Archives: July 2008

Everyone's a Winner at the Physics Olympics

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 31, Categories: Olympics

Sure, everyone else is focused on Beijing, where there's some sort of athletic competition about to start. But as fans of Eye on Asia can tell you, our obsession here...

Understanding Asia's WTO Stance

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 30, Categories: Policies

My colleague in Mexico City, Geri Smith, writes regarding the collapse of trade talks in Geneva: In the end, it's so ironic that at a time of high worldwide food...

Cell Phones Hurt Sony Earnings

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 29, Categories: Consumer Electronics

Soaring energy costs and the economic slowdown are wreaking havoc on Sony’s earnings. The electronics and entertainment company announced on July 29 that first-quarter operating profits sank 39% to 73.4...

China's Emergency Plan for Olympics Pollution

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 28, Categories: Olympics

The clock is ticking, the athletes are arriving, and Beijing's air isn't getting any better. For years, Chinese officials have known that the greatest threat to a successful Olympics might...

China leaves India on wrong side of digital divide

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 26, Categories: Internet

I’ve seen several stories trumpeting the much-anticipated news that China, with 253 million internet subscribers at the end of June, has officially overtaken the U.S. as having the largest online...

McCain, Obama and the Dalai Lama

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 25, Categories: Politics

People in the know seem to think that Beijing’s leaders prefer John McCain over Barack Obama, since Republicans typically take a more China-friendly approach to trade. And bellicose McCain rhetoric...

A Quarter of Internet Users in Northeast Asia

Posted by: Moon Ihlwan on July 25, Categories: Internet

Global entrepreneurs have closely monitored Northeast Asia to track new online trends and services -- with good reason. Nearly a quarter of all Internet users in the world reside in...

'Dark Knight' Snubs Hong Kong?

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 24, Categories: Media

The new Batman movie may be smashing box-office records in the U.S., but in Hong Kong – where filmmakers did some shooting last year – not everybody’s happy with The...

Are Japanese carmakers mulling carbon fiber cars?

Posted by: Ian Rowley on July 24, Categories: Green Technology

One of the benefits of soaring commodity prices is that alternative technologies, often superior but more costly, edge closer to becoming viable. But surely reports that coming out of Japan...

Chinese Confidence Soars as Olympics Approach

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on July 23, Categories: Olympics

Chinese confidence is soaring in the run-up to the Olympics, shows an interesting poll released yesterday. According to the Pew Research Center, 82% of Chinese believe the economic situation in...

China Wins its First Olympic Gold - in Math

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 22, Categories: Education

The athletes are getting ready for the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing on August 8. The mathletes are already done – and the Chinese are the big winners....

India votes for US alliance - and a change in destiny

Posted by: Manjeet Kripalani on July 22, Categories: Politics

What a day it's been in India - and what a victory for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. After two days of bitter debate, India's Parliament voted in favor of forging...

Jackie Chan, Olympics Fashion Victim

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 22, Categories: Olympics

Sure, the whole world is focusing on Beijing as opening day of the games approaches. But officials in Hong Kong want us to remember that the city is an...

What Happens to Yahoo in Asia?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 22, Categories: Internet

Now that Yahoo has made investor Carl Icahn a member of its board, what will happen to Yahoo’s operations in Asia? The company told shareholders, in a July 17 letter,...

LG Poised to Edge Past Motorola in Handsets

Posted by: Moon Ihlwan on July 21, Categories: Telecom

With no tangible signs Motorola is turning around its mobile phone business, South Korea’s LG Electronics must have overtaken America’s once-iconic wireless brand as the world’s No. 3 handset maker...

Beijing bans Andy Warhol's works during Olympics

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 21, Categories: Olympics

First it was dog meat. Now Andy Warhol’s works have been banned from Beijing during the Olympics. Apparently the Ministry of Culture has deemed Warhol’s portraits inappropriate art work to...

Costs rising for Tata's Nano

Posted by: Ian Rowley on July 18, Categories: Auto

With the October launch of Tata's 100,000 rupee (about $2,400) Nano getting closer, expect the hype surrounding the world's cheapest car to soon revisit January levels. Back then, the Nano's...

