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April 23rd, 2020

LIFE IN LOCKDOWN

How Asia is adapting to social isolation and economic disruption

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The Big Story

'Government puts economy before life': Voices from the pandemic

Living in coronavirus lockdown, Asia adapts to a new abnormal

With around a third of the world's population under some form of mandated isolation, Asia's citizens are attempting to adjust to a new reality. 
Top Glove employees check latex gloves in the test room at a factory in Malaysia.
Business Spotlight

Top Glove stretches to meet demand as virus grips the world

Malaysian group's 44 plants run full tilt to churn out medical supplies

Competition in Myanmar's banking sector is expected to intensify as more foreign banks enter the country. (Photo  by Yuichi Nitta)
Finance

Myanmar allows Korean and Thai banks' entry to boost investment

KB Kookmin, Siam Commercial and other banks to begin operating by early 2021

Shinya Yamanaka, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for medicine, is not a virologist but decided to start a blog to correct public misperceptions about the coronavirus. (Nikkei Montage/Source photo by Reuters) 
Interview

Nobel laureate Yamanaka frets over Japan's lax coronavirus fight

Kyoto University stem cell researcher battles misconceptions about COVID-19

Gojek drivers in Jakarta: The Indonesia startup created a $6.38 million relief fund for its drivers.
Startups

Grab and Gojek burn cash to keep gig drivers afloat

Southeast Asia ride-hailers scramble to maintain fleet for post-pandemic recovery

© Illustration by Hiroko Oshima, Eri Sato
Asia Insight

China-Russia alliance on horizon as nuclear arms treaties crumble

US riles its rivals with missile moves and calls for Beijing to join New START

A curfew in Thailand is driving consumers to hoard rice for fear of a prolonged stay-at-home order. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)
International relations

Coronavirus exposes ASEAN divisions on rice security

Officials fail to reach immediate agreement at emergency summit

Former South Korean prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, of the ruling Democratic Party, celebrates his constituency win at his election office in Seoul's Jongno district on Wednesday. Lee is considered to be a potential runner for the presidency in 2022.
South Korea election

Moon's Democrats win South Korea general election in landslide

Victory allows president to push ahead with income redistribution policies

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has decided to give cash handouts of 100,000 yen to every citizen, regardless of income, revising an earlier plan to give grants only to some households.
Coronavirus

Abe adopts universal $930 handout as walls close in

Japan's prime minister backtracks after initial handout plan criticized as too limited

The public service announcements asked women not to wear house clothes but to dress up while working from home.
Opinion

Malaysia's lockdown pays little attention to women's needs

Jokes about men shopping hide serious harm from worsening gender imbalance

South Korean women protest against sexism and hidden camera pornography in Seoul in October 2018: there is palpable concern that the perpetrators will not get what they deserve.
Opinion

South Korea's 'nth rooms' are toxic mixture of tech, sex and crime

Country must face up to pervasive misogyny which allows online abuse to flourish

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a news conference in Geneva on Feb. 28.
The Nikkei View

Now is not the time to undercut WHO efforts

Health agency's role crucial to ending virus pandemic

Empty streets in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 13.
Life

What I learned from two months under coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan

For a long time it felt like the world was ignoring us but the city was resilient

People lay wreaths and poppies in memory of those who died building the Thailand-Burma "death railway" during World War II in Kanachanaburi province, Thailand on April 25, 2004
Tea Leaves

'War tourism' lays old battles to rest

Lessons can still be learned from the Thailand-Burma 'death railway'