Today Trends

Authors: Raissa Richka Jonah and Trigaya Ahimsa, Universitas Indonesia In line with the Indonesian government’s goal to build a strong financial sector, the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) recently enacted regulation concerning Consumer and Public Protection in the Financial Services Sector (POJK 6 of 2022). The POJK came into force on 18 April 2022, but micro-financial institutions are exempted for the next five years. The enactment of the new POJK could majorly update the OJK’s stated goal of maintaining a stable and transparent financial sector while protecting consumers and society. Protecting the public interest was a concern that gave rise to the establishment of OJK back in 2012, so it was no surprise that its first regulation concerned consumer protection. The OJK is adapting to the rapid development of fintech and digital financing — a sector that attracted US$102 billion in global investment in 2021. The unprecedented growth in fintech and digital financing ...

Author: Sarah Teo, Nanyang Technological University With their fourth leaders’ meeting in May 2022, the Quad has come a long way since senior officials from Australia, India, Japan and the United States first convened on the sidelines of ASEAN-led summits five years ago. Early doubts about the Quad’s sustainability should surely now give way to firmer beliefs that the arrangement is set to be a persistent element of the region’s security architecture. While concerns remain about the Quad’s potential to raise tensions vis-a-vis China and its possible challenge to ASEAN centrality, ASEAN seems to have become slightly more supportive of the grouping over the last couple of years. This is perhaps due to the Quad’s constant pledges of support for ASEAN, as well as its shifting focus over the past year to include softer security issues such as health security and climate change. For instance, the Joint Vision Statement from the ASEAN–US Special Summit welcomed the Quad Vaccine Partne...

Author: Tomohiko Satake, NIDS Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Japan has actively supported the resistance through the provision of non-lethal defence equipment, emergency humanitarian and financial assistance and the acceptance of evacuees. Japan has also joined international sanctions through several financial measures, such as the restriction of transactions with Russia’s central bank and the exclusion of selected Russian banks from SWIFT. After the report on Russian war crimes, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that Japan would also phase out Russian oil and coal imports. Japan’s support is not surprising. Russia’s invasion clearly violates the rule of law, which Japan has adhered to for many years. Japan has also supported democratisation, good governance and economic development in former Soviet countries, including Ukraine, through foreign aid and diplomatic measures since the 1990s. When Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, Japan condemned Russia and partic...

Author: Doug Fuller, City University of Hong Kong More than a year into the Biden administration, many are disappointed by its China tech policy. The China hawks are disappointed by the lack of any movement towards decoupling, while globalists are disappointed by the lack of reversal of many of Trump’s trade and investment policies. Within the administration itself, there are representatives from each policy camp. We typically bemoan bureaucratic infighting, but there are times when it should be celebrated, or at least the policy outcomes it brings about. The Biden administration has stumbled upon a subtle middle ground between decoupling and reversion to inadvertent abetting of China’s rising technological dominance. Like all happy policy accidents, its survival is in doubt as the consensus behind it is frighteningly fragile. The genius of Biden’s accidental policy is that it keeps business allies, including those hidden in China, on board for narrow and targeted sanctions against...

Author: Kuyoun Chung, Kangwon National University The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue met in Tokyo late last month to affirm the continued cooperation between the United States, Australia, Japan and India to promote regional stability in the Indo–Pacific. But the leaders left the meeting offering a divided response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, raising questions about the Quad’s ability realistically to serve as a democratic deterrence against unilateral change to the status quo by force. While the Quad members have agreed to promote a free, open and rules-based order, they have mostly turned toward existing functional cooperation rather than forging new commitments that could deepen their role in promoting regional stability. The Quad is not a treaty-based alliance and does not have any concrete commitment to collective security in the Indo-Pacific region. AUKUS has also been cast as part of a broader regional plan to counter Chinese influence in the maritime domain that som...

Author: Lurong Chen, ERIA Digitalisation — the use of digital technologies and digital-enabled solutions in socio-economic activities — has triggered global changes that are wider and less predictable than ever before. With digitalisation, the world economy is set to become better connected, smarter and more efficient. Accelerating digital transformation is key to unleashing Asia’s potential in global competitiveness and long-term development and is a core component of the region’s policy package for post-pandemic recovery. Despite ongoing recessionary drag from the pandemic, digital solutions provide an effective alternative for services and business activities in the face of government measures to limit mobility and empower people and businesses to grasp new market opportunities. Within two years, more than 600 million e-commerce users entered the online market, driving the world’s total e-commerce revenue up by nearly 25 per cent from 2019 to 2020 and 17 per cent from 2020 to 20...

Author: Brian Eyler, Stimson Center The US–ASEAN Special Summit on 12–13 May 2022 was the first time ASEAN leaders have ever met the US president at the White House. Its outcomes show the United States remains focussed on the Indo-Pacific and China despite the crisis in Ukraine. The summit renewed US commitment to the region, yet it will only be successful if the government meets the demand signals of key actors in ASEAN with sustained resources. The success of the Special Summit also hinges on US President Joe Biden’s in-person attendance of the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Phnom Penh — a demonstration of continued US commitment to the region. The summit brought together nine ASEAN delegations with key US agencies, including a series of official events chaired by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. These meetings provided a platform to show why ASEAN matters to the United States. In 2020, US foreign direct investment to ASEAN was US$328 billion, more than what China invests in ASE...

Author: Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura, GWU Gender inequality and the underutilisation of women’s labour continues to be a significant issue in Japanese society. Japan ranked 139 among 156 countries for women’s participation in management positions. According to a Japanese government report from 2020, women occupy only 9.9 per cent of the legislature and 6.6 per cent of corporate department head positions. Closing the gender gap would add 5.8 million employees to the Japanese workforce and lift gross domestic product by 10 per cent. But despite the government’s efforts, gender equality in the labour market has been slow to progress. Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s ‘ Womenomics ’ approach attempted to empower women’s economic growth in various ways . One major effort to boost women’s leadership development is the ‘Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace’ that took effect in 2016. The Act forces government agencies and private...

Author: Noah Kittner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill With global concerns rising over climate change and carbon lock-in, Southeast Asia has a unique opportunity to advance its economy and global leadership by constructing a regional low-carbon electricity grid. ASEAN countries can match extensive solar energy resources with advanced manufacturing capability for battery energy storage and electric vehicles, making them prime candidates to lead the global transition to clean energy. Following the Paris Agreement, many ASEAN countries have revised their power development plans to include ambitious commitments to power sector decarbonisation. ASEAN countries have agreed collectively to generate at least 23 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Progress is rapid — Vietnam has approved more than 11 gigawatts (GW) of new wind projects and Thailand is developing 2.7 GW of floating solar. While these are important first steps, they are not enough to max...

Author: Naohiro Yashiro, Showa Women’s University Japan’s most recent regulatory reform plan is digitalisation — a crucial part of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ‘New Capitalism ’ agenda that seeks to prevent excessive profit-seeking activities. Better utilisation of the digital economy is necessary to overcome labour force shortages brought about by a rapidly declining working-age population. Fortunately, the momentum for digital reform has survived the recent leadership transition. Initiated by former prime minister Yoshihide Suga, the government’s Digital Agency was established in September 2021. Its primary task is to revise over 40,000 existing laws and legal procedures relating to online services — an undertaking that will take at least three years to complete in order to overcome the compartmentalised jurisdictions of various ministries of state. There are three fundamental steps to realising digital administration in Japan. The first step is to establish agile governance. U...