China Censorship 2.0 extends to twitters

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 17, Categories: Media

The long arm of China’s censorship, it seems, now even extends even to Twitters. According to a video interview with prominent blogger Oiwan Lam, China’s thought police have monitored twitter...

Embarrassing Arrests Mar China's Ivory Win

Posted by: Bruce Einhorn on July 16, Categories: Policies

Yesterday the Chinese government won a big victory over environmentalists, with the UN giving China permission to become one of two countries engaged in the legal trade of ivory. (Japan's...

Ranbaxy in hot water with US FDA

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 15, Categories: Pharma

Here is a blog from my colleague Nandini Lakshman in India: Talk about unfortunate timing. Barely a month after Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest drug maker, entered into a landmark deal...

Japanese Banks: Exposed or Not?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 15, Categories: Banking

Are Japan’s mega-banks vulnerable to the U.S. mortgage crisis? Some investors obviously felt that way today. The worrywarts drove the benchmark Nikkei 225 stock index 2% lower to a 3...

Dog meat-free Olympics

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on July 14, Categories: Human Rights-Olympics

In yet another effort to ensure a trouble-free Olympics, Beijing authorities have announced that they are banning more than a hundred officially-designated Olympic restaurants in China’s capital from including dog...

Softbank's iPhone Coup

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 11, Categories: Telecom

NTT DoCoMo’s top brass must be kicking themselves right about now. Japan’s top mobile operator lost out to Softbank in the contest to sell Apple’s iPhone 3G, allowing the third-largest...

GE to raise over $5.4 billion through Japan sale

Posted by: Ian Rowley on July 11, Categories: Banking

More signs of life in Japan's banking sector. A few weeks ago I wrote a story about Japan's biggest banks, emboldened by relative low subprime losses, are shopping around. Today,...

Supersize China: Obesity climbing fast

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 10, Categories: Health

Thank goodness the sedan chair is no longer in fashion. Earlier this week the health policy journal Health Affairs came out with an article based on a study that found...

Young Japanese shun overseas holidays

Posted by: Ian Rowley on July 09, Categories: Tourism

So much for the stronger yen. A year ago Japan’s currency was hovering around 120 to the U.S. dollar, compared to 106 today. But it doesn't seem to be persuading...

India's changed coalition politics

Posted by: Manjeet Kripalani on July 09, Categories: Politics

The Communists finally quit the Congress party coalition in New Delhi. Not a moment too late. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, currently in Japan for the G-8 meeting, can at...

India's IT industry and Marie Antoinette

Posted by: Manjeet Kripalani on July 07, Categories: Policies

In the spring of 2007, when the Indian rupee was appreciating smartly against the US dollar - it had hit Rs. 39 to $1, and there was talk of it...

Solar power for the new Prius?

Posted by: Ian Rowley on July 06, Categories: Auto Tech

I can't be the only person to have been slightly underwhelmed after reading headlines in Japan today stating that the next generation Prius will use solar power, making Toyota the...

Should airlines charge by body weight too?

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 03, Categories: Aviation

In the wake of the decision by several U.S. airlines such as American Airlines, US Airways and United to start charging for checked luggage, I'd like to share with you...

China’s Growing Role in Korean Peninsula

Posted by: Moon Ihlwan on July 03, Categories: Policies

If there’s one country on the planet that could sway policies of reclusive North Korea, it should be China. After all it is Pyongyang’s only remaining ally that provides the...

Is Sony TV Spin-Off a Potential Rival?

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 02, Categories: Consumer Electronics

Did Sony unwittingly spawn a rival TV technology? That’s a question worth asking now that it appears that Field Emission Technologies, which was split off from Sony in late 2006...

China has more millionaires than France

Posted by: Frederik Balfour on July 02, Categories: Banking

Ooh la la! According to the 2008 Merrill Lynch and Capgemini World Wealth Report China now boasts more millionaires than France. At the end of last year China weighed...

IMAX's Hollywood Card

Posted by: Kenji Hall on July 01, Categories: Media

I'm sitting in the dark watching the opening scene of Speed Racer play out on a silver screen that's nearly twice the size of an NFL end zone. Suddenly, Greg...