Investors have spent years treating Japan as a tactical market: buy when the yen weakens, sell when global growth slows, and assume corporate behaviour will remain conservative. That view is increasingly outdated. Japan’s corporate reinvention is slower than a technology boom, but it may prove more durable because it is rooted in governance, balance sheets…
Southeast Asia has the demographics, digital adoption and manufacturing momentum to become one of the world’s most important growth regions. But to realise that potential, governments must choose scale over protectionism. The region’s biggest opportunity lies in acting more like an integrated market and less like a collection of guarded national economies. Protectionist instincts are…
China’s economy is often judged by whether official growth meets a particular target. That debate is too narrow. The more important risk is confidence: whether households believe it is safe to spend, whether private firms believe it is worth investing, and whether foreign companies believe policy will remain predictable enough to justify long-term commitments. China…
The global AI race is often described as a contest between American model developers and Chinese technology champions. That framing misses a larger point: Asia as a region may become the biggest winner because it supplies the hardware, manufacturing capacity, engineering talent and enterprise adoption needed to turn AI from software spectacle into economic infrastructure….
The corporate governance movement in South Korea has reached an inflection point. After years of incremental pressure, scattered proxy fights, and periodic flare-ups of shareholder activism that fizzled before producing structural change, the reform movement now has institutional weight, legal tailwinds, and a level of public legitimacy that makes it difficult to dismiss. Korean corporate…
Asia-Pacific dealmaking entered 2026 on a foundation of record activity and rising regulatory complexity. Japan produced $218.5 billion in M&A value across 3,472 transactions in 2025, an 83.9% increase in deal value. China’s M&A market is reawakening after years of subdued activity. India continues to attract foreign direct investment at scale. Vietnam’s Investment Law, effective…
Japan’s mergers and acquisitions market hit a level in 2025 that most dealmakers would not have predicted five years ago: 3,472 transactions totaling $218.5 billion, an 83.9% increase in deal value compared to 2024. That number alone would be notable. The composition of those deals is what makes it significant. Private equity firms are no…
FTSE Russell confirmed on April 7 that Vietnam will be added to its global equity indices as a secondary emerging market beginning September 21, 2026, with a phased inclusion extending into 2027. The VN Index surged 4.7% the following day, reaching its highest level since early March. The confirmation was expected, but the market’s response…
On March 1, 2026, Vietnam became the first country in Southeast Asia to enforce a comprehensive, standalone law governing artificial intelligence. The Law on Artificial Intelligence, passed on December 10, 2025, adopts a risk-based model that mandates human oversight for generative AI, requires content labeling, bans certain high-risk applications, and applies extraterritorially to any company…
The AI regulatory landscape across Asia in early 2026 presents a paradox. Governments across the region have intensified their efforts to establish governance frameworks for artificial intelligence with unusual speed and seriousness. The approaches they have chosen are diverging so rapidly that compliance costs for companies operating across multiple jurisdictions are rising faster than the…
