The Big Story

Stream article image
The Big Story

Thailand's air pollution crisis deepens amid seasonal crop burning

Smoke from agricultural field and forest blazes chokes Southeast Asia

19 April 2023
"My biggest mistake was that I made Alibaba," Jack Ma once told investors. "I never thought this thing would change my life. I was just trying to run a small business."
The Big Story

Jack Ma's China homecoming heralds new era for Alibaba

Company's 'soft breakup' aims to boost flagging growth and draw line under feud with Beijing

12 April 2023
In an exclusive interview with Nikkei Asia, AirAsia tycoon Tony Fernandes says he is leaving no stone unturned in his fight to keep the airline afloat in the post-pandemic era.
The Big Story

AirAsia's Tony Fernandes: Tourism is back, but fight to survive goes on

Co-founder of Malaysia's biggest airline reveals post-pandemic game plan in exclusive interview

5 April 2023
Toyota's incoming president Koji Sato, pictured at the Tokyo Auto Salon in January, is tasked with steering the world's largest automaker toward an electrically powered future. 
The Big Story

Toyota's new chief Koji Sato vows to get serious about EVs

Faced with 'once in a century' industry transformation, world's biggest carmaker may be prisoner of past success

29 March 2023
China's aging and shrinking population presents a potential demographic crisis, putting pressure on an already strained pension system and threatening future economic growth. 
The Big Story

China's aging population threatens a Japan-style lost decade

Beijing's brutal one-child policy tackled overpopulation but did it go too far?

22 March 2023
A suicide blast killed 101 in a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan in January. Terror attacks in the country have increased since the Taliban took power in neighboring Afghanistan in August 2021.
The Big Story

Pakistan faces terrorism surge post-Afghan war

Islamabad helped bring the Taliban to power, now it faces the consequences

15 March 2023
Deepika Padukone, seen as Queen Rani Padmavati on the poster for the 2018 Bollywood hit, "Padmavaat."
The Big Story

Bollywood's gender revolution: Women are rewriting the rules

Exclusive Nikkei data analysis points to slow but significant change in India's prolific film industry

8 March 2023
Stream article image
The Big Story

South Korean football star Son Heung-min's journey to the top

Tottenham striker talks to Nikkei Asia about rise of Asian players in Europe

1 March 2023
The graves of unidentified victims fill a cemetery in Bucha, northern Ukraine, on Feb. 19, almost one year into the nation's war with Russia. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)
The Big Story

'Fear for our families': A year of Putin's war through the eyes of Ukrainians

Twelve months on from invasion, Western arms shift balance of war as Russia hopes to outlast NATO

22 February 2023
Economics professor and longtime Bank of Japan policy board member Kazuo Ueda, left, is set to succeed Haruhiko Kuroda as BOJ chief in April. 
The Big Story

Kazuo Ueda: Next BOJ chief inherits world's toughest central bank job

'Nonideological' pragmatist tasked with unwinding controversial legacy of predecessor Kuroda

16 February 2023
Stream article image
The Big Story

Japan's war on space junk

Record numbers of satellite launches by China, Russia and U.S. are crowding Earth's orbit

8 February 2023
Myanmar's Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, appears to be following in the footsteps of military leaders who believe themselves to be reincarnations of ancient Burmese warrior kings. 
The Big Story

Myanmar's iron-fisted ruler Min Aung Hlaing fights to stay on his throne

Two years after seizing power, the general has undone any progress made under civilian rule

1 February 2023
Masanobu Ogura, left, Japan's minister in charge of women's empowerment and gender equality, tries on a pregnancy jacket with two male colleagues in April 2021. 
The Big Story

Inside Japan's gender problem: The men tasked with empowering women

Pay gap and low numbers of women in politics persist as Kishida assumes G-7 leadership

25 January 2023
Stream article image
The Big Story

Beijing's new infrastructure binds Hong Kong to mainland

An interactive look at the string of Chinese-backed rail and real estate plans fusing city to Greater Bay Area

18 January 2023
China's hospitals, like this one in Shanghai, have been overrun with mostly elderly COVID-19 patients since strict antivirus restrictions were dropped in December. But data suggests infections have already peaked. 
The Big Story

China crests first infection wave since abandoning zero-COVID

Overloaded hospitals and morgues suggest true death toll is hidden and worst is to come

11 January 2023
From currencies to climate change, Nikkei Asia readers have predicted what 2023 has in store for Asia. 
The Big Story

Your predictions for Asia in 2023

Taiwan, Twitter and tanks: We asked our readers what's on the cards this year for geopolitics, business and more

4 January 2023
A selection of Nikkei Asia's most memorable magazine covers from 2022. 
The Big Story

Chips, churches and China: The best of the Big Story 2022

A look back at some of Nikkei Asia's most memorable cover stories of the year

28 December 2022
Money machines: Bitcoin mines are banks of computers dedicated to guessing a 64-digit number in order to win cryptocurrency. Here, ASICs -- specialized bitcoin mining computers -- have been stacked up in the corridors of a mine in Ekibastuz. (Photo by Peter Guest)
The Big Story

Kazakhstan's love of bitcoin undimmed by 'crypto winter'

With 'fully legal' cryptocurrencies, the country hopes to compete in the big leagues of global finance

21 December 2022
South Korean environmental activists like Kim Hoon (pictured) worry about the environmental impact of South Korea's chipmaking boom. In Pyeongtaek, hot wastewater from a nearby plant could alter ecosystems in local rivers. (Photo by Jean Chung)
The Big Story

South Korea's chip ambitions threaten big environmental toll

As chip giants like Samsung and SK Hynix expand production, locals fear water contamination

14 December 2022
Stream article image
Women's Wealth

From Pakistan to the Philippines, women break open closed industries

Female pioneers make their mark as combat pilots, cricketers and chip technologists

7 December 2022
As the U.S. continues to attack China's chipmaking industry with sanctions, domestic tech champions such as Huawei are quietly working to build self-sufficient supply chains at home. 
The Big Story

China's chip industry fights to survive U.S. tech crackdown

Battered by sanctions, Huawei leads the way in stealthily building a domestic semiconductor supply chain

30 November 2022
The Trilateral Commission convened for two days in Tokyo on Nov. 19 for its first in-person meeting in three years. Members discussed China, India and the new global order. (Photo by Ken Kobayashi)
The Big Story

Inside the Trilateral Commission: Power elites grapple with China's rise

Enigmatic group linking Asia, the U.S. and Europe opens up on eve of 50th anniversary

23 November 2022
Stream article image
The Big Story

Asia's scamdemic: How COVID-19 supercharged online crime

Internet predators are often the prey in Thailand's lawless border zones

16 November 2022
Despite the locomotive of capitalism speeding nations worldwide toward better health and more wealth, recent data suggests most of us feel more insecure than ever.
The Big Story

The precarity of progress: Asia confronts post-pandemic era of insecurity

Amid the Ukraine war and rising inequality, is economic development really making lives better?

9 November 2022
A resident of Rizal province, the Philippines, wades through a flooded street after Typhoon Vamco struck the country in November 2020. 
The Big Story

Counting the cost of climate change

Developing countries seek compensation for 'loss and damage' from global warming at upcoming COP27 summit

2 November 2022