Asian Legal Review

A two-day international conference convened by the Russian government in the city of Khabarovsk in early September to re-examine the war crime trials that took place in the city in December 1949 has angered Japan’s conservatives who have accused Moscow of magnifying the imperial army’s atrocities to seek geopolitical gains. Back then, 12 men from Japan’s notorious biowarfare research base known as Unit 731 – based in northeastern China during the Sino-Japanese war – were found guilty of…

Singapore’s primary schools will shift to home-based learning for 10 days ahead of a key national examination, the education ministry said on Saturday, as the city state reported 935 new Covid-19 cases the previous day, the highest since April last year.Primary 1 to 5 students will move to home-based learning from September 27 to October 6.Primary 6 students will go on a study break for a few days from September 25 before sitting for the national examination to minimise risk of school-based…

The governments across the UK and local authorities should consider reducing burdens, and extending supportive measures, for the hospitality industry to support its fragile recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

Users of Singapore’s PayNow and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be able to transfer money between the countries with the linking of the countries’ two real-time payment systems by July 2022.

From meatball vendors to clothes stores, small business owners in Thailand have reported a rise in sales on the back of the success of Thai-born Blackpink member Lalisa “Lisa” Manoban’s first solo single. The K-pop star last Friday released the music video for LALISA, a hip-hop track featuring scenes from her culture and hometown, to the delight of fans in Thailand and elsewhere. Dressed in a shimmery Thai silk dress while donning a traditional golden headgear, known as a chada, Manoban…

China’s market regulator the State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) has proposed some amendments to the existing e-commerce law.

When Singapore’s foreign minister Vivian Balakrishnan remarked on an opposition politician’s educational background to a party colleague in parliament on Tuesday, he did not expect what he said to go viral.But his asides were caught on microphone – and with the session being live-streamed, an audio clip with the comments “He’s illiterate”, “Seriously, how did he get into RI?” and “Must be a lousy school” quickly made the rounds.Online, public attention focused more on the exchange than the…

The UK government will make over £200 million of support available to offshore wind projects during the next round of the contracts for difference (CfD) support scheme, it has confirmed.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is among the seven officials found guilty by a Jakarta court of environmental negligence over air pollution in the capital.In a civil lawsuit, the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday ruled that Widodo must set adequate national ambient air quality standards “to protect the people’s health, the environment, and the ecosystem”, though it dismissed a claim the defendants had violated a human right for health, including clean air.The standard for annual…

Japan has given first doses of Covid-19 vaccine to 63.6 per cent of its population, surpassing the US by proportion of people who have had at least one shot – despite starting months behind.The East Asian nation’s progress now puts the United States last among G7 nations when it comes to the proportion of the population who have had at least one dose, after vaccine hesitancy squandered the country’s head start. About 63.1 per cent of the US has had at least their first shot, and 53.8 per cent…