TAIPEI --Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is finalizing a decision to put its first chip plant in Japan into operation as early as 2023, Nikkei Asia has learned.

The planned plant in Kumamoto, on the island of Kyushu in western Japan, would go forward in two phases, sources with knowledge of the plans told Nikkei Asia. The board of TSMC, the world's leading chipmaker, is expected to decide on the investment in the current quarter.

Once both phases are in production, the new

TOKYO -- Wendy Sherman, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, sat down with reporters from Nikkei Asia and other Japanese media outlets on Wednesday to discuss the region's most pressing security issues.

The wide-ranging discussion covered Taiwan, relations with China and North Korean denuclearization, among other topics. Sherman stressed that President Joe Biden's administration is willing to engage with both Beijing and Pyongyang, while it looks to shore up its Indo-Pacific alliances.

Here is a transcript of Sherman's

HONG KONG -- Banks in Hong Kong including HSBC Holdings, its unit Hang Seng Bank and Bank of East Asia have stopped approving some mortgages for properties being developed by embattled China Evergrande Group in the city, four people familiar with the decisions say.

Standard Chartered and Bank of China's Hong Kong unit also are declining to offer new home loans for unfinished Evergrande properties, according to one of the sources. The halt comes as concerns rise over Evergrande's liquidity and its ability to meet debt payments, they said

BANGKOK -- Thailand-based hotel operator Minor International on Wednesday announced the sale of two hotels in Portugal for 148 million euros ($174 million), shoring up its finances in an industry hit hard by pandemic-related travel restrictions.

The two upscale Tivoli hotels in the Algarve region on Portugal's southern coast have been purchased by Azora European Hotel & Lodging, an investment fund managed by a Spain-based real estate investment manager. A Minor subsidiary will continue to operate the hotels under a

SHANGHAI -- Deadly flooding in central China has prompted Chinese President Xi Jinping to order relief measures on Wednesday as the country's military warns of an imminent dam collapse following record rainfalls in recent days.

The People's Liberalization Army was deployed on Tuesday to carry out rescue and disaster prevention measures after torrential rain caused a 20-meter crack at the Yihetan dam in Yichuan, Henan Province. The PLA's central region command the same day detonated the damaged dam to divert floodwater.

The flood also risked the

JAKARTA -- Japanese companies have accelerated efforts to help expatriates leave Indonesia amid a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the delta variant, with Tokyo supporting chartered flights home by easing entry restrictions.

A chartered All Nippon Airways flight landed at Tokyo's Narita Airport on Wednesday, carrying 192 returnees who are required to spend more than a week in quarantine at a hotel. The flight was the first under a program launched by the airline to bring back expats working in Indonesia for Japanese companies along with their families.

Japan

BEIJING -- The number of newborns in China continues to slide downward, government officials said Wednesday, putting the country at risk of recording an all-time low in childbirths.

The number of births in 2021 will decline for a fourth straight year, Yu Xuejun, a vice minister on the National Health Commission, told reporters.

Last year saw just 12 million births, which is dangerously close to the 11.97 million in 1961, the lowest since the founding of the

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff writer and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He is the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize for international reporting.

TOKYO -- The Summer Olympics in Tokyo officially kick off Friday, but the intersection of global sport and politics already is shifting to the 2022 Winter Games, set for Beijing in February.

Foreign policy experts have circled Feb. 21

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades."

Japan's Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso really had it right last year when he called Tokyo 2020 the "cursed" Olympics. What seemed at the time just another foot in the mouth of a politician notorious for gaffes now feels like an understatement as Japan Inc. abandons these Titanic Games.

The cursing in Tokyo this week is less supernatural than it