# Asia Business Trends: Podcasts, Tourism, and Strategy

**Podcast:** Nikkei Asia News Roundup with Jada and Brian
**Published:** 2026-01-30

## Transcript

Nikkei Asia News Roundup with Jada and Brian.
Welcome to the Nikkei Asia News Roundup with your hosts, Jada and Brian.
Bringing you the latest updates and insights on the dynamic world of Asia and more.
Now let's delve into the headlines.
This program is brought to you by Nikkei.
Honda Motor has unveiled a Formula One power unit it will supply to the Aston Martin racing team for this year.
As the Japanese automaker returns to the sport in a bid to win over customers with high performance technologies in its mass-produced models.
Project to speed up scientific research through the use of AI.
Four years after taking effect, landmark legislation in South Korea has not managed to curb the frequency of industrial accidents, highlighting the persistence of an old problem plaguing the country's workplaces.
Now moving on to the next segment.
Kumar is far from alone.
Podcasts have seen rapid growth in India in recent years, turning what was once a niche format into a mainstream form of entertainment and information.
India has emerged as one of the fastest growing markets with 105 million podcast listeners in 2024, according to a study by the India Brand Equity Foundation published in July 2025.
That figure is expected to exceed 200 million in coming years, according to the report, making the country the world's third largest podcast market after China and the U.S.
India's linguistic diversity has also shaped podcast consumption.
Shows are being produced in multiple Indian languages, and increasingly, listeners in smaller cities are turning to podcasts in their preferred languages.
Despite their popularity, podcasts remain challenging to monetize.
While advertising and sponsorships exist, brands are still cautious about investing heavily in what many see as a young industry, according to an Indian School of Business report.
Their departure has left Japan without any pandas for the first time since diplomatic normalization with China in 1972.
Beijing has stated that the animals will return to China approximately a month earlier than the scheduled expiration of the loan agreement at the end of February.
The timing has drawn intense public attention.
Functionally, the episode offers a textbook example of emotional statecraft, the use of emotionally resonant symbols to shape foreign public sentiment outside formal diplomatic channels.
The panda's departure is not an isolated cultural moment, but part of a broader pattern of Chinese signaling toward Japan.
One that now spans tourism curbs, media pressure, trade controls, and regional security signaling across the Indo-Pacific.
Unlike traditional diplomacy, which targets elites and institutions, emotional statecraft operates at the level of affection, nostalgia, and identity.
Pandas are uniquely suited to this role.
Cute, apolitical, and universally adored, they bypass policy debate and speak directly to the public.
For decades, China has deployed them as its most successful soft power ambassadors.
Their departure, therefore, is not an impulsive gesture.
It is a calibrated signal aimed less at Japanese policymakers than at Japanese society itself.
And um, looking at the top ten, we have a story that's done very, very well this week, uh, which is about Xi Jinping's historic purge of China's military.
So this has been a topic sort of in the last couple of years, right?
It's not it's not the first time that the sort of the same thing is happened, but yeah, she's been in power for he's been the head of China.
Yeah.
For what is it now, since late 2012.
So it's been a while.
It's been twelve years, more than twelve years.
And um every once in a while there's been these movements to kind of shake things up or clean house, if you want to put it politely.
Uh there was one against uh uh luxuries and scan like kickbacks and bribery, and some of that's done with lavish parties and gifts and whatnot, so he's really cut back on that.
But other times there's uh selectively getting rid of people in certain positions of power.
I mean like forcing them to retire and things like that.
And last week, over the weekend, he did one that is uh confusing a lot of people who are uh you know China watchers in that he uh basically forced the retirement of his top military advisor, this uh a general who's been friends with Xi, as far as we know, since before he even became head of China and is considered a major conduit to the elders and other people in the party apparatus.
Yeah.
And so people are wondering what happened there and why did he do it, and what happens now that she doesn't have this connection, because he was this this general was considered the guy that would sort of smooth things over between Xi and the other elite power people behind the curtain, so to speak.
Yeah.
Because the guy, um his name is Zheng, but he was the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
So that's I mean, that's a you know huge a very key body in China.
And as you mentioned, his given his relationship with Xi that dates back, um the story also points out that they sort of have the have this connection that they are fellow second generation Reds.
