23 Jun 2023

Asia correspondent Elizabeth Beattie

From Nine To Noon, 9:45 am on 23 June 2023
A plenary session of the Upper House passes and goes into force a bill to revised criminal law to review sex offense regulations with a majority vote at the Diet building in Tokyo on June 16, 2023. Ken Saito, Japanese Minister of Justice, bows just after the bill became law.( The Yomiuri Shimbun ) (Photo by Masanori Genko / Yomiuri / The Yomiuri Shimbun via AFP)

A plenary session of the Upper House passes and goes into force a bill to revised criminal law to review sex offense regulations with a majority vote. Photo: MASANORI GENKO / AFP

Fears are mounting that Manipur, in North East India, is on the brink of civil war. The state, which borders Myanmar, is strategically significant, but tensions have long brewed with different armed separatist groups forming in across the state. There are reports groups have looted thousands of weapons from police armouries.

In Japan, a parliamentary report released this week has found that 25,000 people were forcibly sterilised in Japan under its post-World War Two eugenics law. The law which targeted people with physical disabilities or those with mental illness challenges, was repealed  in 1996. Two nine-year-olds were among those who were victims.

And in Singapore, police are rolling out more patrolling robots, as the force continues to "augment frontline officers" as part of its strategy to boost police presence.

Elizabeth Beattie is a journalist based in Tokyo