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July 12, 2026
 

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SOUTH KOREA

Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group (center), and Kwak Noh-jung, president and CEO of SK Hynix (center left), and Koh Seung-beom, chairman of SK Hynix Inc. (center right), ring the opening bell during the company's initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on Friday.
BUSINESS / Tech / FOCUS
Jul 11, 2026
SK Hynix debut is a bet that AI breaks boom-and-bust chip cycle
South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix just pulled off the largest public listing by a foreign company in U.S. market history.
Mizuho Financial Group is seeking an equity capital market license and plans to bolster its stock underwriting team in Seoul to capitalize on South Korea’s booming semiconductor market, said Joris Dierckx, head of banking for Asia-Pacific.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 10, 2026
Mizuho targets South Korea and India hires to join top dealmaking ranks
The bank aims to become Asia’s top investment bank in as soon as five years, mainly by strengthening its equity underwriting and M&A advisory operations.
Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrives at court to attend a hearing to review his arrest warrant requested by special prosecutors in Seoul on Thursday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 9, 2026
Top South Korea court to decide ex-president’s martial law case
The disgraced former president is already in detention while he appeals a separate life sentence for leading an insurrection with his martial law declaration.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Malaysia’s then-international trade and industry minister, Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, speak at a news conference during the 46th Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Kuala Lumpur in May 2025.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 8, 2026
In a moment of transition, Southeast Asia steps up
The APR is probably the best single opportunity to get the regional zeitgeist on issues of geopolitics and economics.
Worshippers light incense sticks at Jogyesa Temple in Seoul. In fast-secularizing South Korea, Buddhism is regaining popularity thanks to a "hip" trend wooing Gen Z with festivals, fashion, robots and DJs.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 7, 2026
South Korean Buddhism tests ‘hip’ boundaries in bid for Gen Z appeal
Even as the number of South Koreans who identify as Buddhist remains static, Buddhism was viewed the most favorably of four belief systems in a 2025 survey.
Modern global conflicts reflect long-standing strategic rivalries and a shifting balance of power, not random chaos.
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2026
Today’s conflicts are not chaos but history unfolding
Today’s seemingly nonstop international tumult is not as unintelligible as it seems.
Samsung reported preliminary operating income of 89.4 trillion South Korean won ($58 billion) in the three months through June, dwarfing its performance for all of 2025.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 7, 2026
Samsung’s soaring profit fails to lift shares after AI rally
Samsung’s shares have underperformed rival those of SK Hynix, which is more focused on high-end memory geared for AI’s computation needs.
An intensely private Korean shipping tycoon, Ga-Hyun Chung rocked the tanker industry early this year as his Sinokor Group embarked on an unprecedented buying spree.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 6, 2026
The supertanker tycoon making millions on Hormuz ‘shuttle runs’
Ga-Hyun Chung oversaw a successful covert project that sneaked crude oil out of the Persian Gulf through the vital waterway during the Iran war.
Choi Seung-ho, union leader at Samsung Electronics in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, in June. Cho secured a staggering windfall for semiconductor workers who were promised bonuses of roughly $400,000 this year.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 6, 2026
Millennial Samsung union leader’s $26 billion bonus victory turns to bitterness
South Korea’s artificial intelligence gold rush has both emboldened a new generation of Korean tech workers and created new divisions among them.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, U.S. President Donald Trump, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other world leaders attend a working dinner during the Group of Seven summit in Evian, France, on June 15.
COMMENTARY / Japan / Geoeconomic Briefing
Jul 5, 2026
Japan positioned to link U.S. and Europe in a fragmented world
With Washington and Europe drifting apart, Tokyo’s FOIP strategy offers a path to maintain unity.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observes an assessment of the newly built naval destroyer Kang Kon's combat systems, including the test firing of a strategic cruise missile, at an unknown location in the country on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 5, 2026
North Korea’s Kim oversees latest naval weapons tests
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw weapons tests last week of the 5,000-ton destroyer Kang Kon, including cruise missile launches and “electronic warfare means,” state media reported Sunday.
Foreign exchange dealers work inside the Woori Bank trading room in Seoul.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jul 3, 2026
South Korea opens 24-hour won trading at a fraught moment
The launch onto the global stage is taking place just as the won is revisiting low levels last seen in 2009, which leaves the currency and economy more open to speculators.
A visitor takes a selfie in front of a view of North Korea while holding a Starbucks cup on an observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo, South Korea, on Wednesday. The number of visitors to thepark has more than doubled since the Starbucks opened, according to figures provided by park management.
ASIA PACIFIC
Jul 2, 2026
Kilometers apart but a world away: the Starbucks with a view of North Korea
Perched on a hilltop beneath the Aegibong Peace Ecopark observatory, the shop has drawn tens of thousands from South Korea and beyond since opening in November 2024.
Japan, China, South Korea and Taiwan also agreed during two day unofficial talks to maintain the cap on young glass eels released into aquaculture ponds at the level set in 2014.
JAPAN
Jul 2, 2026
Japan and three neighbors agree to cooperate against eel export curbs
The move follows a proposal last year to strengthen such restrictions at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Japan’s head coach, Hajime Moriyasu, directs his players from the touchline during the 2026 World Cup round of 32 match between Brazil and Japan in Houston on Monday. Brazil won 2-1.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jul 2, 2026
Soccer’s Asian century is still just a distant dream
Asian teams’ underwhelming World Cup showings have raised questions about the region’s potential, driven by a nascent soccer culture compared to Europe’s more competitive systems.
Officials from tech companies and South Korea’s government after a public briefing on the development vision for advanced industry in Gwangju on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 1, 2026
Samsung and SK Hynix’s mega South Korea chips gamble tests optimism of AI cycle
The tech giants won praise from President Lee Jae Myung after throwing their weight behind the government’s semiconductor push.
Fans react to a World Cup match in Gwanghwamun Square, Seoul, on June 24. JoongAng Group, which made a big bet on World Cup rights, is facing financial trouble after a series of missteps.
BUSINESS
Jul 1, 2026
Failed World Cup bet sinks South Korean media giant’s Disney dream
A South Korean content powerhouse’s mistimed global expansion and ill-judged bets on World Cup soccer and Olympic rights ended up derailing its dream.
The front page carries news of a former prime minister's arrest as the Lockheed scandal expands.
JAPAN / History / Japan Times Gone By
Jul 1, 2026
Japan Times 1976: Ex-Prime Minister Tanaka arrested
From Tanaka’s dramatic arrest to the Akashi stampede, Japan confronted tragedy and accountability.
A sign announces that a Starbucks coffee shop in Seoul is closing early for the day so staff can attend historical and social awareness training following the “Tank Day” marketing fiasco.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 29, 2026
Starbucks Korea marketing debacle is far from over
Last month’s debacle, broadly perceived as mocking the victims of a brutal military crackdown, was not caused by front-of-house staff.
South Korea head coach Hong Myung-bo resigned on Sunday.
SOCCER
Jun 29, 2026
South Korean president calls for investigation into team’s performance at World Cup
Social media posts showing shops with signs banning the South Korea coach ⁠from the premises have gone viral in the country.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

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