So that's sort of a term for descendants of the revolutionary era Chinese communist party leaders.
Yeah they tend to be the children of people who led the revolution.
Yeah.
And so they grew up around it and were expected to sort of inherit it.
Mm and he's so he's accused of leaking secrets about China's nuclear repe uh weapons program to the US.
Um and sort of the the narrative or description that have been in China's media is sort of it points out that it's sort of a first thing.
It's very um I don't want to say accusatory, but very strong worded.
So everybody is trying to predict what really did go on.
Did you know, did he do something?
What did he do?
Or is it just she sort of tr uh trying to c consolidate more powers and get rid of possibly more, you know, people who are gaining more power than he he likes.
Yeah, there's a couple factors there where people are considering.
One is that he was Zhang was um he's seventy-five, which is past the retirement age for the position that he was in already.
So people thought she was keeping him in power because he trusted him and wanted him in basically was really good at what he did.
Yeah.
And now he's gone, so it's like what what happened, what changed.
And the other one is um there is the Congress coming up next year where she is expected to go for a fourth term as China's president.
And so he's might be shuffling things around or maybe getting rid of people who might influence other people rising up the ranks.
And that's where the speculation gets really confusing because people thought they had a beat on this situation.
True.
And I think one of the interesting aspects is how will this affect Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory.
Um and a lot of the experts seem to point out that short term, it means you know, Taiwan will sort of maybe they'll see a little bit of a peaceful phase where you know China sort of she is will be busy getting new people or or you know, uh doing this purge in the military, so won't be immediate attacks, but in the long term, if this means she is having more loyal people to him uh make up the military, that could mean huge um negative uh impacts to Taiwan in in the long term.
Let's go for a little brighter note.
Let's talk about some tourism and uh uh speaking of China, tourism in Vietnam.
Yeah, where that's another one of the top stories here is about how Vietnam has seen a surge in Chinese tourists.
Yes.
Um Vietnam, so let me see, so there's a lot of stats in this story, but um South Vietnam was uh the top Southeast Asian travel spot for Chinese travelers in 2025, and it's replacing Thailand.
There you go.
Um so uh uh we've talked about Thailand a lot um in the recent months, but there's been border issues, there's also been sort of an abduction cybercrime concerns.
So yeah, there was a Chinese celebrity who was caught up in that cybercrime thing.
A lot of people he was arrested by Thailand.
People are thinking this is not not the safest or maybe uh most appealing place to go to right now.
And Vietnam seems to be uh enjoying the popularity, as somebody pointed out that uh Vietnam is pretty popular with Western backpackers.
But now it's becoming Chinese backpackers.
Yes, and again, with Chinese travelers also um avoiding Japan now because of the spat between uh those two countries, uh, Vietnam is also sort of uh looks to be benefiting from that trend.
Yeah, and a lot of it is like independent travelers, not tour groups.
Yes, it points out that a lot of uh new younger Chinese, like Gen Z tourists are going for independent, as you mentioned, like back backpacking sightseeing instead of group tours, which is a new emerging trend, it seems like.
Um, but how about I've heard that you read or edited, had part in editing the India factory story.
I just I just cleaned it up a bit.
Somebody else did the hard work.
But it's a story about um how India has been trying to boost its economy.
It's of course it's trying to boost its economy, but one of the big pushes they're making is trying to get more women into work, and we're talking manufacturing, um, not just occasional side gigs, but actual jobs that can supplement and get people, um people who are families who are in the poverty line and get them over the hump, so to speak.
And uh, and the story looks it's it's an interesting story.
They go into the factories, they meet a lot of the women who work on the factory lines and they talk to them, they go to their homes and talk about how it's affected their lives.
And it's it's it's I I found it really interesting to see how people are adapting to it and what they make of it.
And it seems for the most part, uh they they they enjoy it.
Well, I wouldn't enjoy working, is not the way to put it, but there's a positive take to it.
Because India is sort of uh one of the fastest uh growing economies in the world as well.
So I guess they're contributing to that as well.
And that brings us to the close of today's episode.
We look forward to having you join up again for the next edition of the Nikkei Asia News Roundup.
Stay informed, stay curious.
Until next time, I'm Jada.
And I'm Brian.
See you again and take care.
This program is brought to you by Nikkei.