China, Japan, and South Korea are each confronting plummeting birthrates and rapidly aging populations, each with worrying consequences for their economies, societies, and political futures. What makes East Asia’s demographic decline different from that of the West? As women entered the workforce in Asia, how did they define and discover freedom and fulfillment between the expectations of the family and the workplace? And in China, how has the one- and two-child policies—and the paralle...

Japan's first female prime minister, Takaichi Sanae, a hard-line conservative, rose to power on promises of national renewal and a “Japan First” agenda. Her rise follows the stunning breakthrough of the Sanseito, a Trump-style populist party that captured 14 seats in the upper house this summer, drawing support from disaffected youth and social-media activists. Takehiro Masutomo, author of Runri: Tracking the Mass Exodus of Wealthy Chinese to Japan, talks about the Chinese immigrants behind J...

From Shanghai’s World AI Conference to start-up incubators across the city, the Chinese tech analyst Rui Ma shares what she’s seeing on the ground, and where China actually stands in the global AI race. Follow Rui on X: https://x.com/ruima Follow her newsletter via Tech Buzz China (Substack): https://techbuzzchina.substack.com Related Links: https://techbuzzchina.substack.com/p/china-deep-tech-trip-what-we-did

In September, China staged a boisterous military parade to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II. The spectacle is part of a broader campaign in recent years, from museums openings, movies, and memorials, to elevate its role in what it calls the “victory over fascism.” How accurate is China’s official narrative of WWII — and what political purpose does it serve? How does it differ from the way Japan, the aggressor nation, or Europe and the U.S., the allies, remember the war? Rana Mitter,...