a.m.

The sharp fall comes a day after the company reported a 13% drop in net profit

TAIPEI -- China's top contract chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., said on Friday that strong domestic demand is helping it deliver robust earnings despite a U.S. crackdown that has restricted the company's access to American technologies since last year.

However, SMIC also acknowledged that Washington's trade restrictions have impacted its development of more advanced chips.

SMIC's revenue for the April-June period grew more than 43% on the year to $1.34 billion, while net

TOKYO -- Shares in Bukalapak, one of Indonesia's leading e-commerce platforms, surged in their market debut on Friday in Jakarta, as the company gets ready to take on intensifying competition in the country's fast growing e-commerce market.

The shares opened 24% higher from their initial public offering price of 850 rupiah per share.

Bukalapak became the first unicorn -- a startup valued at more than $1 billion -- from the Southeast Asian country to go public.

It offered

PALO ALTO, U.S. -- U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday set a goal for half of all new cars sold in the country to be zero-emissions vehicles by 2030, freezing out builders of conventional hybrids as the White House aims to accelerate America's sluggish transition to electrics.

Biden's executive order covers passenger cars and light trucks powered by batteries and fuel cells, as well as plug-in hybrids. But it does not mention regular hybrids, which cannot

TOKYO -- Bukalapak, one of Indonesia's leading e-commerce platforms, debuts Friday on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in Jakarta, becoming the first unicorn -- a startup valued at more than $1 billion -- from the Southeast Asian country to go public.

Bukalapak offered 25.7 billion shares, or 25% of the post-IPO company, at a price of 850 rupiah per share in late July, which calculates to it raising 21.9 trillion rupiah ($1

SEOUL -- Kakao Bank shares surged Friday in their debut on South Korea's benchmark stock exchange as the country's biggest digital lender challenges traditional financial service companies.

Kakao Bank raised 2.6 trillion won ($2.3 billion) in its IPO, offering 65 million shares and making it the second-largest stock flotation so far this year. Krafton, a game developer, raised 4.3 trillion won in its IPO earlier this week and will be listed on the Kospi on Tuesday.

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