TOKYO -- Japan will expand support for domestic production of advanced semiconductors and batteries under this year's growth blueprint as it seeks to buffer against chips shortages that have buffeted the nation's core industries.

The government will encourage facility expansion and invite leading U.S. manufacturers to set up operations with the aim of bolstering supply chains.

Japan currently has a 200 billion yen ($1.8 billion) fund to support the domestic chipmaking industry. The plan is to expand support programs so that the

James Crabtree is executive director of IISS-Asia in Singapore. He is author of "The Billionaire Raj."

U.S. President Joe Biden has thus far done a good job of reassuring those in Asia who feared he might go soft on China. In many respects, his first 100 days have been marked by continuity with his predecessor Donald Trump, rather than change.

This trick has been pulled off in part because Biden has been reviewing his policy options, a tactic that will not last forever.

BANGKOK -- For the global shipping industry, chaos began with the tap of a million "buy now" buttons.

In the second half of 2020, Americans, trapped at home by the pandemic, started buying weighted blankets, Crocs, giant fleece hoodies, ring lights and desks at a relentless pace. One toilet paper manufacturer saw a 600% increase in sales over two weeks. Another retailer sold out of a year's stock of bird feeders in two months. Yoga leggings, milk

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. and the European Union agreed this week to resume talks on lifting American steel and aluminum tariffs in a step toward resolving trade tensions as both sides see a more pressing challenge in China.

Washington and Brussels promised to refrain from further tariff hikes while negotiations are in progress, shelving an EU plan to double retaliatory duties on American goods to 50% on June 1.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 imposed tariffs on products from a wide swath of

SHANGHAI -- The problem of heavily indebted state-backed companies in China is starting to spook investors in global corporate bonds.

As liabilities balloon at Chinese civil engineering and construction companies engaged in public works projects to shore up the economy, premiums on foreign currency-denominated are rising. The bonds are under selling pressure because investors believe the Chinese government will no longer bail out state-owned enterprises. A sudden spike in defaults by big corporate borrowers in China could rattle global markets.

Chinese companies' debt servicing costs are climbing

Brian Wong is a Rhodes scholar from Hong Kong and founding editor-in-chief of the Oxford Political Review.

If there is one thing that both Chinese and American analysts could agree on, it is that Chinese diplomacy has taken a clear, aggressive and trenchant turn in recent months.

From Chinese diplomats trading vicious barbs with their foreign counterparts, unceremonious memes derogating subjects ranging from Justin Trudeau to India, and the drastic reduction in broad-based civil society exchanges, Beijing has become increasingly defiant. Add to that an increasing

JAKARTA -- Gojek and Tokopedia announced on Monday their plan to create Indonesia's largest privately held tech company through a merger. GoTo Group, the name of the new holding entity, covers a wide range of e-commerce and everyday services, including a "superapp" for ride-hailing and finance, and heralds a new age of regional internet-based business competition.

Here are five things to know about the deal that brings together a pair of local unicorns in Southeast Asia's biggest economy and the world

TOKYO -- Japan's elite bureaucratic jobs, filled by workers long crucial to the country's policymaking, are attracting far fewer applicants as the long, overnight hours exacerbated by the coronavirus drive many of the young employees in these posts to quit.

The 14,310 applicants for Japan's fiscal 2021 comprehensive national civil service exam represent a 14% drop from the previous year, the National Personnel Authority said in April. This number for the elite career-track test was

SINGAPORE -- It was only three weeks ago that Singapore was named "the world's best place to be" during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Bloomberg ranking. Residents were enjoying meals out on the town or taking "staycations" under carefully calibrated safety measures while vaccinations proceeded apace.

Now the city-state is back in batten-down-the-hatches mode as authorities fear the coronavirus is quietly spreading, possibly driven by more infectious variants. From Taiwan to Vietnam to mainland China, other parts