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People smoking in Yuxi, in China's southwest Yunnan province. China is home to a third of the world's smokers and tobacco-related diseases are a major cause of death in the country — a trend likely to worsen as its population rapidly ages.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

May 13, 2025

Tobacco town thrives as China struggles to kick the habit

By Agatha Cantrill and Matthew WALSH

China is home to a third of the world's smokers and tobacco-related diseases are a major cause of death in the country.

Podcast hosts Terence Chia (left) and Haresh Tilani discuss their show "Yah Lah But" in their studio in Singapore.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

Apr 30, 2025

Mic check: Singapore's podcast boom amplifies opposition voices

By Satish Cheney

Mainstream election coverage of Singapore's opposition parties has improved over the past decade, with its news podcasts showing a willingness to feature alternative voices.

Students raise their hands in class in front of fans at an elementary school in Manila on March 21. Last year, heat waves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school. It was the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions, prompting a series of changes.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

Apr 14, 2025

Early holiday, more fans: Philippines' schools adapt to climate change

By Cecil Morella

Heat waves forced millions of children in the Philippines out of school in 2024, the first time that soaring temperatures had caused widespread class suspensions.

An 81-year-old apple farmer who lost her crop walks past the remains of her neighbors' homes after a wildfire swept through the area, in Andong, South Korea, on Thursday.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

Mar 30, 2025

South Korea's 'heartbreaking' wildfires expose superaged society

By Anthony Wallace and Claire Lee

The inferno has also laid bare South Korea's demographic crisis and regional disparities.

A couple take wedding photos in Qingdao, China, in April last year.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

Mar 23, 2025

Beijing simplifies marriages to encourage Chinese to wed

Couples having children outside of marriage is rare in China, where there is social stigma and fewer protections for such families.

The Auckland skyline at sunset in 2023. New Zealand's economy was the worst performing in the developed world last year, according to HSBC.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

Mar 4, 2025

New Zealand's economic missteps hasten exodus to sunnier shores

By Lucy Craymer

A total of 128,700 people permanently left the Pacific nation of 5.3 million in 2024, provisionally the largest exodus on record.

Girls take care of their baby brother before leaving for school in Seoul. South Korea just recorded its first rise in fertility rates in nearly a decade.

ASIA PACIFIC / Society

Feb 26, 2025

South Korea's policy push springs to life as world's lowest birth rate rises

By Jihoon Lee and Hyun Young Yi

That shift in societal norms could prove pivotal in a country that has seen its birth rate plummet to the lowest in the world.

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

After the asset-price bubble crash of the early 1990s, employment at a Japanese company was no longer necessarily for life. As a result, a new generation is less willing to endure a toxic work culture —life’s too short, after all.

How Japan's youth are slowly changing the country's work ethic

By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

Looking ahead to Yokohama’s Green × Expo 2027

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