The National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted the Law on National Development Planning in late February, establishing for the first time a statutory framework for the Five-Year Plan process that has governed China’s economic strategy since 1953. The law, which will be formally ratified at the full NPC session opening March 5, codifies the relationship…
The Japanese yen’s persistent weakness near 159 to the dollar has pushed the currency to within striking distance of the 160 level that triggered approximately $62 billion in intervention spending by the Ministry of Finance in 2024. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has repeatedly warned of “decisive action” against excessive depreciation, language that represents the standard…
Compute Express Link, the open interconnect standard enabling processors to share memory across a high-speed fabric, is moving from specification to silicon. CXL version 3.1, ratified in late 2025, adds memory pooling, switching, and multi-host access that enable a fundamentally new approach to how AI workloads consume memory. Instead of each server containing fixed local…
Prime Minister Takaichi’s announcement of a February 8 snap election carries regulatory implications that extend beyond fiscal policy and constitutional revision. The LDP’s coalition agreement with the Japan Innovation Party includes a commitment to abolish the “five categories” restriction on defense equipment exports, a regulatory framework that has governed Japan’s arms trade since the Three…
Japan has long been an anomaly among developed economies in its reliance on cash transactions. As recently as 2019, cash accounted for approximately 80% of consumer payments, a figure that placed Japan behind not only its regional peers in South Korea (approximately 30% cash) and China (less than 20%) but behind many developing economies that…
The first trading week of 2026 sent a clear message to global investors who had been underweighting Asian equities: this region is not waiting for permission to rally. South Korea’s Kospi closed at a record 4,309.63 on January 2, climbing 2.27% in a single session. Samsung Electronics surged roughly 7% after reports that customers praised…
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has finalized regulatory changes that allow vehicles certified by U.S. safety regulators to enter the Japanese domestic market without undergoing Japan’s separate testing and certification process. The revision, which takes effect immediately, removes one of the longstanding non-tariff barriers that U.S. trade negotiators have identified as a…
